Are local GPs going down hill or are their hands tied ?

wesimmo said:
It's almost like people are surprised that years of austerity and spending cuts are impacting on the end services being provided.
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Town I used to live in they were setting up some walk in centres for minor issues and encouraging people to use them and it was working, strain was being taken off the GPs, etc. then they closed the walk in centres under some BS justifications that even a child wouldn't have bought into - cue GPs going back to the kind of things talked about by the OP.

The IT systems are also pretty tragic with a mess of poorly thought out systems that don't seem to cooperate well with each other - the health centre closest to where I live now have things like date of birth fields that neither accept a normally formatted DOB or prompt you with a range to choose from like on most forms and random what should be free text fields for other things that only accept a numerical range!
 
Irish_Tom said:
I have to say that since we moved house a year ago our new GP has been fantastic.
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That's the thing, while people can highlight the increased pressure on GPs/shortages of GPs etc.. some of the complaints (including in the OP) are more about the inept management of individual GP practices regardless of any shortages.
 
dowie said:
That's the thing, while people can highlight the increased pressure on GPs/shortages of GPs etc.. some of the complaints (including in the OP) are more about the inept management of individual GP practices regardless of any shortages.
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Yeah, I can’t say we had any major complaints with our previous GP either.

It’s hard to tell whether that makes us massively lucky outliers or whether the bad cases simply get more said about them and it distorts the wider picture.

Obviously doesn’t help if you are stuck with a bad GP though.
 
dowie said:
That's the thing, while people can highlight the increased pressure on GPs/shortages of GPs etc.. some of the complaints (including in the OP) are more about the inept management of individual GP practices regardless of any shortages.
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Yes ignoring the very real pressures GPs are under. Some are run awfully. I myself changed my own GP practice to another and it was night and day.
 
dowie said:
That's the thing, while people can highlight the increased pressure on GPs/shortages of GPs etc.. some of the complaints (including in the OP) are more about the inept management of individual GP practices regardless of any shortages.
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I'm pretty sure that lack of funding and doctors has more bearing on this than isolated crap management.

As I posted. My surgery has doctors, is well run, answers the phone reasonably promptly. Even has things like it's own ultrasound machines. Still a 4 week wait for an appointment... Sometimes longer if you want to see a specific doctor.
 
inogen said:
I'm pretty sure that lack of funding and doctors has more bearing on this than isolated crap management.
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Well that is just silly, it depends on the issue being raised and quite clearly there are differences in how things are being run between practices (in spite of the general shortage) as already highlighted in this thread. You have a reply, immediately above yours, from a GP.
 
dowie said:
I presume that is the appointments available via the online system, similar case with my local surgery (though they release them the evening before), it is fine for me, I just log on and am quick to select an appointment with my chosen GP and book... though I suspect they've got this in place because they've been told to as part of some initiative.

The phones are still a mess and could be addressed relatively easily but for whatever reason (perhaps the partners are tight or the practice manager just doesn't care) they aren't.
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Initiative or not we've been doing it for years. It just makes sense. It reduces load on switchboard + frontdesk. Also it's the 21st century lol.
 
AHarvey said:
You need to consider the fact that 8:30, phones on and everyone is phoning straight away for an appointment that day. The phones aren't being turned off, they are being DOS'd
.
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In our case they 100% turn off or disconnect the phone

Reasons

1. You phone at 7:55 it will ring and get told we are not opened yet l, ring at 8 and it just disconnects as if the line does not work no ring tone

2. Go to surgery and they are just talking with phones off hook, if you ring when in the surgery you have the same issues no ring tone

HEADRAT said:
Agreed, we have a system at our GP where there is a "morning surgery" between 08:30 and 12:00 where you can just "rock up" and ask to see at Doctor same day.

I've found the best approach is to arrive in person around 09:30 (phone is always clogged),so there's no queue, you don't have to wait in the surgery and the receptionist just gives you a time to come back before 12:00... SIMPLES!
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We use to have this a fee years ago but they only do it 1 day a week now
 
Rroff said:
Town I used to live in they were setting up some walk in centres for minor issues and encouraging people to use them and it was working, strain was being taken off the GPs, etc. then they closed the walk in centres under some BS justifications that even a child wouldn't have bought into - cue GPs going back to the kind of things talked about by the OP.
!
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So when i 1st moved into my town the GPs were pretty good..... dead easy to get an appointment on the day, sure it may not be 8am but it was fine.
Then they opened a walk in clinic as well which just happened to be at the back of my house. during the time it was there it was fantastic, I kept my GP but at the same time could just walk in and see somoene at that if i wanted..... What i didnt know at the time was that, shortly after that the GP funding apparently got cut and a couple of doctors left, then the walk in clinic was closed, but funding did not pick up.

now apparently the money is there and they are actively trying to recruit more doctors.... but its the poisoned chalice that no one wants.....

https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/doctor-s-surgery-in-haverhill-inadequate-1-5968581
 
Ahleckz said:
Easily the biggest issue at GPs isn't that they are oversubscribed and understaffed (though they probably are), it's that a large number of people turning up simply don't need to be there and should instead be at a medication aisle in a supermarket or a pharmacy or just simply at home, in bed.



What's wrong with that? I have to check reference guides for my job, as do you I imagine? A GP nurse can't be expected to be an expert on every single field - I'd much rather they check a book than make a guess or don't offer treatment.
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I agree with both

People di seam to turn up for minor issues but I would blame the gp for not prioritizing the more urgent issues.

I've had doctors check to make sure it's the best option and will not have any conflict
 
Ahleckz said:
What's wrong with that? I have to check reference guides for my job, as do you I imagine? A GP nurse can't be expected to be an expert on every single field - I'd much rather they check a book than make a guess or don't offer treatment.
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Agreed. I check every single prescription. Admittedly kids are more complicated than adults but medicine isn't a memory test. If you're not checking you're not safe.
 
My GP is pretty poor in terms of booking an appointment, whether that's by phone or the online app they provide. Fortunately though we have several GP surgery's that almost act as a overflow service where they can book you an appointment to see a doctor in a different surgery (usually next day). My last 3 appointments have been at 3 different surgeries, but all treated me extremely well and i have no complaints there.
 
Minstadave said:
The issue is austerity. It's the same in EDs, inpatients and GPs.
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'austerity' is a lazy 'go to' and a demonstrably factually incorrect explanation for a lot of things including issues with out health system currently.

From before the finial crash in 2007 to the latest figures UK spending for health has gone up as a percentage of GDP, as an overall figure and per head in advance of inflation with has averaged a bit under 3% per annum in that period (CPI) 61.319 billion in 2007 £'s would be 83.575 billion in 2018 £'s adjusted for inflation.

2007 - health spending 6.74% of GDP
Population - 61.319 million
Total spending - 94.69 billion

2018 7.06% of GDP
Population - 66.466 million
Total spending 145.81billiom

Funding is part of the issue with health other issues include a demographic bulge in the older age groups, and increase in part time workers (mostly due to more female doctors - Part-time women doctors are creating a time bomb)
and a lot of doctors either near of having reached retirement age or taking early retirement due to various issues including pension rules. (Doctors’ early retirement triples in a decade)


The proponents of 'ending austerity' strangely seem to have very little to say about how they would propose to manage even bigger deficits, adding to the UK's already massive national debt, every year given that spending loads of extra money on things like health care (disproportionately spent on thoose already retired) isn't likely to increase the tax take to cover the increased spending they propose.
 
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Per capita spending means nothing.

As you argue yourself, we have an aging population so a per capita increase was needed and it's just not been enough.

It's not the whole problem, obviously, but the same story is playing out across a lot of centrally funded services.

To pay for it, you 'simply' tax the rich more and ensure corporations like Amazon pay their fair share.

We should also perhaps increase immigration given that immigrants provide a net benefit to the economy and already provide a large chunk of the health service staff.
 
Austerity in health is real, even 7% of GDP lags well behind the average in the EU. However your numbers differ from Kingsfund figures:

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2...nding-compare-health-spending-internationally

A decline in spending since 2009 as a percentage of GDP.

Demand is outstripping growth in the NHS. That's neither lazy or incorrect. Demand will not stop increasing, yet the brakes have been well and truly on when it comes to spending. You can see the effects on this on a daily basis.

Tax absolutely will have to go up if people want decent healthcare.
 
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