Why flu to GP?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

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

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?

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.

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.

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

Ready I agree with much of what you posted. My husband went to the GPs with a minor symptom but a sort of ‘that’s odd’ feeling. It was cancer and was therefore diagnosed very early and treated successfully and therefore cost the NHS much less than a later diagnosis would have. A fee wouldn’t have stopped us but it’s just simply not fair is it? And being wrong when you go in good faith shouldn’t lead to criticism. As for getting an appointment - some people with chronic conditions need regular GP appointments but are not ‘ill’ on the day and given issues about work etc need to be able to book in advance. Whenever this topic is on GN there are examples of very different appointment systems across the spectrum - what I wish is that best practice became a requirement but I also think people should stop expecting to always see ‘their’ doctor.

Think you might be right Ready but these days everything has to be instant, although on second thoughts that would put off people who were not really ill!

NonnaW, a fee would mean only people with money can clog up the waiting rooms unnecessarily. After all if someone believes they need medical care they're not going to risk their health for the sake of a few quid... unless they don't have a few quid in which case they won't go even if they really did need help. And as for your second point, that might not happen if appointments were not so hard to get. I don't know why GPs don't go back to the old system, they opened each morning, and those who were sick on the day simply walked in and got seen. In those days no one ever booked an unnecessary appointment or failed to turn up. Maybe it's the whole appointment system that needs rethinking not the patients' behaviour.

How do people get on who need a medical certificate, I wonder? What's the best option in that case?

Side point here to M0nica: sounds like you're talking about the JR in Oxford. Just to let you know the road works have been postponed, the council haven't announced a new start date yet.

Back to OP - surely if you do have actual fluy, you are too unwell to go to the GP?! As other posters have said, their advice would be the usual rest/fluids/paracetamol anyway, and if symptoms worsen significantly, surely better to call an ambulance.

I have been unwell since christmas, but have not wanted to bother the doctor and keep hopi ng the coughing sore throat cold, sneezing etc will heal itself, but....its nearly 4 weeks and i still feel dreadful.
If i dont start feeling better over the weekend may have to try and see a doctor next week.
Am still in bed the sun is shining and i am feeling fed up so have just cleaned my teeth, which helps.

We have often thought that a fee might deter some time wasters. And what about people who book an appointment because they ‘might’ need it then don’t bother to cancel when they feel better?

My grandsons dad would often phone my daughter, shouting that she needed to take him to the doctors because he had a cough or cold. He just couldn't understand that her doctor wouldn't prescribe anything.

I was almost shouting at the news last night but complained to DH instead. Big news that people with 'flu like symptoms' were going to the doctors. Well if they really had 'flu they wouldn't be able to. I felt that the emphasis of the story was wrong and that it would have been more helpful to the NHS to explain when to take your 'flu like symptoms' to the doctor and when to deal with it yourself.

I sometimes wonder with all the media attention whether people are being encouraged to go to the GP and A & E.

In September I developed a cough which would not go away but did go through various stages. I didn't go to the doc because I could feel the progression. I had an appointment for something else in December and mentioned it then and he checked my lungs and they were fine. I would not have gone just for the cough despite it being really bad for about a month. It has finally gone now. A local friend developed a cough (possibly caught from me) and went straight to the GP to confirm it wasn't serious.

The main reason is because they need a sick note for their employer. Self-certification does not last long enough for a true bout of flu and doctors really shouldn't give you a certificate without without seeing you.

For people with a cough, don't forget the value of postural drainage to help the mucus up. Lie face down with your upper body sloping downwards and breath deeply to encourage coughing (could take one of those expectorant cough medicines half an hour before). And if you have someone who can help get them to thump your back to loosen the mucus. If you get ahead on the chest clearance it can give you a few hours peace from coughing before it builds up again.

I know so many people who go to the doctors for any mild problem, when they really don't need to. Although charges are quite a shocking idea for the NHS, they might make people think twice, no doubt pharmacists would then be inundated instead.

Some people of course really need to be seen. Older people with a weak chest etc.

Personally I avoid the surgery if possible, just think of all those germs floating around. I go for a repeat prescription and always wait in the outer lobby!

Flu can kill if it develops into pneumonia. DH didn't have flu. but he had the coughing virus. He coughed night and day for 10 days, he wasn't sleeping, eating or talking, his throat was so raw and he was exhausted from endless coughing.

Yes, by day 7, I was thinking about seeking medical help. The reason I didn't? Firstly he had a routine medical appointment booked for the second week of January. We have also been warned to allow an extra 2 hours for travel to our local A&E, one hour for the road works nearby and one hour to find a parking place. That would mean 2 1/2 hour journey to hospital plus 5 hours waiting to be seen. I decided he was too ill to be expected to cope with that.

Fortunately we had planned to go to our house in France for a few days, so we went as planned. We had a cabin booked on the ferry and only a short drive both ends. I had decided that, if he had to go to A&E, I would prefer to do it in France because queues would be shorter and treatment more humane.

In fact we managed without medical intervention, but I do understand why many people sought it.

I think sometimes its hard to believe its 'just' a virus when the symptoms get frightening.
I thought I may need an appt when I was poorly because I was having trouble breathing at times. Having said that, I can't understand people who rush off to the doctors, and I avoid it as much as possible.