Limit to GP appointments per patient, per year?

[Silver_Fairy]

I know it's the Daily fail and they do try to sensationalise as much as possible but.........

dailymail.co.uk/news/articl...

[Moggie]

Maybe if GP's did their jobs properly then we wouldn't have to visit them so often.

Moggie x

[PinkNinja in reply to Moggie]

Agreed! Since I have taken my health into my own hands (with GPs blessing and monitoring) I haven't had to see him in nearly 9 months!

[Moggie in reply to PinkNinja]

Brilliant news and just goes to show that we really do know our bodies better than any test/blood results.

Moggie x

[Lily905]

If Hospital Doctors did their job properly we wouldnt need to keep going back to GP repeating the same problems

[helvella]

So many questions arise when you think for more than five seconds:

Would you get credit for the years (or even, decades) in which you did not need any appointments at all?

Would this apply to notifiable diseases? (Which would, obviously, mean they would often not be notified.)

Would this apply to the annual thyroid review which, for some people, occurs only for the benefit of the doctors and their remuneration? (E.g. where people are looking after their own testing and treatment for thyroid issues.)

What will actually happen when you ask the appointment beyond your limit?

What will they do when people make appointments for other people? (E.g. I make one for my elderly mother which is beyond her quota.)

What would happen in any emergency situation including epidemics?

Would this apply when appointments are made because prescriptions need to be changed for other reasons such as lack of supply? (E.g. Amdipharm Mercury and Liothyronine and Eltroxin.)

Would this apply when the patient is summoned for any reason? E.g. blood test out of range, NICE guidelines change, etc.

Of course there are people who make numerous appointments, some possibly beyond reason. However you clearly need to ask why and look at it from that point of view. If one of the reasons is the doctor failing to treat thyroid disease, then why should that be reflected back on the patient by refusing access to further appointments?

Even talking about this will cause some perfectly innocent people who do not have many appointments to worry.

Rod

[Silver_Fairy in reply to helvella]

Good post Rod!

[Polaris in reply to helvella]

I could hardly believe my eyes when the 38 degrees petition came in this morning and as you've well illustrated, has not been thought through. As usual, it punishes vulnerable people for the sake of a minority who abuse the service.

Please send the government a strong message to drop this outrageous idea: .

secure.38degrees.org.uk/don...

[Hidden]

I personally think it is a discussion document produced by some bright young thing to come up with ways to make the NHS more efficient. The Kings Fund undertook a survey recently(site excellent on all matters pertaining to the NHS as well as Doctor Foster Guides)and I read some of the responses. These varied from charging for hospital food (common in most EU countries) charging for visits to GP, ambulance transport etc etc.

We all have different ideas of how we can make our public services more accountable and efficient.. I do not mind discussion documents offering outrageous views. It does not mean they will be introduced. Like other commentators i do not know how we can manage people who make appointments and then fail to attend. My practice recently published the number of missed appointments and they were mind boggling. The number indicated that it was not just a few people.

I have read some interesting documents on how to educate us all on the costs of medicine - we do not know this. The documents indicated that if we knew the cost we would be more aware and keep appointments! I know in France, the cost of every procedure is provided, every drug and dressing etc etc. If we want to maintain our service, free at the point of delivery, i feel that looking at unpalatable issues such as rationing of primary care access or indeed charging are likely in the future.

[helvella in reply to Hidden]

My mother's surgery has a piece of paper propped up on the reception desk - 85 appointments broken last week.

What is entirely unclear is how many of those were unavoidable. For example, there was a gas leak almost outside the surgery the other day causing delays of up to an hour to get the last hundred yards from the road into the car park. Also, how many appointments were cancelled by the doctors themselves? (Maybe none - but fairness suggests both should be shown.)

Ambulance transport is interesting. Where I live we have seen a pretty large shift of services. I suspect that there has been an increase in the need for ambulance transport. Indeed, I suspect there has been a very considerable increase in costs of patients getting to the services which are now 15 or so miles away - whether as patients or visitors.

Further, the concentration on major centres for things like heart attacks is predicated on greater ambulance transport and even air ambulance services. Is that also going to become a patient cost?

Knowing the costs might or might not be important. We have had much discussion here recently as to why the cost of Liothyronine is so much higher here than almost anywhere else that we know of. That cost is currently entirely out of our hands (and with the people who agree medicine costs). So what justice can there be for us to take that inflated cost into account in any way?

And if the cost of Liothyronine dropped by 90% tomorrow, would we actually know? Or would it be behind the scenes and allow the high cost to continue to be used to deny it, even when that is actually no longer justified?

Rod