Scaling back GP care

My husband became very ill suddenly in September. He was breathing badly and so I rang 999. Paramedics came quickly but he was sick all over our bed and I only had time to cover it before they came. Paramedics were brilliant took him in just after midnight. 4am in the morning I was rang by A & E doctor to say he was being taken to ICU and put on a ventilator. I couldn't wait to ring ICU in the morning but waited until 7am. ICU doctor told me that husband had a chest infection which turned to pneumonia. After being Intubated he had a heart attack, his organs were failing and his blood pressure was in his boots and he needed adrenalin. They said that if he arrested they would not perform CPR as his heart was in such bad shape. He has had three other heart attacks in the past and numerous stents. They took him off the ventilator after 4 days, which was amazing but then with signs of a stroke, slurred speech difficulty in swallowing and his right arm unable to move it was another hurdle. After an MRI scan it was established that he had an infarq to his brain stem and he had had two before also. He was transferred to a cardiac unit at another hospital. He spent another week and a half there where his arm improved his speech almost came back to normal and his swallowing improved. He was discharge on 29/09/20. Since he has been home he has been very ill. I have had to call an ambulance on 3 occasions and he has spent another 3 days in hospital. There is no doubt the hospitals have saved his life but the care from his GP surgery has not been so good. When I have requested an appointment with the surgery I have been fobbed off by Nurse practitioners. It took 3 days of speaking to the surgery to finally get them to send an ambulance. They tried to fob me off with anti sickness tablets for him. I had to press the point that I though my husband was going to die before my eyes if action wasn't taken. Slight exaggeration but I needed him to be investigated before he died of starvation and dehydration as he couldn't keep anything down.
The system at out surgery is:-
1. Ring the number get recorded message surgery is closed
2. Continue to press redial until recorded spiel about coronavirus
3 Now 2 mins after opening time 'You are 15 in the queue'
How can that be?
4. Speak to receptionist. There are no appointments left ring in the morning.
Or doctor or nurse practitioner will call you back.
5. 4 or 5 hours later called back. Still cannot have a face to face but telephone consultation.

Now my husband has an infected leg. Prescribed antibiotics but wrong ones as he is allergic to penicillin. Second trip to the pharmacy to collect new prescription.
I could go on and on and I already have so thank you for your patience if you haven't got bored and stopped reading but it is good for me to get it out. I have had numerous other problems with the surgery which I wont go into but I have been so frustrated and feel like pulling my hair out as times. Thanks for reading this.

What a moany miserable thread (most of) this is! We are in the middle of a pandemic with the wonderful NHS free at the point of delivery. There are huge logistical problems for our GP surgeries to tackle. We are not aware of all the difficulties they face or the conflicting demands on their time.
It must be extremely frustrating for those medical staff doing their very best for patients to be complained about so much.
I think some on this site need to kinder and try to understand that GPs are not sitting around with their feet up!

I wonder what the GPs have been doing since March. My practice has 3 surgeries in its group with at least 15 GPs. However, trying to get an appointment is next to impossible. The receptionists say that we can have a telephone consultation, but not for 3 weeks, or see a clinician, again about a 3-week wait. I did get an appointment with my GP - I don't know how he managed to walk with the amount of PPE he was wearing, and I was in and out in about 30 seconds. Drs and nurses are working their backsides off in the hospitals but our GPs are nowhere to be seen.

Thank you f77ms and Mirren and aepgirl.
I despair at times. We have a wonderful NHS, delivering high quality care to the population, every day of the year. In this difficult time of Covid19, when the whole of life has changed for everyone, we cannot expect GP surgeries to continue exactly as they did before. If your GP isn’t available, and most are, he or she may have volunteered to work alongside hospital staff delivering care for Covid patients, or he or she may be working at the Covid Hub like my son in law, or they may be giving palliative care to the dying in care homes like my daughter. I have already listed what GPs are doing so I won’t list it again, but you can be totally sure that your GP is not on an extended holiday and has not abandoned their practice to the nurse practitioners. GPs are working.

I do sometimes wonder about the system that provides care at the point of need, with no charge. It seems to produce a sense of entitlement. Essentially I agree with free care at the point of need, but this thread has made me wonder.

Sorry, I did not mean aepgirl I actually meant vickymeldrew.
Thank you for your lovely, supportive post.

aepgirl I’m sorry if I misunderstood, but I thought you said you’ve just seen your GP and he/she was wearing PPE. So why say the GPs are nowhere to be seen? I don’t understand.
Also, do you honestly expect a doctor to see you without PPE?

Our surgery is basically non-existent. Have not received my 6 monthly diabetes check up for nearly a year now. Cannot get an appointment if urgent. Have to go through NHS care line who will contact surgery if they feel it is important. You will then get a telephone appointment with a doctor if you are lucky. This to me is ridiculous. How can you be diagnosed correctly without face to face interview? Sorry but I do feel we are going backwards with health care from GP’s.

Apparently, they are going to train admin staff to give the jabs (at our practice, the care assistants already do it). They are also going to call in retired nurses and other volunteers.

The organisation is going to be a absolute nightmare and it doesn’t help when they are criticised.

debohunXL5 you have had a terrible time and you have my sympathies, so don't think I am referring to you when I say that

I don't understand the attitude of some people who seem to assume that doctors and teachers are basically just lazy and do not want to do that job that they have trained for years to do.

Grumbling because a GP was wearing PPE! Really!

When some of you say that you don't know what your surgery has been doing you are speaking nothing but the truth, you don't know what they have been doing.

50,000 and more people have died of a new virus over the last nine months or so, how can it possibly not disrupt the normal running of the health service.

It’s a bit like all hell breaking out behind the scenes in 24hrs in A&E on TV the other night and a couple sitting in the waiting area complaining that as it was very quiet why were they being kept waiting!
Perhaps those (constantly) complaining would like to make upfront payments for all their consultations and treatments........

Well said Ilovecheese I have seen teachers criticised during lock down and watched my poor neighbour, an infant teacher, wearing herself to rags looking after the children of essential workers, doing lessons online and supporting frazzled parents trying to home teach.

GO surgeries are getting it too. They are on the phone at all hours doing telephone consultations, trying to run surgeries wearing full PPE all day, keeping their staff and patients safe and supporting people whose hospital appointments are cancelled or postponed.

They need our praise, not niggling.

Sorry! That should have been directed at Debohun

I am supposed to have my bloods done twice a year plus BP checks...nothing .
I have been unable to see my Doctor now since January I have had problems with bp meds (tried 8 in 14 months) and currently stopped taking them the last one resulted in swelling from head to toe .I got to speak to a nurse on the phone and she suggested I take one I already had problems with...I have given up.

maddyone with the greatest of respect you have told us time and time again how hard your daughter and son in law work and I understand your stance on this point. I would be proud of a daughter and son in law that work so hard. But this is only part of the whole picture as it appears from many of the experiences on here that not all surgeries are perhaps as committed. Some people are really going through a very worrying time in respect of their health and many illnesses are not being diagnosed. We have all had different experiences some positive and some negative.

With regard to much less important services, BUT - have you tried to speak to energy companies, internet companies, HM Tax Office, HM Passport Office, local government, your own bank, car insurance companies .....etc etc....
Few of them have phone services at all currently, but people aren’t on this forum wondering what they’re doing and complaining.

My surgery pulled up the drawbridge in March I had to insist on being seen this week My blood pressure was dangerously high I'm a double stroke survivor so now have new meds and GP appointment for next 3 weeks

Just because some of us have experienced excellent service from our GP surgery recently doesn’t negate the fact that others of us are not receiving that standard of care. Unfortunately it’s not always a level playing field.
Many GPs just like many teachers and along with many others of different professions will have been working hard throughout lockdown. However that does not mean it’s universally the case in every single setting, standards can and do vary. I’ve a daughter working as in front line NHS care. I can understand folk feeling defensive when they know their own family members are working really hard as I know mine are.
Maybe if surgeries had better communication with patients that would prevent frustration building up. My own surgery has a website that says nothing and sends texts about check ups I’m not due to have, then none about the ones I do need. Nothing to do with Lockdown, it’s been like this since the partners sold the surgery to a consortium a few years ago. Every single member of the previous staff from doctors to receptionists moved swiftly on. Now the practice is mainly staffed by locums, once seen they never seem to return. Surely that says something about the whole set up!

Gwyneth I’m sure you’re fed up of hearing me bleat on about hard working medics, and would probably like me to stop, but I’m even more fed up of reading other people’s
criticism of GPs saying they don’t know what they’re doing. It’s true, they don’t!

I wonder if everyone complaining about the service they are getting just now was out clapping for the NHS in the spring?

I hope everyone remembers this the next time we are called to vote for a government, and vote for one which wants to fund the NHS properly.

Before covid, my gp practice worked on basis that if they take long enough to give you an appointment, or even answer phone, you will eventually get better. Or go to a&e. Now they are supremely useless. It’s so frustrating as in bygone days it was a rather wonderful practice. Changing to another one round here is basically impossible as all lists were full long before covid.

Our GPs were rubbish before Covid and now you can't see one for love nor money. I have had a lump in my throat every time I swallow from the end of August and ended up and contacted my GP 7 wks ago who diagnosed me with acid reflux over the phone and gave me tablets for it and it's still there. There's an advert on TV saying if you are worrying about a lump etc, go contact your GP straight away as they will see you. Joke!

debohun, sorry you and your husband are having such a tough time. I hope things improve

much of this thread reads like many other threads on gransnet in recent weeks. So many angry, complaining people.

I do accept that not all practices are functioning well. The suggestion that the doctors are somehow hiding away and not doing any work is just nonsense.

Maddyone no I’m not fed up of hearing about hard working medics. Unlike you I am trying to be objective and see the whole picture. It is crystal clear from the posts on here that some people are definitely experiencing great difficulties in accessing the services of a GP. As I’ve said earlier some surgeries appear to be providing a good service. Just to be clear are you saying that those who say they are having problems accessing services are making it up?

Debhohun,
I am so sorry to hear of your troubles with your poor husband. It certainly does not make things smooth with all the restrictions.

I have to say our medical system here in out town is working well. My DH and I have different doctors but both have had fairly good service, with phone consultations and follow up in person. If anything some things are moving faster because fewer people are using the system if it is not urgent.

We have however, been very frustrated with my dear MIL in the hospital. She is 91, and had to go from assisted living to the hospital. We were finding the lack of communication very difficult. Poor woman with no phone, no visitors, no one answering calls regarding her condition. We have finally sorted out that she can have one visitor to help with 'personal care' so my DH has just started visiting her with limited visits.

I would have though since the hospital was not allowing visitors, they would put an extra administrator or patient care liason on the ward to take time to communicate with family.

I do understand that GPs are busy under different circumstances at the moment but pre March my husband had several appointments at hospital for different conditions and I do realise that with so much going on with covid everyone is super busy but my husband had a small op and biopsy on prostate about 7 weeks ago, we had no appointments through for results, cancer or not, so have had to chase it through, eventually we managed to get one in two weeks time, he also has missed glaucoma app and yearly heart check, as for GPs , we have managed to get phone appointments but , even video calls are not the same as face to face, cant wait for that to return