In my area it has got to the point where it is pretty well nigh impossible to get an appointment with our GPs. One patient in my village could not get an appointment with my GP, so she decided to go privately. She found a group of private GPs around ten miles away and she went into the doctor’s room only to find my GP, she was unable to see at the local surgery, sitting there!!
Where is my GP?: In my area it has got to the point... - PMRGCAuk
Where is my GP?
Written by
piglette
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
Read more about...
69 Replies
•
PMRproAmbassador
Question is - was he worth paying for?
DorsetLadyPMRGCAuk volunteer
I would say I hope they were embarrassed - but of course they weren’t !
I have heard that he did look a bit uncomfortable! If it had happened to me I would have walked straight out again, although I am not sure I would recognise him as my last face to face was in 2016. I have had four ops since then without actually seeing him although we do talk on the phone.
I too would have walked out BUT not before I had given him a severe dressing down!! Strangely enough, I have been waiting for an appointment to see a specialist since the beginning of this year - my GP had allegedly contacted said specialist. I went to my Health Centre and did a sit in. Eventually my GP came out (very humble, like Uriah Heap) and asked if he could help me. I told him, in no uncertain terms, exactly what he could do) and then walked out. 2 weeks later I got an appointment to see the Specialist.
Nah. No compassion or caring so why would he care
Oh dear!
Thank you for this story. We are about to come to grips with this situation in Canada as the provinces (who are individually responsible for spending the funding provided by federal gov for public healthcare) have just been told in no uncertain terms that private clinics providing basic care for a fee is not permitted under the healthcare Act. There's a lot of fudging around the edges of course. Nurse practitioners having relatively recently become a significant part of the system are not excluded in the Act from providing private care, and there seem to be a lot of clinics doing MRIs, etc, for fees. A recent study done by a university proves what we all know, and your story illustrates: private health care doesn't make health care more accessible, or take pressure off the public system, but depletes the public system.
In the UK, primary level care has always been bought in for the NHS from private suppliers, the GPs. It was a fundamental flaw when the NHS was set up as the then GPs who chaged for their services refused to accept anything else.
It was only because the doctors refused to play ball with Bevan in 1948 and he would never have been able get anywhere. As he said "ultimately I had to stuff their mouths with gold". Nothing has changed.
Yes, in some ways similar here, although there is no parallel private system, despite efforts by some to privatise the system again. Because of trade deals with the US we are under more threat than ever to become more like the USA in medical care 😱. When my second child was born I was charged an extra fee, but soon after that it was established that extra billing was not allowed, and has remained that way ever since. It's actually tragic that successive governments have managed to erode the system so much that those who can afford it think they should be able to pay to get service.
Actually I don't have a problem with pay medicine running parallel to the NHS - it happens in Germany and state medicine piggybacks on the private side which pays for equipment that is then used for state funded patients at less convenient times. Many of the NHS problems started when Labour removed paybeds from NHS hospitals.
I agree, I am quite happy with any system that gives me a good health system. The trouble is in UK we have this thing about keeping the private sector away from the NHS. People don’t seem to realise how much is privatised. It is just everything is piecemeal and the whole thing is collapsing.
It is the other way round in the UK. In many instances you will be moved from a private hospital to a NHS teaching hospital if you are critical.
That is because the private hospitals often don't have ICUs - some don't even have an anaesthetist on site overnight which is essential if a patient collapses, especially post-op, I assume that has changed for the hospitals the NHS is using for ops but they never take anything they think might be complicated, creaming off the easy stuff and leaving the longer, complex stuff to the NHS, Which of course costs the NHS more. The safer private hospitals are built in the grounds of an NHS one and have access to their staff and ICU.
Precisely! We do not want to go the way of the US, a very expensive & corrupt system. Private companies are there to make a profit & often have no scruples - not all.
My original paint was that Germany mixes the systems but there is a state level for lower earners and they also keep oversight of the private companies - nothing like the US system the Tories seem to think is so wonderful but which actually results in some of the most expensive and ineffective healthcare in the world.
There is no doubt the NHS as is needs to change, but this government won’t look at anything that is European. Those who can pay more should pay more. I do have private health insurance, which was a Dutch company when I took it out but then Aviva bought it & changed the terms (of course) subscribers went to the FCA but they weren’t going to do anything about it. As you get older you can’t change insurers as they won’t cover many things. In the end you can no longer afford the fees, just when you need it most. C’est la vie!
A level playing field would help when they are buying services - they have to pay whoever supplies. My husband had to quote costs based on the very strict rules set for public services provision - private companies had no such restrictions. Services are then supplied using lower qualified and fewer staff which, in those days, meant poor staffing ratios. Of course the NHS hasn't enough staff now.
I am forced to wonder how this government defines "noddy degrees" - is it based on salary to be earned with the degree? If so - might include nursing and paramedic degrees!
Yes, our US healthcare system is expensive but I won't call it ineffective. And I don't have to wait months for appointments or procedures. I may have to "fire" a worthless rheumy once in a great while but that seems to be worldwide standard lol.
You have been lucky then - we have had people in the US who can't GET a rheumy, never mind see one or change if the rheumy is a poor one. It does depend on where you live and your insurance. All too often, whether it is PMR or GCA, people are no longer able to work - and so have no insurance, By ineffective I was thinking in terms of if you have the right insurance, they will throw everything they can think of at you, whether it is really required or not, It wastes a lot of money - which is why it becomes so expensive.
We have already gone that way. All my treatment if Kate has been private hospitals, paid for by the NHS. The private Hosp waiting room are divided, Private and NHS riff raff. Private one, very few patients. Does that tell us something 🤓
If you go privately ALWAYS check there is an NHS hospital close by in the case of an emergency while you are at the private hospital.
In Canada that would mean the floodgates opening to USA-style private healthcare. Many years ago the three North American countries formed this trade agreement called NAFTA (since somewhat altered but not to our benefit, and has been deadly to Canadian industries) which guarantees US companies the right to set up businesses in Canada IF we have them. Naturally no one (except the few who would benefit financially) wants this to happen so it's actually quite concerning to see even a few private clinics offering limited services setting up (sometimes even just virtual appointments for fees which are at the moment being paid by government), let alone expanding to include anything currently in the public system. One in Alberta has been charging patients several thousand dollars annually just to sign up to be able to get care (a membership I guess, like joining a golf club 🙄), and will be further charged for any service they receive.
US medical companies salivate over the rich pickings they would find in Canada if they could only get their foot in the door. It's even worse because big pharma seems able to threaten to block access to many drugs if we manage to go ahead with universal pharmacare, meaning less loot for them, which is why it's taking so long to establish. I think our drug prices currently are among the highest, if not the highest in the world. So you have this weird situation of patients receiving their medication when in hospital but having to pay a lot when having treatment at home. This became a huge problem with new cancer drugs, for example, that don't have to be administered in hospital by medical personnel but can be taken at home. Suddenly patients were on the hook to pay. So much for "universal" healthcare!
We also have the dubious distinction of being the worst country with deaths in long term facilities during early days of the pandemic, when pre-existing, appalling conditions in many private, for-profit nursing homes were exposed. It's a national scandal. People in publicly run homes fared better.
In fact in UK people prefer to go to their NHS GP if they can as it is free. It is because they just are unable to get appointments that they are forced to pay.
Well that's the thing isn't it? People pay their taxes and should be able to receive good care in a timely fashion. Private healthcare in one sense is like private school. Your taxes are still supporting the public system, but you pay for the choice to send your child to one where you think they may do better, But that is not (usually) a question of life and death like healthcare. The whole purpose of publicly funded healthcare is to make it possible for anyone in any walk of life to access the care they need.
Politicians have screwed up priorities. I don;t think many of us support subsidies going to support fossil fuel extraction, but that continues to this day in Canada, a petro state, while services to support actual people go wanting.
I've been extraordinarily lucky, since that unfortunate PMR-blighted year with a bad doctor, in that I've been able to access care when I need it. I have several friends now who don't have a GP, some have a nurse practitioner, some have no one.
my friend rang the doctors at 10 a.m. yesterday regarding a very sore throat. She managed to get an appointment at 11.00 a.m. and was very happy with the doctor she saw. Great service!
It is a similar story with us but I suspect we are some of the very lucky ones.
Here, too…triage doctor calls back same day..usually within 15 minutes, & you are seen sane day, if you need to. BUT if you want a routine appointment it’s now 3-4 weeks, & often then by phone. But if it gets worse, at least you know same day is always available.
Disgusting, but not surprising......
The system has changed. Many of us said in 2020 that we would end up with a GP service that could easily be run by Amazon.
Your government took the opportunity COVID gave them to do this.
I honestly don't think they care about us at all.
It's appauling. Shame on GPs for complying.
There are too many downsides to not seeing patients to face.
Save the NHS?! Don't think we did that did we.....
I have not seen my GP for ages. Instead, my appointments end up being with his physician’s assistant. What’s going on??
It’s quite a complicated issue. The era of the family doctor is gone, patients stress how much they want continuity of care and are ignored. Young doctors are hard to recruit as they seek better paid and better managed jobs abroad - Australia is a favourite - and we don’t have enough doctors per capita. Now we are being directed to different specialisms, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, social prescribers, physios etc. Receptionists require training to point patients in the right direction and they too can be hard to recruit. My doctor said they had one applicant recently and in the past they had 80! He also admitted that it is a post code lottery. Do you know it’s another aspect of life that makes me grateful to be as old as I am, although I worry for my gorgeous life enhancing grandchildren! 😀
I have been told that there is only 1 full-time doctor in our surgery, the rest are part time. Also, they are accepting more patients. Many of the doctors are foreign and it can be difficult to understand what they are saying. I had a telephone consultation and was asked what dosage of Prednisolone I was on. I answered 2.25 mg. 225 mg ? Was the response! I tried "two and a quarter" . Didn't make any difference. She went onto a different subject.
None of our doctors work more than 23 hours a week. Also they are building houses as if they are going out of fashion, (the medical centre have said they can cope) so much for the Green Belt.
This is the same throughout the UK. You will find better funding in poorer areas therefore a better service. Belong to a GPs patient group & the area next door to us gets 40% more cash. We can’t get the extra GPs we need because we can’t afford them , that’s if you can find any.
Change of government might at least be honest about the situation.
it's not the gp service i find a problem when you can get an appointment to see one. i've been happy with their service. the problem here which is a deprived area so does not get a better service! is that the only way to get an appointment is to phone the surgery it is then on average an hour hanging on the phone to speak to someone. it's not possible to book an appointment on line nor to go in person to the surgery they just won't make an appointment. the booking arrangements are a disgrace.
Every GP service is different now. Our patient group is trying to help organise the surgery so as best use the resources available. You can book online, but that does fill up, so you either have to wait for the following day or ring - you will probably have to wait awhile until answered & if they can help will but might direct you to A&E. There are limited resources.
They are all alike. No change for the good you can be sure
It's shocking the way its ended up trying to see a gp is near on impossible 😕
I am shocked. How disgraceful. It seems nobody wants to privatise anything until it benefits them and their earnings. My friend a retired doctor has the opinion that nhs doctors should not be allowed to do private work - I am not sure that would work but maybe it should be like when my mother went to teachers training college in the late 1920's. She then had to agree to work for her local authority who funded her years at college.
Ah well, that's the magic question. All answers to the NHS
Even when you get through to receptionists some’ act as though there is no way you are getting past them for anything let alone an emergency.
I live 5 miles from nearest town and pharmacy but local surgery supplies most prescriptions.
My sister and I both in our high 70s and physically disabled were recently in an rta and once discharged from hospital had no ongoing care at all
I rang GP 8am as my sister was in so much pain she couldn’t get out of bed, eventually told no appointments try 111 which I did told go back to Gp who then said we need 111 referral so back to 111 who said GP will ring within 1 hour A doctor rang and said she will leave a prescription at pharmacy-7 miles away where still sits as I we have no car after rta and could not drive anyway due to injuries
Rang GP again by this time afternoon receptionist said I was shouting and put phone down and now being told to find another GP practice due to abusive behaviour! The air bags discharged in the accident and I am still having trouble with my hearing My sister never got any medication and cannot use the phone herself
Complaint time - that is disgusting. And actually - if you can't cope at home, you shouldn't have been discharged without a care plan in place.
Obviously no use trying to complain to the practice unless the Practice Manager will help and that doesn't sound likely.
a very greedy doctor. Bet he was still claiming for NHS fees. Glad it round the village he will soon hear 🤣😂
Everyone in the village is roaring with laughter. I must admit I thought he was too lazy to do any extra work. Presumably he has cut his hours at our medical centre.
Well I know where mine is. He's in his surgery with his Pilates ball squeak squeaking when you're trying to have a telephone appointment with him!
😂😅😂
Mine is heading back to home place , Holland . I don’t know where the other 6 in the practice have gone . What country is luring them all away with better pay ? Australia I suspect down here. We have just started phone calls with the nurse, but sadly I could not understand her . We lured newbies from foreign countries too , but their English is still a little difficult to comprehend. 🤪
I suspect yours is going to face some ribbing 😱😅
I wonder if he will dare show his face in the medical centre!
Would like to be a fly on the wall 😬
Same here in Ascot my physio rang the doctor while I was there and got me an in person appointment I was amazed. Sad to see the deterioration of the building and the car park when I got there it was very difficult to navigate all the deep holes in the car park. What is happening to this country is this the end of the NHS.
That is disgusting but then all GP practices are private businesses, with the NHS being their only customer. This is why they have to have at least two partners. It has been like this since the inception of the NHS in 1948.
I am not sure that is correct about having at least two partners, as was the case with Harold Shipman who had a one-man practice in Hyde, Greater Manchester.
The requirement for 2 partners is only since Shipman - and there are still some single handed practices I believe.
I never understood why they let GPs carry on with one-man practices after Shipman, but as you say some still do exist.
Having worked in both the USA and UK systems I definitely prefer the latter. I had the best insurance but still had high out of pocket expenses. Anyone can set up a practice and call themselves a consultant and I felt I had to diagnose myself then choose my dr. It may have changed of course as I hear people refer to their PCP. My daughter has Stage 4 breast cancer and the best insurance but has tremendous out of pocket expenses. She seems to have a good oncologist but she doesn’t have the wrap around care and support like we have here. Working there as a nurse my heart was sickened at the lack of care for low income people. I think the NHS has become a victim of too many changes ending up costing money. I laugh when I see a big announcement of changes back to what we used to do in the future. As a Health Visitor in the 1970s I would visit my elderly patient, nip along to the store in the surgery for their raised toilet seat, grabber, walker and deliver them. Job done! My mother had 7 social work type visits and interminable forms! Recently I developed anaemia after surgery. I just wanted to know what drug and dose to take but there was no way to get a quick question to my GP. I ended up being given a weekend phone apt with some dr in London. How expensive was that!
Yup - a load of reinventing the wheel and a dearth of common sense ...
Not what you're looking for?
You may also like...
Really upset with my GP
have called the surgery back and asked to see another doctor, but cannot get an appointment for 10...
Me and - this time not - my gp.
to zero. You gave me lots of Good advice, so I decided to do it my OWN way and asked for a second...
after visiting my gp.
system I trust, then reduce again. Am somewhere around 11,5 mg now. My gp said, what you do is...
variation on Sick Day Rules from my GP
Where did my emails go? 
Where can I find my previous posts? 
Shout out to my GP
Why has my GP requested a blood test?
