GPs – what are they for?

I’ve spent ages typing a long and carefully worded answer. Then deleted it as all I really want to say is…

Sad. Sigh.

A lot of GPs actually are nurses – it was realised years ago that minimal clinical knowledge was required and so they quietly enrolled a load of other people. A lot were nurses but my mate’s a GP now and he used to be a postmaster (he says it’s pretty much the same job) and DrP on here has a background in pole dancing.

Course, they all still earn over 200 grand a year, otherwise everybody would catch on

Nearly has me but DrP was a stripper not a pole dancer.

I use my gps to track my rides, speed, distance etc…

Not used the maps yet.

Can’t be arsed reading all this but just in case someone hasn’t yet pointed it out to the op, 90% of patient contacts are in primary care, so a better question might be “what are hospital doctors for?”
A year of all you can eat general practice costs about half of one visit to hospital outpatients. Without gps costs would spiral even higher out of control.

When I call for an appointment with my GP I normally get seen the same day. Sometimes it’s the next day.

That’s disgusting scotroutes

Whereas my wife phoned up for an appointment recently. This was late September. No appointments in September or October, told to phone back mid October when they start taking bookings for November

Where as I can get one the same day if I meet the triage criteria.

Well one of them must be doing it wrong then

Whereas my wife phoned up for an appointment recently. This was late September. No appointments in September or October, told to phone back mid October when they start taking bookings for November

At this point I pull out the dead or cured speech. Once they realise the call is relatively serious, I get seen pretty quickly

It’s clearly the existing gps fault that there aren’t enough doctors wanting to be gps.
And with threads like this who can blame them….

I don’t think anyone is criticising the doctors, more the system they work within.

Well I spent the day diagnosing and managing chronic disease, dealing with some emotional and psychological problems, dealing with people with muscular skeletal disorders many of whom are better kept away from hospital. Managing skin and eye and ENT problems. I can then arrange almost any test that is available other than as an inpatient. I have developed close professional relationships with a couple of thousand patients They get to speak to me or see me very quickly. Try seeing someone with any depth of experience in hospital as quickly.

I did work in a nurse led system in Canada which actually needed more doctors.

I hope OP, when you actually need a GP, politicians with attitudes like yours haven’t got rid of them. But I’m not sure you deserve them 🙁

Yeah, but did you do anything useful?

Regarding appointment times, with my GP it was about 2 weeks to get a routine appointment last time I got one a few months ago – though it does appear to be steadily rising as it was closer to a week not so long ago. If you need an appointment the same day you can get one by phoning in the morning, something I have also made use of recently. The only issue I have is that I ended up using that for something where I didn’t need to be seen the same day – could have waited a day or two, but not really 2 weeks, so I kind of think they need some sort of intermediate category for triage.

I’ve been very happy with the service I’ve got from my GPs – it’s just a shame I’ve wasted so much of their time in the last year with multiple appointments due to a problem following surgery – when I got referred back I had to phone up and hassle the consultant’s secretary to get avoid going back on the waiting list for months when it would have been solved with a simple follow up appointment. No, it’s not GPs which are the problem.

Oh and whilst we’re doing having a go at the medical profession, that was repeat surgery which wouldn’t have been necessary if the first consultant at the private hospital (referred there on the NHS) had done his job properly, so it’s not even the NHS I’m most unhappy with.

I’m a bit grumpy ‘cos the pain kept waking me up all night

You can ask the GP for Dihydracodeine, it’s pretty effective pain relief.

So, in summary, in general:
1) GPs swamped by ridiculous demand, likely not able to meet needs of an ‘entitled’ population that expects excellent, universal, point of care service regardless of issue or location
2) Frustration amongst patients at inconsistent service, seemingly random and unaccountable care provision,

Solution: privatise NHS

For NHS: patients have to pay = less unneeded calls to healthcare professional as you have to pay for it (or your insurance does), including ambulance call outs

For patients: if the service is crap, go somewhere else. The crap providers get exposed pretty fast and go out of business

Win win

I’m not seeing a way out here unless patients change, and also NHS changes.

I must be lucky as I can get a Gp appointment within 24 hours if your not bothered about which one of the 5 you see. If you want a specific GP,for example one Gp manages to get me referred to see a specialist (Orthopaedics usually for me) she can get me one within a week. She does however constantly rollock me for smoking.

I have see her every 6 months for my Mot (Blood pressure check and check bloods)

Can’t complain at all. Also when requiring a specialist I can choose which hospital I want (tend to avoid Blackburn)
Out of hours service is also good in the Area can most of the time fit you in, fit my missus in 20 minutes after ringing, diagnosed a middle ear infection, antibiotics and strong pain killers and she was settled for the evening.
No need to go bother Urgent care/A&E.

Solution: privatise NHS

Oh, come on – surely you could suggest shooting the ill, or the poor, or both. Just so we know you’re taking the piss

No need to shoot them that’s a waste of bullets, just let them die.

I’ve had no issues whatsoever with my GP, having been twice this year for the first time in a decade. First appointment resulted in a prescription and a follow up booked in four weeks after, and the second a no quibble referral to a consultant (at which point health insurance took over).

Same practice has a nurse who deals with minor injuries, no waiting around and a free lollipop for not crying when she peels off the gauze you stupidly put over a graze and is now embedded in your flesh.

It’s not just health gatekeeping these days – one of the knock-ons from the massive cuts to local authority social care over the last few years is a lot more people going to their doctors with problems that are not primarily medical.

See also: A & E

See also: “Bed blocking”

Yes, I know they’re going to “integrate health and social care”. It won’t be pretty and it won’t be quick, and in the meantime the NHS is picking up the pieces of social care cuts (with the police picking up the pieces behind them – teenagers in mental health crisis sleeping in cells and police cars for example).

On the other hand, GPs aren’t necessarily the best value-for-money part of the system imho.

Surely you get back the value you put, go with a genuine problem, get a genuine treatment. Go with a cold and get told to give it time to recover.

I pretty much don’t go to see mine, but I’m lucky because I don’t have anything significant wrong with me.

I do get colds quite a bit, but I don’t expect my GP to be able to resolve that.

Your GP? 😯

Not much I agree with the OP on, but that does seem a waste of a GP’s time – I saw the nurse for that recently. Also any particular reason (no need for details) for the 6 month check? I think I was told to come back in 5 years, though not paying all that much attention given no problems found and I’m fairly aware of my health (I’ve since lost ~1/2 a stone, having been borderline on the waist measurement – the nurse accepted my excuses for that being partly due to my other recent medical issues).

I hadn’t been for years, but have made up for that in the last few with referrals for an MRI on my knee and hernia ops (and the aftercare mentioned above) – and also taking my mum for a few visits when she was staying here. The knee MRI was the only one where arguably going to the GP was the wrong way for the system to work, as I went with a letter from a private physio asking for the MRI when direct referral might have been more efficient (and results went back to physio after) – though it was still helpful to get somebody else looking at it, he certainly didn’t give the impression I was wasting his time.

I do also try and get in and out quick – I’m conscious that the GP I prefer is always running at least an hour late and the appointment slots are only 10 minutes (I’m sure they love 30s appointments). He did once comment to me about having trouble getting rid of the patient before (and gave the distinct impression he thought they didn’t really need to see a GP, whilst he has never given that impression regarding my sports related issues).

DrP on here has a background in pole dancing.

Nearly has me but DrP was a stripper not a pole dancer.

Chuckle… is nothing kept personal anymore..!

Dr ‘sexy’ P

No need to shoot them that’s a waste of bullets, just let them die.

Or just bring them in to hospital on a Friday, because everyone dies in hospital at the weekend.

Aracer- GP or the Nurse it doesn’t really matter just they always want it checked every 3-6 months.

Again without wanting any details, do you have health problems? Because I’m sure that isn’t standard.

6500 people in brid are about to find out “what gps are for”

Assuming that could become a common scenario? Just reading that GP partners at a small practice are faced with a choice of taking out significant personal loans or declaring bankruptcy to cover liabilities. The world is going mad.

In my area (waiting time of 5 weeks for appointments) a developer has kindly offered to pay for building costs to extend the current surgery. With almost 1,000 new homes planned how will these GPs magically appear?

Yes c_g I fear it is. There is a real problem in some areas that just can’t attract GPs.
No one in their right mind would take on a partnership nowadays as there is so much uncertainty. So we have practices being taken on by other organisations, community interest companies, healthcare trusts and the like. They then end up being run on locums until they get ditched as they aren’t financially viable. At the same time as the government keep telling us we can have a wonderful 7 day service for no extra investment. All made worse by local councils stripping back the investment in the bits of the health service that they are responsible for out of public health funds which aren’t ringfenced (sexual health, alcohol services, health visitors, school nurses, etc) which adds to the workload placed on the rest of the system.
But don’t worry. Jeremy keeps saying everything is fine and there is enough money.

docrobster – I don’t understand how these partnerships came about, presumably thanks to the Tories and their ‘market forces’ mantra? ‘Outsourcing’ isn’t the answer for healthcare, have seen reports that locums are earning the most ridiculous sums of money so that can’t be sustainable surely.

Can certainly appreciate that some areas are unable to attract GP’s, presumably these will be the areas of deprivation as well as those with high housing costs?

Suspect that the public doesn’t know half of what’s going on, certainly what you’ve said about local councils is news to me.

As a middle-aged person I well remember the problems of the 70’s with 3 day weeks, power strikes etc. but equally we’re now experiencing frightening times in the UK thanks to a Government who’s so out of touch with healthcare and much else. I suspect that more and more people will have no option but to pay for their own healthcare (as I currently do). Injustice and inequality in healthcare that’s completely at odds with the ethos of the NHS.

Partnership is the traditional model of general practice and came about at the birth of the NHS. Until 2001 nearly all gps were partners, we own a stake in the practice. If not the building then the capital that is invested. We take a share of the profits left over from the contract after paying all the bills. As I’m financially invested in the practice I work hard to make it a success. So much more than just seeing patients.
New contracts “apms” for practices can be given to whoever wants to run it as a business. Gps are all just employees. They come they see patients they go home. If it’s a crap place to work run by people who don’t understand the nature of general practice they move on. Usually these contracts are more expensive than the traditional “gms” model in terms of pounds per patient.
I’ve been a partner 18 years. If I left I wouldn’t be a partner again.
Why go through all the stress of trying to deliver a service when the local prime ministers challenge fund pilot pays £100 an hour to see a few coughs and colds, because the successs of that particular crock of shite is a vote winner but looking after 90 year olds with umpteen chronic diseases isn’t.

I would be a partner again – with the right people and in the right place and don’t regret my career choice for a moment… But we are used to the demoralising effect of the DoH kicking us, the Daily Mail kicking us, and people like a few posters here with grudges or no knowledge of what we actually do, kicking us.

The APMS enterprises in my area are all in dire trouble and delivering poor services and costing hugely more. And because they are failing, our local CCG is going to screw around with the contracts of those who are delivering timely decent and good-value care… And this is greatly in danger of making a lot of us retire early… 🙄

Official policy. Let struggling practices fail.

Holy thread resurrection….

Was chatting to a colleague about GPs/specialists etc etc..

This table should highlight to the OP and other ‘doubters’ what the point/role of GPs is quite neatly..

DrP

Whose job is it to diagnose Trollitis?