Why flu to GP?

Also patients should be much more willing to see the Practice Nurse if appropriate and not regard her as second best.

Also appointments not cancelled at GP or hospital a fee should be charged like they do at the dentist if you don't cancel your appointment.

Maryeliza how the chronic condition people used to do it when there were no appointments is there was usually a day or time when not so many people tended to turn up and they'd simply turn up at that time, or they could phone the receptionist and ask what the waiting room was like.

I thin you are missing my point here - a person with a chronic condition for e.g. sees the GP twice a year. If this person is employed, having an appointment arranged well in advance can mean they can take time off work with minimum disruption to everyone. That's perfectly reasonable surely?

It depends if you can plan in advance how long you're going to be ill, I suppose?

ninny if you didn't pay the fee at the dentist, they could refuse to see you; at the GP or hospital they couldn't. And anyway, someone's time would have to be used adjudication whether the no show was acceptable or not. e.g. my daughter rang this morning to say her DH had just died - I completely forgot my appointment or a patient with mental health problems whose life is disorganised and chaotic?

Not everyone is a retired person with time on their hands and neither is every appointment for an acute episode

Then Maryeliza, maybe a compromise with a few appointments available but a walk in surgery daily as well. I also knew GP surgeries that worked well like that. But even with the example you give, the person can decide "Ok I am going to drop in to the drop in surgery on June 18th (in 6 months time) and book their time off accordingly. It takes nothing away from a patient's ability to plan ahead, since the GP would stay in his surgery until every last turner upper had been seen. So you could still decide in advance when it suited you to go.

Yes good surgeries have a mix of types of appointment - I thought some people were advocating no ability to book in advance as used to be the case. Thats just not feasible or acceptable in today's much more complex world.

I think my doctors has a couple of afternoons a week which are 'drop in' times. I don't know if it makes a difference, but it doesn't seem too difficult to get an appointment. They also have a prescribing nurse.

Having struggled to get over the virus and now taking care of DH who is far worse, the last thing I could face would be loading him into the car at 8.30am and driving six miles to get the one and only appointment available.

If you're well enough to do that you might just as well stay in bed with plenty of hot drinks.

There was a report on our local BBC news earlier in the week about this, complete with a woman, smartly dressed, hair styled, make up on, saying that she was at the GP's as she had flu! Erm, I don't think so ! Why go to the doctor just to be told, rest, plenty of fluids, paracetemol.

Anyone with real flu, not just a bad cold, is IMO unlikely to be able to drag themselves to the GP anyway. But so many people say they've got flu when it IS just a bad cold. Maybe you have to have had flu to know the difference - if so you'll never make that mistake again.

I agree with charging. People often bang on about how much better healthcare is in other European countries, but many of them do make charges for GP and A&E, not to mention prescription charges for just about everybody.

I can’t believe anyone is suggesting we pay to see the Doctor. This undermines the whole point of the NHS. There are many people who would not see a doctor because of financial pressures. As for seeing a Doctor with flu symptoms. My Daughter has recently had flu and ended up with two courses of anti biotics for a throat infection, and what did the Doctor say. “Why didn’t you come to see me sooner” Seems the average medically unqualified person is damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

I have not had the flu, a cold or anything and I am trying my hardest not to get it as I am have a knee replacement in 10 days time and they have told me they won’t do it if I have so much as a scratch, let alone flu. So I have been keeping away from people and constantly washing my hands. But this week I had to go to see the Dr about my red painful eye ( had it before so knew what I needed} and mix in the waiting room with a load of sick people! Coughing and sneezing. On top of this I was sent to the Eye Hospital A&E, yet more sick people. I am just hoping that I have not caught anything.

Self certification, Miss Adventure, is widely used now. Employers accept.
DH and I have had chesty cough and sore throat since Boxing Day, dosed ourselves and kept warm. Nearly better.

Just for the first week, as far as I know, GrannyMac. This virus thing seems to go on for weeks though. I wondered how people get on then?

Fully agree we visit the GP for illnesses that require no treatment except paracetamol etc, but a word of caution, DD thought she had flu sat it out for 3 days, her observant DH realised her mouth was drooping and had difficulty breathing. He took her to A/E and within 30 minutes was in ICU being ventilated with Guillaine Barrie Syndrome. She was very lucky. But still think we should not visit GP flu!

I'm starting to think that there should be separate waiting rooms for cough, cold and flu sufferers in order to protect the vulnerable. DH has to go to the hospital daily and at the weekend has to attend A&E since the normal treatment area is closed so has to sit with all those with bugs. Inevitably he caught it and then passed it on to me. We have both been most unwell for weeks now and the ironic thing is that DH still has to attend daily or someone must come to our home with the real possibility of passing it on. There must be a common sense solution somewhere as people like my DH and Barmeyoldbat really need to stay well.

I agree Barmeyoldbat I've tried to keep away from the doctors, not go on the bus and keep hand gel in my bag, germs everywhere on supermarket trollies, door handles. Hope all goes well with your hip operation.

It's sad that the people who really need the doctor can't get in for the time wasters. I have asthma and struggle to get along in the winter often having many courses of steroids and antibiotics but struggle to get an appointment then get told off the doctor 'you should of come sooner'

Bags, I think people do this because they have no faith that they will get better unless they do see a doctor...even if he does nothing. This inability to look after ourselves is, I believe maybe unwittingly, encouraged by the nhs. It’s almost as if they like the power and they don’t encourage people to take some responsibility for their own health. Not everything can be sorted by taking a pill. Those people that can travel to a gps surgery, I would say, probably don’t have flu. If they would stay at home, then doctors would be freed up to see people that really do need medical help. You could apply this to a lot of illness and I’m sure then, the nhs would be under less strain.

Blimey! I must remember all this if my creaky knees ever need replacing. I nearly always have scratches on my hands! Presumably I keep my hands clean though because my phone frequently doesn't recognise my thumb print because it's too clean! Real dirt, e.g. from the garden, I don't mind though I do wash it off as soon as I come in. Stickiness and greasiness I can't bear.

I'm beginning to wonder if we worry too much about germs. Isn't it better for a normal immune system to have to deal with everyday germs? Life isn't and can't be sterile in most circumstances.

x-posts, sussex! I think you're spot on there! Too much nannying in society altogether so we have become a bit incompetent.

I think it has been a long-standing cultivation (unwittingly or otherwise) of dependence culture too. I remember being really surprised when one of my friends at uni, back in the mid seventies went to see the doctor because her cold hadn't cleared up within a few days.

I was actually pleased when Minibaggs a few years ago had an ear infection and our GP told me that 70% of ear infections cleared up without antibiotics within 72 hours. I asked him about dealing with the pain, which is the worst of it. He said to give her both paracetamol and ibuprofen. He also prescribed the dry powder for an anti-biotic if I was unable to control the pain. The pharmacist was concerned about my ability to measure 100ml of water accurately. I assured him I was while inwardly rolling my eyes!