Ten-minute appointments: It’s not surprising patients have unfinished business with their GP

[Sly Saint]

There’s a special kind of irony to GP appointments these days. You must overcome countless obstacles to secure one: waiting on hold even when you were poised to ring the second the surgery opened; spilling your guts to the battleaxe of a receptionist, a gatekeeper more fearsome than any Tolkien dragon or mountain troll; describing your most excruciatingly embarrassing symptoms in a clinical online form; getting triaged over the phone by a total stranger who may as well be an AI chatbot. Then, having expended all that time and energy simply on getting seen, the whole thing is over in the blink of an eye, providing nothing more than the opportunity to repeat the whole saga to someone who’s clearly not read your notes.

The grand total of 10 minutes in the consulting room will be spent with, at best, a well meaning but overworked healthcare professional who’s already running 45 minutes behind schedule by 9am and doesn’t have time for anything but the most arbitrary of interventions. At worst, it will be spent with a not-so-well-meaning but overworked healthcare professional who makes it abundantly clear that your trifling ailments are just another drain on a chronically under-resourced NHS.

The other irony is that, by the time you get to see a doctor, weeks or sometimes months after the fact, the original health problem has often evolved into something else entirely and three brand new issues have reared their heads. But any notion you might have of “just mentioning that weird foot rash while I’m here” shrivels and dies under the glassy-eyed gaze of a person whose primary objective is to get you in and out as quickly as possible. Some surgeries have even brought in an official policy – “one problem per consultation” – to ensure you stick to the brief, all the more galling when you’ve had to wait an inordinate length of time to see anyone in the first place.

“Getting a GP appointment shouldn’t be some sort of test in persistence and digital skills,” agreed Rachel Power, chief executive of charity The Patients Association. “People’s mental and physical health is at risk of worsening if they can’t get support in a timely fashion.”

There are other detrimental ripple effects that come from 53 per cent of patients saying that shorter waiting times for appointments are needed. Clearly, in some cases, health issues may escalate in the meantime, or risk getting overlooked entirely. But, at the other end of the spectrum, time-strapped GPs are robbing Peter to pay Paul by inadvertently passing the problem on to other, equally overburdened parts of the NHS.

Ten-minute appointments: It’s not surprising patients have unfinished business with their GP (msn.com)

 

[Ash]

I disagree with this author.

I don’t think Labour MP and cabinet Minister Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s “pledge ledge to divert billions of pounds from hospitals to GPs to “fix the front door to the NHS” “are signs of hope at least”.

Especially not as the author says this earlier on in the article “GPs are robbing Peter to pay Paul by inadvertently passing the problem on to other, equally overburdened parts of the NHS.”

So the author of this article clearly understands the problem of a scarcity of public resources due to political parties policies and the detrimental impacts of this practice on healthcare, but yet later in the very same article chooses to refer to just such a function of artificial competition and austerity rather positively. For some reason…


Also referring in the same section to Streeting
“promising that millions of patients will be able to see the same family doctor at every appointment.” Is he also gonna “rob”? in-order to source these fit and healthy ready and willing GP’s so as to replace the short fall created by years of under training under recruiting and under resourcing including lack of investment in infection control equipment and implementation leading to massive staff losses accelerated under this pandemic? How will he stop the flow of medical professionals abroad in search of better working and living conditions and pay?

 

[bobbler]

I disagree with this author.

I don’t think Labour MP and cabinet Minister Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s “pledge ledge to divert billions of pounds from hospitals to GPs to “fix the front door to the NHS” “are signs of hope at least”.

Especially not as the author says this earlier on in the article “GPs are robbing Peter to pay Paul by inadvertently passing the problem on to other, equally overburdened parts of the NHS.”

So the author of this article clearly understands the problem of a scarcity of public resources due to political parties policies and the detrimental impacts of this practice on healthcare, but yet later in the very same article chooses to refer to just such a function of artificial competition and austerity rather positively. For some reason…


Also referring in the same section to Streeting
“promising that millions of patients will be able to see the same family doctor at every appointment.” Is he also gonna “rob”? in-order to source these fit and healthy ready and willing GP’s so as to replace the short fall created by years of under training under recruiting and under resourcing including lack of investment in infection control equipment and implementation leading to massive staff losses accelerated under this pandemic? How will he stop the flow of medical professionals abroad in search of better working and living conditions and pay?

Yep it feels like certain people who always have their hands out whenever anyone new comes along pretending it wasn’t them last time and the time before ALWAYS use the switch and bait tactic

the problems they caused are what they spell out and then each time non sequitur their sane tired agenda

and each time it feel the purse holders fall fir thinking that means that must be the solution AGAIN

not realising it’s ’more Of the same’ being sold?