There’s no excuse for being abusive towards staff so in no way am I attempting to justify such actions – but I can understand the frustration.
This week I had an appointment with a psychiatrist. Not to schedule any therapy, but to change my medication. I had to do this because my ‘named GP’ is long-term sick and there is no one at the GP surgery who is prepared to review my medication. So the process to change an SSRI has so far consisted of:
* Book a phone consultation with a locum GP.
* Have to book a second phone consultation with a Physician associate.
* Be booked for a F2F appointment with said PA.
* Practically beg for a referral.
* Have a phone consultation – I had been erroneously been referred for talking therapy
* Be discharged back to “my” GP.
* Be referred again.
* Have another phone consultation.
* Schedule and attend the appointment with the psychiatrist.
My medication has been changed, and the psychiatrist has also made two additional recommendations should the change not be a positive one. So it’s sorted.
Nope. Despite being told to change my medication by a mental health expert, I’m now being told a senior GP at my practice needs to sign-off on the process.
Ooh, and I need to schedule another asthma review. Which *has* to be F2F despite the fact that due to the continued Covid-19 situation they can’t do a spirometry. Or blow into a peak flow device. Or even use an inhaler in case it makes me cough.
One purely anecdotal experience of the NHS in recent months. And like I said at the top, whilst it **absolutely** does not give people the right to be abusive in any way towards staff, Fuck me I can understand peoples’ frustration.
I actually find it quite depressing that the BBC can’t even get the facts right!
“There were over 1,400 more doctors working in general practice in March 2022 compared to the same time in 2019 and a record-breaking number started training as GPs last year,”
This is incorrect and can quite easily be fact checked using the NHS data
Number of FTE GPs in March 2019 = 28,697
Number of FTE GPs in March 2022 = 27,769
So the reality is we have actually lost 928 FTE GPs in 3 years
What they are actually comparing is the number of GPs + doctors on a GP training programme. Problem with this is much of the time on a GP training programme is actually spent working in hospital getting experience in specialties such as psychiatry, obstetrics and gynaecology, geriatrics, A&E, paediatrics, dermatology, ENT to name just a few. It is only in the final year of GP training that registrars work exclusively in primary care.
It is true that more doctors entered GP training during the pandemic but this is likely to be an anomaly caused by the pandemic and the lack of other opportunities for doctors finishing the foundation programme. Often doctors take a break at this point and will do what is known as an F3 year abroad working in hospitals in places like Australia and New Zealand before coming back to start an NHS specialty training programme such as GP. These opportunities did not exist during the pandemic so a lot of doctors have simply deferred this. You have then had 2 years worth of doctors applying in the same year.
That feeling when you are trans and having unhelpful GP’s has been the norm for about 10 years.
Along with standard 3-6 year waiting lists depending on the postcode lottery.
Legalize and prescribe cannabis ffs
I never get abusive but GPs are a fucking mess. I had to do a follow-up scan 6 months after an ultrasound. The specialist requested my GP book the followup. My GP didn’t book it. I called after 6 months asking when I’d get it scheduled. They said they had no record of the request. I had proof it was indeed sent by email. In the same breath they said they never received it and that email records were deleted after 30 days if they aren’t actioned (so they actually have no way of knowing if they ever received it). The worst part is the waiting list is 6 months. So entirely due to my GPs fuck up I’m having to wait 12 months for a 6 month scan to make sure I haven’t got fucking malignant tumors. The same GP took 2 months to write a fucking referral because they forgot to do it meaning I nearly had to pay for it out of pocket. I had to call 3 times for them to do it.
The NHS is obviously so shite yet it gets its arsehole licked constantly by this country for some reason.
6 comments
There’s no excuse for being abusive towards staff so in no way am I attempting to justify such actions – but I can understand the frustration.
This week I had an appointment with a psychiatrist. Not to schedule any therapy, but to change my medication. I had to do this because my ‘named GP’ is long-term sick and there is no one at the GP surgery who is prepared to review my medication. So the process to change an SSRI has so far consisted of:
* Book a phone consultation with a locum GP.
* Have to book a second phone consultation with a Physician associate.
* Be booked for a F2F appointment with said PA.
* Practically beg for a referral.
* Have a phone consultation – I had been erroneously been referred for talking therapy
* Be discharged back to “my” GP.
* Be referred again.
* Have another phone consultation.
* Schedule and attend the appointment with the psychiatrist.
My medication has been changed, and the psychiatrist has also made two additional recommendations should the change not be a positive one. So it’s sorted.
Nope. Despite being told to change my medication by a mental health expert, I’m now being told a senior GP at my practice needs to sign-off on the process.
Ooh, and I need to schedule another asthma review. Which *has* to be F2F despite the fact that due to the continued Covid-19 situation they can’t do a spirometry. Or blow into a peak flow device. Or even use an inhaler in case it makes me cough.
One purely anecdotal experience of the NHS in recent months. And like I said at the top, whilst it **absolutely** does not give people the right to be abusive in any way towards staff, Fuck me I can understand peoples’ frustration.
I actually find it quite depressing that the BBC can’t even get the facts right!
“There were over 1,400 more doctors working in general practice in March 2022 compared to the same time in 2019 and a record-breaking number started training as GPs last year,”
This is incorrect and can quite easily be fact checked using the NHS data
Number of FTE GPs in March 2019 = 28,697
Number of FTE GPs in March 2022 = 27,769
So the reality is we have actually lost 928 FTE GPs in 3 years
What they are actually comparing is the number of GPs + doctors on a GP training programme. Problem with this is much of the time on a GP training programme is actually spent working in hospital getting experience in specialties such as psychiatry, obstetrics and gynaecology, geriatrics, A&E, paediatrics, dermatology, ENT to name just a few. It is only in the final year of GP training that registrars work exclusively in primary care.
It is true that more doctors entered GP training during the pandemic but this is likely to be an anomaly caused by the pandemic and the lack of other opportunities for doctors finishing the foundation programme. Often doctors take a break at this point and will do what is known as an F3 year abroad working in hospitals in places like Australia and New Zealand before coming back to start an NHS specialty training programme such as GP. These opportunities did not exist during the pandemic so a lot of doctors have simply deferred this. You have then had 2 years worth of doctors applying in the same year.
That feeling when you are trans and having unhelpful GP’s has been the norm for about 10 years.
Along with standard 3-6 year waiting lists depending on the postcode lottery.
Legalize and prescribe cannabis ffs
I never get abusive but GPs are a fucking mess. I had to do a follow-up scan 6 months after an ultrasound. The specialist requested my GP book the followup. My GP didn’t book it. I called after 6 months asking when I’d get it scheduled. They said they had no record of the request. I had proof it was indeed sent by email. In the same breath they said they never received it and that email records were deleted after 30 days if they aren’t actioned (so they actually have no way of knowing if they ever received it). The worst part is the waiting list is 6 months. So entirely due to my GPs fuck up I’m having to wait 12 months for a 6 month scan to make sure I haven’t got fucking malignant tumors. The same GP took 2 months to write a fucking referral because they forgot to do it meaning I nearly had to pay for it out of pocket. I had to call 3 times for them to do it.
The NHS is obviously so shite yet it gets its arsehole licked constantly by this country for some reason.