Not seeing a Doctor

I think this is really bad service from the GP, and a bit worrying that GPs are diagnosing through filling forms in.

However, if your son filled in the form correctly and is happy to take the anti-biotics (I am assuming he's an adult) then I would leave it to him to determine whether he complains or not. He may just get better.

I guess it depends on what he put on the form - it may have been obvious to the doctor that he had an infection. There are infections involving long-term coughs around - several people on GN have had them - and perhaps the doctor has been seeing a lot of them lately.

I was wondering when a tread would be started about online medical forms.

I had to do a series of them a few weeks ago.

I had about 8 different symtpoms to do with the one problem[well I correctly assumed it was all one problem].

But because different symptoms belonged in different boxes, and because my symptoms were changing in the space of a morning as I was form filling[tuened out one part of it all was I was having an allergic reaction to something already prescibed by the pharmicist] depending on what I put and which boxes, I was ranging from, send in form to GP and see what happens, to ring 111 or ring 999.

I actually did the form so it went down the 111 route. Then rang 111!
I basically self diagnosed, decided I was too urgent for GP wait, and not quite urgent enough for 999.

I turned out to be correct.

There is more to this tale, but I think that will do, as reagrds OP post.

I think that’s very poor service from your son’s GP. There are many possible causes of a persistent lingering cough and an infection treatable by antibiotics isn’t necessarily one of them. For example it could be a previously undiagnosed asthmatic cough requiring an inhaler instead of/as well as an antibiotic.

Antibiotics aren’t always the answer and it’s due to their overuse by doctors prescribing them willy nilly years ago that we have the very serious problem of antibiotic resistance.

A doctor prescribing them to a patient he hasn’t even spoken to or examined is very poor practice.

Your son should have had a physical examination IMO.

This business of having to fill in a form seems to be getting more and more popular with surgeries.Why ?
I also wonder about the doctors freely handing out anti biotics when , as another poster said ,their overuse is causing resistance. Don't doctors want or feel they need to see patients anymore ?A colleague told me that she had tried three times to get an appointment for a really bad earache. She was given a telephone one with a pharmacist and eventually was seen by a doctor who diagnosed an ear infection. How is this saving time or money ? It's definitely not saving pain .

stupid doctors could be viral
glad i live in usa at least my doctors have saved my life

usa has to treat no matter what
lots of insuers cost me 300 dollars for chemo ,nothing for lung surgery,emts to house 100 to take to hospital

senior or disabled cost nothing

I had a GP appointment yesterday after filling in a form. She couldn't work out what it was but decided to send me for an ex-ray. It would be possible to diagnose my foot pain without an ex ray. Had she done that first she would have saved an appointment for someone else. Oh well at least I was seen and hopefully we can agree a plan e.g.refer back to origianl surgeon

Our Dr's only do phone consultation and don't give out prescriptions for antibiotics. After struggling coughing for months on end. I went to the Walk In they had to request from our Doctor an appointment for an xray.

The results meant I needed a scan I had two. I was then sent for further tests and visit to the respiratory Consultant. I was told I have asthma this was over 8mths after I started coughing.
All that time for me coughing and feeling dreadful could have been avoided if our surgery was efficient. They are not short of staff and they have three doctors at the surgery.

It’s been like this since covid and I can’t see the GPS returning to the pre covid system. An online and phone triage system may work for some problems but many still need face to face appointments.
I’m assuming the ops sons gp assumed it was a chest infection hence the antibiotics.

We use e consult at our doctors surgery and I have used this. There are boxes to say what the problem is and symptoms - doctors decide if they need to speak to us and will telephone if necessary -or the reception will call and book an appointment with either a doctor or a nurse practitioner all are really good. If a prescription is needed I receive a text advising that a prescription has been authorised. It works for me as when I have needed to use the system the results are positive as I get sorted.

I find it very sad how things are changing with GPs.

A member of our family was unable to get a chest examination by a GP in mid March 2020 and they determined over the phone that he had a viral respiratory infection and that he had 'had coughs before'. Told to self-care. He never woke up.

How sad and shocking Birthto110


That was 2020 when the pandemic was at its height.
Since then it's as though GPs rather liked not having such a heavy workload and see fewer patients.

However I was luckier. I phoned the surgery on Friday and was told a doctor would call me on Monday. She called and said I should come to see her. I have been coughing for months. She didn't want to give me antibiotics but has sent me for an X-ray next Monday.

Thats so sad Birthto110

Currently I am taking pills for blood pressure, statins and blood thinners.These were all on the same prescription and I collected them from the pharmacy every two months. Four months ago this changed and the blood thinners are now on a separate prescription issued by the respiratory team (??) This means two separate prescriptions for the pharmacy to make up and two trips to collect them from the pharmacy because they are never ready at the same time. This time the blood thinners didn't turn up at all. I have spoken to the prescriptions clerk who said that prescription hadn't been issued at all and she didn't know why it was now separate. She has booked me a phonecall with the prescriber on Friday to see what is happening. I just want to know why a drug which is actually quite vital is now being prescribed by a "team" I know nothing about and have never met. It was originally prescribed by the hospital consultant who said I would be taking it for the rest of my life. I would have thought that meant that the GP could carry on prescribing it with my other meds. I shall be interested to hear what the prescriber has to say on Friday!

I saw a doctor last year and was sent into hospital with pneumonia. I’d previously had a ten second conversation with the pharmacist (by phone) and given antibiotics. I assumed as I was no better after the three day course, that it was viral and doctor would not see me. I was wrong, I rang after being nagged by my sister (a nurse), and was seen the same day and hospitalised. I had no idea I was so poorly, until I was!

I have tried unsuccessfully to get an appointment, sometimes being no 22 in the queue. I have several issues that require attention but have now given up and learning to live with an uncomfortable skin problem and a very worrying pain that I pray is just muscular and not from something more sinister.

Can you ask a friend to phone on your behalf travelsofar?
I find it hard to be assertive on my own account but can be like a tigress when it's for someone vulnerable!

Or call 111 or whatever the non- emergency number is and talk to somebody.

Working in this field myself young people in their twenties find it particularly hard to be seen or taken seriously - I personally know so many young people who have died of brain tumours, sepsis, undetected cancers etc or cardiac issues. They don't get listened to and they 'look' too well and healthy!!

If he put a comprehensive report on the form, Doctor did the correct thing. If if doesn't improve no doubt he will contact again and be seen next time. He had the first line treatment for a cough that won't shift.
The cough that's doing the rounds atm is called "The 100 days cough".

At our surgery the econsult system seems to work very well. I filled one in at 7.30am last Thursday and was phoned at 11.00 and asked to come in straight away. this was for something non urgent. I think they triage the requests and look at your records. I hadn’t had an appointment for three years so I think they decided I had better go in. I worry about the people who can’t work the system. We had to handle this side of things for my very elderly mother, for example, HOwever, I understand the econsult system was really meant for non-urgent requests and not as the gateway to getting an appointment, which is how our practice uses it.

Our surgery has just taken on the Anima online route which I’ve managed to use for appointments. I’ve had phone calls within a day offering times (although of course still a couple of weeks away). As it’s a new system I doubt I’ll be so fortunate when more people start to use it.
Before Anima I recently had a minor injury which got worryingly worse so I phoned 111 early morning which I thought was preferable to going straight to A&E. I explained the problem, had a phone call back at 10.15 pm just as I was going to sleep to apologise for not getting a clinician to speak to me yet. Then a clinician phoned me at 4.40 in the morning!! I’m never good when woken from sleep and told him what a waste of time it had all been and I’d wasted a day when I could have gone to A&E. It was a problem that needed treatment and two months later I haven’t completely healed. 111 wasn’t the right route for me.

DD came close to dying of anaemia, as a result of a telephone appointment that led to a GP not ordering a blood test. Had she been sitting in front of him he would undoubtedly have orderedd one.

By the time the blood test did take place, her blood count was so low she was rung by a GP in the practise, in emergency mode, to say that she was on the edge of having a fatal heart attack and must immediately collect a massive iron prescription from the pharmacy.

She was 'officially' declared to be 'critically' ill, in other words, survival not guaranteed, and got all sorts of extra health interventions over the following year as a result.