Why flu to GP?

I have worked in both GP Surgeries and A&E Departments and it never failed to amazed me just what people would insist on being seen for.

ML54 I think one of the reasons patients try for 'their' doctor is in the hope that they might get a bit of continuity in diagnosis. The quick flash through a patient's history is not remotely as good as personal memory and a link to something that previously may have occurred. However, I no longer even know who 'my' doctor is in our local practice. They change so regularly. Last time I even had to ask if the one I was allotted was male or female. As to 'time wasters! Who are we to decide? I'm of the old brigade who was taught not to 'bother' the doctor. A couple of years ago I went when I felt I wasn't making progress. I was severely chided for not coming sooner and was whisked into hospital straight from the doctor's surgery.
There's the trade-off: a quick perhaps unnecessary visit to the doctor or a costly and inconvenient stay in hospital. I sure don't know the answer but seems to me the regular and often inaccurate statistics thrown out by the media certainly doesn't help.

I am not sure that all hospitals are so strict on your health before an operation, the place I am going to a private provider who provide for the NHS. They do knees, hips and eyes and the physio needed. They also want everyone to have spinal block (epidural) instead a general. Horrors! Their reason being that they have no intensive care. Well they are in for a shock I am going to a general there is no way I am going to be awake, even under sedation, while they saw and drill my knee! Must say though they are efficient, no delays, free car parking and tv.

Bathsheba. You were prescribed Ventolin to keep your airways open .It was/is a precaution.You had a virus, you had a cough which could have developed into something more serious.

Sussexgirl60 you are spot on re the unwittingly abdicating responsibility for our health due to having a national health service. It's almost as if the nation's health is the responsibility of the GP from birth (not everyone thinks like that of course).

If I had to pay a fee I wouldn’t be able to go it’s a hard choice somedays do I buy food or gas .
I have worked since age of 14 and paid in over 40 yrs but still can’t get my pension until I am 66
!!! Another 3 yrs can’t get PIP they say I can work even though some days I can’t see .Was retired from work after working for them for over 20 yrs because they couldn’t support me in my illness due to the fact I was a danger to myself and others .
No pension tax credit because no pension .
Because I can’t get to job club no money .
Wellcome to 5th richest country.So glad I paid in for others to come and live here get pension etc when paid in nothing .Rant over

Ninny charging people would stop the very poorest accessing treatment! Even £10 is a lot if your income is tiny!

If one can survive something for ten weeks without seeing a doc I presume one thinks it'll get better eventually and that during those ten weeks one was able to carry on at least basically normally. There's ill and there's ILL. We should be able to tell the difference most of the time, I feel.

PS for clarity, the GP thought I was too ill to have come to the surgery and should have rung for a home visit! But having been brought up in the ‘soldier on and don’t complain way’ I just thought I was being pathetic about a bad cold. ?

PS We didn't use the antibiotic. The combined painkillers worked and the infection cleared up.

How many other people have been given this (and other similar) useful information, I wonder? And if not, why not?

I think that some people may over visit their GPs but equally some don’t go soon enough. I had what I thought was a very odd but bad cold but felt genuinely dreadful, and worried about a secondary infection, so went to the GPs (trying to hide in the waiting room away from other people) and was roundly told off by him as I had double preonia (his diagnosis confirmed by X-ray).

I have heard of a few people who have had terrible symptoms for up to ten weeks but haven’t seen a doctor and who, in my opinion, need def to see one to eliminate a worse diagnosis.

?

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!

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

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.

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.

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'

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.

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.

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!

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.