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some of them made me laugh!
Maybe this is why the GPs are so busy - Thyroid UK
Maybe this is why the GPs are so busy
Written by
eeng
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11 Replies
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Well, in section 1, 20, 23, 28, 34 sound like they might be rooted in a health condition.
In section 2, 9 could be a yest infection, 23 could be sleep apnea (Ok the wrong person had the appointment). Many in section 4 aren't unreasonable but just the result of bureacracy. Section 5, I can sympathise.
I absolutely agree with you about 23 and 34 - they could both be hypo!
And I agree there are a lot of incredibly... stoopid people out there. But on the other hand, we're always being told to see our GP about this and that, and Don't start on vits and mins until you've talked to your doctor, and I Don't know about in the UK, but in France we have to have a medical certificate before we can do any kind of sport, or join a gym. I realise people are just covering themselves, but do I really need a health check to do Tai Chi? It means that a lot of other-Wise healthy people are taking up appointment time.
And another problem is, whilst we know that not everybody is stupid, the doctors behave as if we all are, and so, when we go with some genuine concern, we get ridiculed and sneered at. Especially if you're hypo! I shall never forget after my first baby, I suffered very badly with the Baby Blues. I went to the doctor in floods of tears and his first question was : do you hate your husband. WT...! So, without any form of examination, medical history or blood test, he prescribed me valium. He then turned to his student and said : these people (with a sneer) they have a row with their neighbour and come running to the doctor for a pill to make it alright! I hadn't mentioned neighbours or rows, and I told him I didn't hate my husband, so where did he get that from??? On the other hand, I did tell him I'd just had a baby - which he didn't know because he hadn't consulted my notes - but he didn't put the two together. Useless waste of space!
shawsAdministrator
They are a laugh. Thanks for posting.
Well, yes, many of these make me wonder at the numbers of people who apparently lack both common sense and basic personal responsibility; there are also several that make me suspicious of underlying illness, e.g. metabolic syndrome, or other endocrine and digestive disorders and, as Angel_of_the_North also points out, yeast infection and sleep apnoea.
The requests for prescription of everyday items are prefaced by what I consider to be a tendentious remark: "Another very common experience for GPs, borne largely of the fact that those on low incomes pay nothing for items which are prescribed for them". I have known people in receipt of benefits for entirely legitimate reasons, who had almost nothing to live on after paying their essential bills. They were, and are, very careful budgeters, who at times have gone without pain relief or toothbrushes and paste for basic oral hygiene, because otherwise they would have had to cut an already meagre budget for food. From the list under this section, I don't think it is unreasonable to be expected to prescribe paracetamol or ibuprofen. When some people also cannot afford to attend to basic oral health, while the NHS cannot be expected to pay for the necessary, public policy in other areas certainly needs urgent attention.
Eeng, PMSL at the bloke who thought he had ovarian cancer and the one with the yellow gummy bear stuck to his leg.
A lot is a tragic waste of GPs' time though. A GP remarked on R4 recently that a woman tried to make an appointment to have the sticking plaster on her hand changed. 
GPs are so busy because they take on way too many patients and do not treat them properly!! Pure GREED is the reason not lack of time!!
...I have often thought that Practice Nurses have a very valuable role to play too - which should help to relieve the burden of GP's. It seems the GP's want to hold onto the power. These are only observations - I am way out of date having lived in Crete for over 10 years 
Yes I think some kind of triage system with a nurse or social worker available for the not-so-medical cases might be good, although it might just encourage even more people to turn up with trivial complaints. I think part of the problem is that we live in a much more isolated society these days, with a lot fewer close friends and relatives nearby who can help us out. The problem with this situation is that it fuels the argument that we should pay for appointments with a doctor - something I would deplore.
On the whole they are ridiculous and funny, while some are just tragically ignorant, but I do take exception to the dig at the poor. I've been in the VERY uncomfortable position of having to ask the doctor to prescribe me OTC medications simply because my budget won't stand buying them on a regular basis when ill. Very recently I had to ask for a high fluoride mouthwash, which turned out not to be available on free prescription anyway. I had to ask because it was £7.99 a bottle. Buy that in my week and a day's food is lost. It's no joke. I'm sure on a doctor's salary it seems greedy and feckless to ask for OTC items, but when you are stuck with benefits and not well enough to work it is absolutely humiliating to have to ask for such basic items for your health conditions. But if you do without them you are often in pain or worse. What do you do - avoid public humiliation and patronisation, or let your health deteriorate further and suffer in silence?
It's not a great choice.
It's a pity there isn't a system for a nurse or pharmacist to prescribe that kind of thing instead of a GP. It's not rocket science, and could be made a whole lot less embarrassing for you.
I know, eeng. There used to be a system in place when I lived in Aberdeen that you could go to the chemist and get simple everyday items like anti-fungals and things without having to see a doctor or get a prescription, providing you had the exemption form, but that seems to have gone too. Certainly I haven't seen it mentioned in a while. I suppose it's because we get free prescriptions here (in Scotland) now. Those are all fine and well, of course, but it does mean you are obliged to see a doctor for your thrush or piles or any other embarrassing condition just to get meds! It wastes his time and yours. And you can see it on their faces: 'Why are you asking me for this when you can buy it in any shop?' I've actually had that said to me. 'Because it's £4 a bloody tube' you want to retort, and I do sometimes. If I'm going to be humiliated then I'm taking them with me - they might as well get a reality check.
For years, when I was unemployed or living on a low income, I wouldn't go ask for things, I just ate beans for a week, then one day I reached a point where I thought, 'To hell with this. Why am I struggling because of their snobbery?' And I just started asking for my entitlements, but I do still find it hard. It's a bit like going to the poor house and asking for your gruel. No fun at all.
I recently was awarded PIP at the enhanced rate because of my condition and the meds it involves (trigeminal neuralgia and anti-convulsant drugs) and I got a 'disabled' bus pass. I STILL am not comfortable at using it. I really need to sit in the front seats because I am so unstable on my feet I can't cope with trying to get off the bus when it's in motion, but I always feel people are staring at me: 'Why is that woman sitting there? She has no crutch or cane.'
About a week ago I sat up the back of the bus because it was stationery when I got on it. Oh, I'll be fine, I thought. On the way off, I slapped a man across the head, giving him a bad fright, and hit two others in the shoulder, hard, just trying to get to the front of the bus. As soon as I got off I burst into tears, much to the chagrin of my partner. I was embarrassed but also horrified at how little control I had. I literally couldn't stop myself ricocheting about the bus like a drunk. It's funny now, but at the time it was horrible. It's stuff like that that people don't realise looking at you - and that I seem to refuse to accept!
It's the same with doctors, I think: 'You look fine, why do you need a prescription for mouthwash?' Just because you don't have bags on your feet and badly cut hair doesn't mean you don't struggle financially. And it wasn't an ordinary mouthwash; it was because my TN doesn't let me eat on one side of my mouth and plaque builds up. You would think they could think of these facets of your illness themselves, but nope.
Sorry, that's a bit of a rant, isn't it? You obviously touched a nerve and I went into full flow. You can tell I don't get these things off my chest often enough! It's just doctors and their sense of entitlement gets on my nerves sometimes. I'm sure you would never have guessed that!
Why is my TSH so low? 
Why are my levels so bad?
Does anyone know why the NHS is telling GPs not to test Vit D levels anymore? 
Why is reading a book so difficult?
So why are folk taking meds for Hashimotos?
