Group Consultations on BBC News Chanel

[AgedCrone]

I just caught the end ...but it may be on again.....a Doctor reckoned group consultations have been been going on for ten years.

Keep an eye out...it may be on again on BBC News later on this evening

[Gnarli]

I'll be watching

[Paula-C]

I heard it on the news on Radio 2. Mentioned people going who have rheumatism, just googled it and that's us folks.

[AgedCrone in reply to Paula-C]

Realistically I can't see how it will work except for people who would like to go along to an RA support group...voluntarily to maybe discuss individual problems? I would not want to do that. But will we have a choice?

Surely no one would go along to discuss individual health concerns in front of strangers?

Between now & 3 December when I have my next RTX infusion, I have a rheumy consult, a rheumy nurse appointment, & 5 different blood test appoinments...then another blood test & another infusion. I think that's enough. I don't want to go somewhere to talk about it...I have a life outside RA!

As my practice nurse had never heard of RTX, & my GP asked if I had it every month, the idea of going to a group session led by them seems rather superfluous to requirements....confusing to say the least. Even worse if led by the practice receptionist after her one day training course!

There must surely be more to this idea than has so far been released ?

[Paula-C in reply to AgedCrone]

If I've got a problem I ring my helpline and speak to a nurse specialist. Do not think my doctors fully understand the drugs. I had food poisoning once and was put on antibiotics, I asked the GP if I could still take my RA drugs (mtx and enbrel) and he said yes. Phoned and spoke to one of the nurses and was told not to take one of them, can't remember which one.

Do think that having a get together with people with the same illness is a good idea, just to give tips and support like we do on here, especially because I think RA is a very lonely illness to have, it's very much miss understood illness.

[AgedCrone in reply to Paula-C]

Yes I do think RA Support groups are a very good idea ...the average GP cannot possibly know every Dmard & biologic and every contraindication regarding which anti biotics can be mixed with these drugs.

But it's not a good idea to use a support group to decide which & why to take your RA drugs......that is down to your Rheumy team. What suits me will not suit you. As you have discovered even GPS are not completely au fait, so we RA patients are certainly not.

But who is going to run these groups? Anyone with sufficient knowledge is presumably busy treating patients ?

But I don't think10 people with 10 different health problems going along for a group chat is a good idea.

However we don't yet know how this "group" idea is going to work......although the doctor on BBC News today said it had begun 10 years ago. In which case why has no one in this site ever heard about it?

Lots more to learn about Group Consultations.

[keeta in reply to Paula-C]

I had thiz conversation with my doctor just this week. About my low bloods for 6-7 months feel like i.m being told 1 thing by my gp snd another by my rhuemy nurse.and it goes on till we.ve had enough.i feel like i.m being fobbed off.

Sorry on a role.

but thats the way they are making uz feel. So in a consultation with many others .what will it achieve.

Xxkathyxx

[keeta in reply to AgedCrone]

I agree xx

[Mmrr]

A group consultation cannot possibly run at a time when each individual patient needs it !

Will we be in a position of having to wait for x number of weeks until the next RD consultation if feeling unwell ?

Then go along with a specific problem, and sit for 2 hrs through a group session of people at different stages in their illness ask questions irrelevant to self.

It seems to me the powers at be have little insight into what it is like to be chronically unwell, be knowledgeable about your health issues , and the possible damage of being in a group can do.

It also sounds like yet more money going to non clinical staff.

[AgedCrone in reply to Mmrr]

Not to mention time off work to attend, location.....it won't always be at your GP practice. ...regarding RA...how many GP's have enough knowledge (real correct info...not just what they think) to actually help, not just confuse?The List is endless.

One group if 30 I was going ( voluntarily) to attend was cancelled with 24 hr notice....because the nurse running it had to look after her sick child ....OK that happens,but where was the back up ....it's called Plan B!!!

It's already a Dog's Breakfast & it hasn't even begun to be run countrywide!

[Mmrr]

I've said this on another post...but I waited for 7 weeks to get a place on a group to 'learn' how to inject metoject. ..7 weeks of unmedicated misery. Then one woman dominated the group with irrelevant nonsense , whilst the nurse was out of his depth in group management. It was a farce from beginning to end.

[Soreknees2016]

There’s only one word for this - crazy!

[Rosiesmummy]

I think what they mean are support groups for newly diagnosed diabetes,asthmatics etc. Group teaching not consultations.

These already happen in hospital and have done for years.

[AgedCrone in reply to Rosiesmummy]

From what I understood patients with similar conditions would sit around discussing their own ailment with each other and a "suitably qualified

person" would pop in to give them some advice at the end of the session.

Well I know I have left a GP's office more confused than when I entered , so if I'd had to decide which bit of advice applied to me or not ....I think I'd have a large G&T & forget it!

If only this information had been released in a sensible format by a named NHS representative , explaining exactly what is being trialled & the projected outcome, we might have taken it more seriously. So far I just think GP's are being represented as Snow Flakes who are complaining about being overworked.

[Soreknees2016]

Think this might be it, from BBC News website

Shared GP appointments trialled - and patients 'like' them bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45770998

[CloudTreeDrive13]

Yep. Read in the paper about group sessions. Not for me i'm afraid. How do you get 13 other people to sign a confidentiality form. To think one of them could be your neighbours listening to all your private info. It would last for 2 hours but a doctor would only attend for one hour. What a waste of time. No, this can't happen surely ?

[AgedCrone in reply to CloudTreeDrive13]

Mmrr was having a joke about confidentiality agreements.....I fell for it too!

As I said in a previous post if the NHS had issued a Professsional Announcement on what was really happening we might take it seriously !

But from what I've read it's just a sticking plaster to keep us quiet ....little did they know how we would react!