'Two birds with one stone'...

It really isn’t .

 

This is nonsense mate. The reception don’t triage. Healthcare professionals triage. Not all patients need to see a doctor face to face. Healthcare professionals are best placed to make that call, based on professional judgement and do so.

It isn’t actually possible in terms of hours in the day, number of appts, resource for GPs to see every patient face to face.

 

You think we will win today?

 

I find the phone consultancy followed up by a face to face appointment if necessary suits me, I used to hate being sat in a confined space with folk coughing and sneezing all over the place.
If they charge for anything it should be a small charge for folk who make appointments and don’t turn up, possibly on a couple of warnings first basis

 

The following is from a friend of mine from High School years, who is a GP working in the Bradford area. He's my age, 48, Barnsley born and bred (Rotherham Road area) and has been a GP, I think, for 18 years. It was in relation to a really interesting online discussion during BBC Question Time on Thursday, so some of the context might be lost at times, but the general message is clear.

"I spend my life defending doctors and GP in particular it seems! Very few of our patients attend A&E because they can't get appointments in truth - but of course because A&E actually provide so far fewer appointments than GPs nationally even a small tiny proportion spilling over affects them. Their biggest issue though is full hospitals, poor flow through and the same demographic changes that affects the whole system. I suppose my point would be is that A&Es troubles are not really due to a failure of GPs. It's an easy smokescreen.

Government figures show in November 22 (latest available) there were a total of 32.9 Million appointments in General Practice. 41% were on the same day requested. 69% face to face. That will not all be with GPs, the majority will, but with GPs and the associated staff they employ and oversee.

So for clarity - in one month - the equivalent of 58% of the entire English population (men, women and children) had an appointment in General Practice. Another way of describing it is that on each working day in General practice it sees the equivalent of 2.66% of the entire population. On each working day! There will be many poorly people, people at the end of life, in care homes etc who will count multiple times of course - that's the nature of the beast.

Roughly General Practice sees 90 percent of all NHS contacts with around 10 percent of NHS funding.

There's a lot of stuff out there about the problems somehow being the fault of GP - it is simply and demonstrably not true. It's become the easy dog to kick. To sort the NHS - you need to sort the front door and the place doing most contacts. It's seeing way more than ever before due to complexity and multi morbidity - the average consultation rate has risen from 3x/year per person on average to over 7x/year per person and continues to rise inexorably. Completely agree if the issue is primary care, it's lack of capacity - not effort - that's just too easy a route for politicians to take. I cannot see a solution to the problems of healthcare in the UK that doesn't involve shoring up and supporting primary care, not least as 50 percent of all doctors in this country live there."

 

Online booking discriminates against people who need the service most ie. Older and poorer people.

 

Their work isn't just seeing patients though.

 

Doesn't help when you're working though and cant take phone calls. At my surgery you can't book appointments other than on the day. I've a few things I'd like to discuss with a GP , they're not urgent but you used to be able to get appointments 2 weeks in advance.

 

I had the same with my Mum. She had been fobbed off for months by Huddersfield Road surgery. I ended up live streaming on FB outside the surgery. They had refused us, despite us being there at 7:45am. Eventually they agreed to a Zoom consultation the next day. Day after she got an appointment with a doctor & 10 days later she was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel & liver cancer. She died in Barnsley Hospice on 13th March 2022. No one was interested till it was too late. That pretty much sums up the Tory Party regarding the NHS & the privatised GP practices, that are failing us all. Don't get ill. If you do, then shout from the rooftops, unless you have the cash to go private.

 

Fair point, I tend to forget about stuff like that, I was a rep so could make myself available and I’m retired now.
The problem at ours is, you can generally make an appointment online ( telephone) the problem is when want a specific doctor, which most people like if it’s an ongoing condition.

 

I don’t like this, obviously, the like was to show support and that I agree with you.

 

So sorry for your loss, but you are right, Huddersfield Road Surgery is an sbsolute disgrace of a practice; they don't give a 5hit about their patients.

 

Why, where's your proof? What's reasoning behind your comment????

 

Because mine will not even see anyone and haven't done sinc covid started plus it was hard enough before covid, somtimes a 2 week plus wait for an appointment. My wife has been very ill since mid December she couldn't get out of bed for a month and we managed to get a phone appointment but he asked us us what we wanted him to give her and when we said something to get rid of the virus or whatever it was and he said there was nothing but he wanted her to go to the surgery and she couldn't even walk.. but he wouldn't make a house call. She has been doing covid tests every few days but they all say she hasn't got that. But we still cannot get in positive response from the GP ,so please don't try and ridicule me i have had 5 weeks in hell.

 

but your statement was:

‘Its about time GPs got off their backside and did some work. They are the weak link in the nhs’


Your story above, albeit concerning to you I’m sure, does not support your statement in any way whatsoever, does it?

Just to add a bit of balance, I’m sitting near my wife who is a GP. It’s Sunday and she’s going through a load of blood results so that her day tomorrow isn’t quite as busy as normal. She’s spotted an abnormal blood result so has just been on the phone to the hospital (and another GP), as I guess an extra day may count. It’s taken her a few hours actually - she isn’t paid for that, she doesn’t have to do that. Anyway, I’ll let her know what you think of her.

Ps, if your wife can’t get out of bed, she needs an ambulance I would have thought. I hope she gets better soon.

 

Try getting to see one

 

You may have got a good one then like everything there is good and bad but i can honestly tell you. I am getting on a bit now and where i live and i have 2 sons who live further north and nobody can get a doctors appointment for love or money. Plus i have experienced twice in last 2 weeks waiting in boots chemist for best part of an hour to see a pharmacist for some sort of advice and the staff in the chemist's run off their feet and every customer/patient in front of me saying the same, they cannot get to see a GP

 

Do you not think that’s because the GP is too busy seeing other people? Your story seems to point to a very overworked GP who is having to try and do way more than one person can possibly handle. Genuinely, what are you picturing? You seem to be imagining the GP sat at their desk with a locked door playing Candy Crush on their phone and refusing to do anything to do with their job for their entire shift and then extending that vision to other GPs around the country. You know that’s proper daft, right?

 

It brought it home to me when Will got a copy of a letter through, addressed to his GP, about a few hospital appointments he’d had a few weeks ago. He didn’t see the GP as it warranted an emergency trip to A&E (we were seen in less than 10mins of arriving due to phoning NHS Direct first and being booked in through them) but obviously, they need to be caught up on what happened and sort out follow on stuff. That takes up the GP's time and brain power, reading and actioning the letter for a patient that they didn’t even see, never mind all the ones that they have had to book in that day and help. I’d kind of forgotten that it’s not just the people in front of them at any given day that they have to think about and have responsibilities for, it’s everyone else on the books too.