What's making it difficult to see a GP these days?

Clov!s said:
What's with receptionist now asking why you need to see the doctor?

I wanted hayfever tablets in the summer but the stupid bint on reception wouldn't book me in until I told her what was wrong.
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Why on earth did you go to the doctors to get a prescription for tablets that you can get for less than £2 in most supermarkets (Aldi/Lidl etc)
 
VincentHanna said:
Why on earth did you go to the doctors to get a prescription for tablets that you can get for less than £2 in most supermarkets (Aldi/Lidl etc)
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I needed nasal spray which was prescription only and the cheap tablets are no good, especially during a bad summer.

I start building them up in my system around April/May time as that's what the doctor recommended.
 
We have no booking system and no longer than a 1 hour wait to see a GP from arriving at my local surgery. This is the main advantage of living more remotely, though I’m hardly in the Scottish highlands. I get this isn’t the norm for most but with the endless move to population centres this will get much worse.
 
I've never been officially diagnosed, and mine is awful in May/June. One time I walked the dog over a country park and afterwards it felt like my throat was closing up, I was wheezing and struggling to breath!

But I just get Loratadine from Aldi/Lidl or wherever I am shopping.

A quick google suggests the NHS don't give you alternative antihistamine tablets - A doctor might prescribe steroids or send you to immumotherapy if your Hayfever is completely debilitating.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/hay-fever/
 
VincentHanna said:
Sorry, I meant the money it costs the NHS overall (compared to their budget) is insignificant.

As I said, people should do their damndest to make all their appointments, it's a huge waste of time.
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Again, this is going back a few years ago, but a surgery I was registered at used to send letters to non attendees and threaten to remove them from the surgery's register.

How effective this was in practice I dont know.
 
With how sensitive people are these days I suspect it's cases like that of people ringing up about a stomach ache and then a couple of farts later realising they just had wind and then not bothering, or being too embarrassed to cancel.
 
Pipe & Slippers said:
I know a GP who is on some regional committee and he told me, about 3 years ago that in the medical field, becoming a GP is just not attractive to a large number of newly qualified doctors. He then went on to say that something like 1/3 of newly qualified ones take active steps to work abroad immediately (obviously that doesn't translate to that same number actually doing it). No wonder home grown doctors seem in short supply

As above, old people are becoming a larger proportion of the population, and their needs have become more complex and time consuming for GPs

Also, I wonder how many GPs like working part time or do locuming because it suits them
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Maybe the answer to that lies with how bus companies keep their newly qualified drivers.

Bus companies pay for the driver's PCV training and licence but then you're contracted to stay with the company for a minimum of 2 years. If the driver leaves or is fired within that 2 year period then the driver has to pay back the costs of obtaining his licence in full.

Maybe a similar venture is needed for GPs
 
Resident said:
Maybe the answer to that lies with how bus companies keep their newly qualified drivers.

Bus companies pay for the driver's PCV training and licence but then you're contracted to stay with the company for a minimum of 2 years. If the driver leaves or is fired within that 2 year period then the driver has to pay back the costs of obtaining his licence in full.

Maybe a similar venture is needed for GPs
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It was suggested by Jeremy Hunt last year iirc. It was largely shot down as a stupid idea. You get staff staying if you improve working conditions and treat them well. Forcing them to stay with penalties it no great motivator.
 
Housey said:
We have no booking system and no longer than a 1 hour wait to see a GP from arriving at my local surgery. This is the main advantage of living more remotely, though I’m hardly in the Scottish highlands. I get this isn’t the norm for most but with the endless move to population centres this will get much worse.
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Enjoy it while it lasts. All the small practices are being bought up by the big GP consortiums and are dying out fast.

http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/ho...losed-in-the-last-five-years/20036793.article
 
In the sense that trainees are paid less for the role and provide an enormous amount of service provision the trainees are in fact paying for their training before you add the exams etc at huge personal expense.

If you paid them full whack and tied them in, I am quite certain every single one of them would jump at such a contract and the few that decide to ditch it and have to pay back would still be better off

You either accept that there will be natural attrition during training and factor that in for how many you recruit at the start, or you let the market decide and have to do things which make the eventual position better so people don’t want to move on to other roles

I think you will be hard pushed to find many senior doctors who don’t have significant gripes about the way everything is set up that is way beyond their control. GP has the added bonus of the weird contractual arrangements that we have to work within. when you see partnerships collapsing nearby and leaving the partners sometimes bankrupt due to the way we hold contracts as a partnership and can’t be structured as a limited company.

In all honesty retention issues are broken and will take a decade or more and a lot of money to fix
 
I don't know but I know my last appointment was a wait time of 5 weeks even though I explained to the women on the desk I have atrial fibrillation and my medication wasn't doing its job, went to A&E and explained that I wasn't a emergency I just needed help from a doctor.. they understood but weren't happy with my practice (our walk in centre got shut down last year)
 
never had a problem seeing a GP. Call in at 8am, speak to the receptionist, ask for a telephone consultation, GP calls back, appointment booked, see GP. Works every time.
 
bowey said:
I don't know but I know my last appointment was a wait time of 5 weeks even though I explained to the women on the desk I have atrial fibrillation and my medication wasn't doing its job, went to A&E and explained that I wasn't a emergency I just needed help from a doctor.. they understood but weren't happy with my practice (our walk in centre got shut down last year)
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That is worrying, I’d imagine there are people out there who would just wait the 5 weeks out and a small percentage of those who will be massively at risk of stroke during that period if their medication isn’t working.

I’ve been in afib a few times and I don’t know how anyone could go about their day with it occurring for extended periods, I know some people have no symptoms with it but it felt god awful for me.
 
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