What to GPs actually DO?

Savvy

There is an app now called Livi NHS where you can get a video consultation with a GP the same day, my surgery told me about it when I couldn't get an appointment. As long as your records are available for them to see, they will call you free of charge for a video consultation. The outcome and notes from that is fed straight back to your GP surgery so they can follow up if necessary.

From their web site

If you’re not yet eligible you can choose to use our pay-as-you-go service instead.

Presumably you have to sign up to find out if you are eligible.

Your gp surgery should be able to tell you Tizliz

I struggle to even get to talk to the receptionist, have to go on hold for ages and then get cut off! The usual online booking system was withdrawn back in April 2020 and has not been reinstated. Apparently there is a “secret” way of contacting the gp through a message on their website but it took me ages to find where the link was - and I am reasonably computer literate!

I dread needing to actually see a gp, I had to monitor my own blood pressure when it went sky high while various drugs were prescribed over the phone.

I’ve just watched an advert on television from the NHS encouraging people to see their GPs if they are showing symptoms that may be cancer. What’s the point of wasting money to show adverts like this if people are struggling to get a telephone appointment never mind a face to face appointment. I realise from comments posted that not all practices are the same but in my surgery you can be ringing for days before you get through to a receptionist who just tells you all the appointments are full for that day and to try again tomorrow. An elderly friend of mine has been trying for two weeks now and is in considerable pain.

My gp expects appointments two weeks away. No wonder patients go to a and e.
I can barely walk, but the receptionist said surgery is only around the corner. 1.5 miles away. The best surgery I ever had was one that saw people in a first come first served scenario. No appointments, just turn up. This would suit me, as my legs and feet only work when they feel like it. A
3 mile walk, is impossible for me. And before you ask, there are no taxis, buses or community cars going to the surgery. I can see I will have to move elswhere

I rang my surgery on Friday morning to book a consultation and the GP rang me back at 2pm the same day. I was referred immediately, and had a specialist assessment this morning.

No complaints here.

My fear is this is going to be the new normal.
I suspect the majority of GP consultations will continue to be conducted over the phone with very few face to face appointments.

I hope I am wrong, as it’s inevitable that things will be missed.

I do hope I’m wrong though.

twice recently a bed-bound neighbour with multiple complex morbidities has tried to get the GP to visit her.
she cannot use a wheelchair, has to have a stretcher party to go to hosp appts.
the GP rings her and says they do not do home visits.
i told her to ring 111 after 6pm or w/e. which she did. they were very helpful and sent a response nurse and later an out of hours doc.
they were both very thorough, esp when they heard that the GP refused to visit, which surprised them.
it was good to be taken seriously and get the necessary medical attention, but a few years ago i would not have thought of ringing 111. and some people will be alone, slip through the net.
big up to dr kumar and dr hussein/?hassan, who seem to have to cover a vast area; and to the rapid response nurses.

Our GPS reduce visits to an absolute minimum but are very good at phone consultations and supplying prescriptions where needed. If you need a blood test it gets done as is any other referral that is needed, although because the waiting list is so long only urgent cases get referred.

That along with organizing Covid vaccinations keeps them busy I guess and it is a lot less time consuming for the patient. Who wants to sit in awaiting room with other sick people at present.

Must say my GP surgery before and since Covid are wonderful. I had phone consultation with locum GP last Monday while talking he sent the prescription to the pharmacy I use for extra of one of my tablets and started me on a new one. I asked for a referral back to the cardio team which he would do. I spoke to him at 9.30 was on the phone for 15 mins. My tablets where delivered at 1.20 and my referral letter arrived on Saturday. The receptionists are wonderful.

When I moved 2 years ago I picked that surgery because the bus stop is opposite. And signed up with the independent pharmacy on the opposite corner who delivers to anyone 9-7 5 days a week.

The health care I get here is far better than where I used to live.

Our GPS are good but I have to say they are not free. Typically around $80 for a 5 minute consult and we get slightly less than half back through Medicare. A few will bulk bill but fewer and fewer do this where I live. You have a choice where to go, though and if you don’t like one, you can go to another.

Jaxjacky

Mattsmum2 I too had similar excellent care in March this year, breast clinic within 2 weeks, fortunately clear.

So relieved for you ❤️

My surgery has an AskmyGP system on their website. You put your problem in and have phone, email or in surgery option. I usually get phone call within an hour. Then if needed am seen. Usually same day. Maybe you could ask to see a nurse....stitches being removed and wound care is their job not the doctors. I have been referred to a nurse appointment after phone consultation.

I think doctors’ receptionists have far too much power. I was refused a face-to-face appointment with my GP, was told by the receptionist that I had to have a telephone consultation. When I spoke to my doctor on the phone he asked me to visit the surgery in 30 minutes as he had no patients! He was a bit ‘cross’ when I told him that was what I wanted but the receptionist had prevented it.

GP services seem to vary across the country. Since the pandemic ours have gone from being excellent to dreadful. Hard to get through on the phone, if you can get an appointment at all (2+weeks wait) the reception says its a phone appt but on the last 2 occasions its just been a text message from the GP. My referral to the privatised triage service for a degenerative condition which is worsening was lost so i waited 8 months just for a 20 minute phone appt covering the questions which in the past my GP would have asked simply to be told i would be referred to a specialist. To the poster who said we have too many people in the country, the issue is we have too few GPs, and the NHS funding has been eroded over the last 10 years. And money is wasted using private medical companies who make a profit from the NHS.

We have had phone calls, video calls and photographic messages, all of which I have been happy with. The telephone system had to be replaced so we have had long, long queues waiting for that. Now I have rung and I can't even speak to someone because all today's appointments are gone and you don't seem to be able to make a routine appointment.

I only get phone consultations with the GP and then referred to X-ray or scan. Seems to work so far as phone consultation always happens the same day which is quicker than waiting for an appointment. I have also filled in lengthy online forms from GP surgery, including for mental health type issues, which is not so good. Doctor surgery is always almost completely empty whenever I pick up my tabs.
Often I go on internet and treat myself. If this is the future, we probably won't need to train as many GPs for those 5 or 6 years as, for us, they have become no more than a call centre service. On one occasion (pre Covid) they had a person (not a doctor, but medically trained) 'filtering' people on their 'queue up and you'll be seen morning' (subsequently discontinued) to see if you really needed a doctor at all. This was when my cancer was picked up as I was thankfully 'filtered' in the right direction!

Savvy

Your gp surgery should be able to tell you Tizliz

I am lucky as I have no problems, just thought it was typical ‘we offer a free service, but …..’

A repeat prescription which took 3 days to be signed pre-Covid now takes a week. Why?

Our GP surgery has closed its doors. Receptionist said this is for good and GPs would not be seeing patients. Telephone calls and photos only. The mind boggles when some problems are more intimate than others. I wouldn't be sending anything online. What if it went to the wrong person ?

Anything more urgent and we are to go to the local A&E. No wonder the hospitals are buckling under the strain. Why can my dentist and optician see me? I shall try to move to a new GP practice.

I did expect to see a nurse, I just asked for an appt to get my stitches removed. The reply I got was quite glib and seemed to have been learned by heart, she possibly has too repeat it several times a day, poor lass I did feel a bit sorry for her.
All the same, we are asked not to clog up emergency services - and what about the unnecessary exposure to covid from the waiting room?
I'm going this afternoon as these stitches look as though they're getting embedded.

Surely the Practice Manager should employ more staff if they're overstretched instead of playing on our sympathy for the NHS? Recently it took me a mere 67 repeated rings, then put in a queue of 10 people and the phone answered just before the (newly instituted) cut-off point of 3.30pm for phoning the surgery to get a test result. I use Askmy GP now but it's not easy to get thru on that either. I sympathise with anyone having to deal with GP surgeries.

nana8 we do take our free health service for granted and forget that other countries have to pay every time they go to the doctor. Hope you are well. You sound satisfied with your standard of care, and that must be reassuring.

ExDancer I've cut to the chase and want to answer your original question: "What do GPs actually do?" As with everything in life there are bound to be a few rotten apples but I say "THEIR BEST!"

For years they have increasingly been expected to deal with too much, with too little support. Covid is just the last straw for many.

I had to see the nurse last week after plucking up the courage to actually phone the receptionists after 5 weeks of an very uncomfortable rash because when you do they are so rude and make you feel a nuisance. I was the only person in the waiting room to see someone and we have two different surgeries in the one building. There are 8 GPs in one and 5 in the one I belong to, plus the nurses in the treatment room and no one else there to see any of them. What were they doing, just triaging on the phone all day??
I was told off by the nurse for leaving it so long to contact them as it made the condition worse. You can't win.