I dread to think how many serious illnesses are being missed due to the disgraceful situation of GPs doing next to **** all for there salaries. Still, I'm sure the very helpful and knowledgeable secretaries who field the enquiries are more than capable of diagnosing these illnesses.
Did you see the news today? We are running out of the special tubes needed to hold blood taken for tests, so the NHS has been asked not to do certain blood tests for a few weeks. I really don’t want to think about the possible consequences of this. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58324108
Here in Oz, if you are classified as a 'chronic sufferer' and for want of a better word, jumped through the hoops of the medical system to prove as such, you get certain medications etc for a nominal fee. Example, my rheumatoid injection ( one ) is a couple of grand each month but l pay only $60 for it. I'm not deemed low income or anything as such, its just how the system works. Its a bit like my gall bladder removal. If l want to get it removed, it was going to cost 10-12K or, wait in the public health system for two or more years and hope to get it done for free. However, if it get serious and you are in severe pain, they put you straight thru and your in and out immediately, at no cost, regardless of your income status.
This is the really sad part of the co-vid situation. So many sick /chronic people who need operations for very serious conditions are being pushed away / deferred indefinitely. I really feel for these people. They don't report this traumas in the news.
All good if you can get diagnosed in the first place. The problem here is that serious - and potentially life-threatening - illnesses are not getting diagnosed because people can't get to see a GP.
Not all the fault of the gps Seems to be a bit of a backlog once you get past them Envy of the world Covid: NHS backlog in England could reach 13 million, says Sajid Javid By George Bowden BBC News 11 July 2021 please log in to view this image IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES NHS waiting lists in England could more than double in the coming months, the health secretary has said. Currently, some 5.3 million people are waiting for routine operations and procedures in England. Sajid Javid told the Sunday Telegraph he was "shocked" when officials warned him that the backlog could reach 13 million patients. But he added he was confident most remaining curbs would be lifted in England on 19 July. ADVERTISEMENT Who is the new health secretary? Mr Javid, who became health secretary two weeks ago after his predecessor Matt Hancock resigned following an apology for breaking social-distancing rules, said waiting lists were his priority. He told the Sunday Telegraph: "What shocked me the most is when I was told that the waiting list is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. "It's gone up from 3.5 million to 5.3 million as of today, and I said to the officials, so what do you mean 'a lot worse', thinking maybe it goes from 5.3 million to six million, seven million. They said no, it's going to go up by millions... it could go as high as 13 million. "Hearing that figure of 13 million, it has absolutely focused my mind, and it's going to be one of my top priorities to deal with because we can't have that." Among the solutions, Mr Javid said, would be to pay private healthcare providers to continue to treat NHS patients, and keeping virtual doctors' appointments. [img decoding="async" sizes="(max-width: 360px) 360px, 100vw" alt="Total numbers on waiting list" srcset="https://ichef-bbci-co-uk.cdn.amppro...5/production/_118492032_rtt_full_ts_v2-nc.png 240w, https://ichef-bbci-co-uk.cdn.amppro...5/production/_118492032_rtt_full_ts_v2-nc.png 320w, https://ichef-bbci-co-uk.cdn.amppro...5/production/_118492032_rtt_full_ts_v2-nc.png 480w, https://ichef-bbci-co-uk.cdn.amppro...5/production/_118492032_rtt_full_ts_v2-nc.png 624w, https://ichef-bbci-co-uk.cdn.amppro...5/production/_118492032_rtt_full_ts_v2-nc.png 800w" src="https://ichef-bbci-co-uk.cdn.amppro...5/production/_118492032_rtt_full_ts_v2-nc.png" class="i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content" i-amphtml-auto-lightbox-visited="" > please log in to view this image A BBC analysis found in May that almost a third of hospitals had seen long waits for treatment increase - with more than 10% of patients going a year or more without treatment. In March, around five million patients were waiting for surgery - the highest number since modern records began. It comes as Covid case numbers rose above 30,000 for the fourth day in a row on Saturday, amid concerns over the move to end most of England's remaining curbs later this month. Mr Javid has previously warned that virus cases could reach 100,000 a day over the summer, if the ending of restrictions goes ahead as planned on 19 July. If that does happen, then hospital admissions could reach 2,500 a day, according to statistician Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter. Appearing on The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One, Prof Spiegelhalter said it was "absolutely inevitable" that the UK would soon experience "a big wave of cases". He said the hospital admissions estimate was "very high" but "considerably lower" than the peak of the second wave." Patients would also likely be younger and therefore require shorter stays in hospital, Prof Spiegelhalter added. please log in to view this image Video caption, Speaking on Sunday the vaccines minister, Nadhim Zahawi, said the NHS could deal with a cautious reopening of the economy Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairwoman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the academy was "cautious about issuing dire warnings" but she had become "profoundly concerned" over the last couple of weeks about the idea of lifting restrictions in England on 19 July. "There seems to be a misapprehension that life will return to normal from then and that we can throw away all the precautions and, frankly, that would be dangerous," she said. A few hospitals in the UK have announced that non-urgent surgery is being postponed because of rising admissions of Covid patients, very high patient numbers at A&E, and staff self-isolating, the BBC's health editor Hugh Pym reported. In Wales, home births were suspended by the Swansea Bay health board due to the number of staff self-isolating or unwell. Health experts in Scotland said clinicians were "resigned" to spiralling Covid cases putting more pressure on health services in the coming weeks. However, the link between Covid, hospitalisation and death has been weakened by the vaccine rollout, with admissions to hospital and deaths below the levels seen last winter. Being fully vaccinated reduces the risk of symptomatic Covid-19 by about 90%, and hospitalisation by up to 94%, depending on the jab.
In my experience (via the wife), you have had more chance of witnessing the second coming over seeing a GP during this pandemic. Of course, it was ok to go out for a meal, have a pint, get your hair cut, pick up a packet of crisps or some milk but seeing a GP was like asking to see God. The majority are very limited in not only their knowledge but in experience aswell. I have some absolutely devestating stories i could repeat from GP visits and wrong doings but they will only put me in a **** mood if i share them.
Cheers for the comments, mate. Here in Oz, we seem to have a GP on every corner. My GP has closed his books to newcomers and l know l can ring him anytime and get to see him asap. I guess l'm one of the lucky ones. Have to feel you you lot over there.
Think it's hard to see a GP? Try and get access to a University lecturer....Jnr just received his timetable for year 2 of his Business Studies course, and it's all online. He's raging, struggled like hell though his first year as it was all remote learning, and now even though he can can go and get a bit mental in a nightclub he can't sit in a lecture - WTF? Really feel for his generation, they are the ones who are stigmatised for causing continual outbreaks, although both my son and ALL of his pal are following the Vaccine pathway, their education is being thwarted by their University lecturers refusing to attend open classes - ****ing joke. At least he isn't having to pay for his tuition or accomodation, that would be a real smack in the teeth...
It's a joke mate. Really feel for him and others in the same position. My lad had to finish his degree online at the start of the pandemic and hardly got any help whatsoever from the tutors. Of course, he still paid maximum tuition fees which is a scandal.
Crap stuff for your lad Steels. Like Col’s lad my daughter has just finished 3 years of Uni, paying tuition and accommodation costs and racking up the debt of course, and had a whole two full terms of ‘normal’ Uni experience in the process after COVID and strikes over pensions impacted on teaching. However her tutors did bend over backwards to make themselves continually available through the pandemic at least (she thinks she was lucky with the tutors on her course, others at the same Uni studying different stuff existed in a virtual vacuum) and at least she got the key experience of living away (a long way) from home, taking responsibility for herself and learning to live with people who aren’t her family. Meanwhile some universities are organising charter flights to carry Chinese students to their halls of residence to they can collect their inflated fees while teaching them via zoom. My wife has just finished a job at a university and reckons that academics are the most spoilt, precious and idle bunch of people she has ever worked with. It’s them refusing to teach in person, partly because they would have to travel, often from other countries where they live, and don’t want the inconvenience. She has heard some professors in tears on conference calls at the suggestion that they would have to drive to the university to teach someone face to face. Genuinely. Education in this country is a real mess, at all levels.
And has been for as long as I can remember. Teachers being militant most of the time doesn't help either.
If you have a child who has SEN, then you can times the frustration 10 fold. These kids are being left behind and will be exploited as cheap, uneducated labour for years to come.
But then again Col, you’re probably not his/her only patient. When you have umpteen Doris’s or Berts who also want to see your GP, coupled with an aging population and a society that seems unable to help themselves with even the most minor of ailments…are you really surprised YOU can’t see your GP ?
Im not sticking up for GPs, as from my experience, more than a few can be ****ing awful. However like most things, there can and are other factors that should also be taken into consideration (See my answer to Col)
I think the point being made on this thread is that some GP practices, by the anecdotal evidence on here most of them, have reacted to the pandemic by making it much harder to see a GP face to face, and pretty difficult to get a virtual appointment (I have to phone up at 8:30 on the morning in the dot to get a GP to phone me back at a random time of their choice…..when they have texted me to say they want to discuss my medication). My practice only does phone consultations, no video, I know of other which do Zoom etc, but of course some patients aren’t up to the technology. There are broader issues like shortage of GPs, the ownership model for primary care practices, and the vast numbers needed to make up for the huge majority who work part time (no problem from where I stand) unlike the chap you highlight.
