Are our Doctors competent?

welshdent

concerned43 wrote: »

Don't believe the issue is lack of time but more that their knowledge is lacking. Why aren't we asked to rate our GPs so that further action could be taken, if proved negligent, by a Government Body?

Yet more regulation eh??

In dentistry you can have your entire practicing life destroyed on balance of probability as opposed beyond reasonable doubt. That to me is utterly disgusting. The cards are VERY much stacked in the favour of the complainant believe me. I think personally if medicine is anything like dentistry they have gone way too far but its is far too big an issue to duscuss on here and i would quite like to keep my blood pressure down.

I really dont think we could even hope to rate a professional adequately because we simply do not have the knowledge and experience. It takes 5 years just to get a basic medical degree following full time study. Its only then they even begin to learn their trade. That would be like me grading a mechanic on the quality of their workmanship when replacing my starter motor. I wouldnt have a CLUE. Sure we can grade on friendliness and how quickly we got an appointment etc but none of those bear any relation to the ability of the professional.

I have a story I am sure most dentists can identify with. When I started at my practice quite some years ago I replaced a guy that retired. His patients adored him! He was charming and people would remark on how he never hurt them. In I come.
I then proceed to inform these patients that their fillings are rubbish or there is undiagnosed conditions occuring etc etc. All of a sudden I am far from flavour of the month. As a dentist looking in I see terrible quality work. I see large fillings patched up with random bits of cement over seas of decay. He would have had years of positive reports and I would have had a sea of annoyed people venting about how I had to do all these fillings or take all these teeth out. The quality of his work is not reflected in these comments and the quality if mine most certainly isnt.

A comment I have seen on here and used elsewhere is that we would stick up for each other. I suspect this is why the GDC were "encouraged" to neuter themselves by flooding itself with lay members that really have little clue about the realities of dental practice.

The reality could NOT be more different. Hang around on some dental forums and you will quickly see that the most critical people of dentists are other dentists! I was practically bred that way with some of the consultants we had and then the in built competition with peers ... to the other dentists ... I got over that dont worry! What I CAN appreciate is good and bad dentistry. What I can also appreciate is good and patient patient compliance.

My point is that I DO believe most medical professionals, when judging another, would do so appropriately not to stick up for someone they probably dont even know. .... and I dont think I could judge the quality of a doctors work on my perception alone and thus would feel most uncomfortable potentially ruining someones career or at the very least giving them an extreme amount of stress based on a gut feeling

thebigg

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Depends, but I would say that if you report to them that you have problem defecating/stomach pain/weight loss and dark stool and they don't ask if they can perform and examination, I would suspect that they are leaning towards the incompetent side of the equation. (There is a local surgery who has a doctor with vision so poor, he has a bright pink car so he can identify it in the carpark, and he has a problem with elderly people with bowel problems. The trouble is that 5 have died of bowel/colorectal cancer in the last 18 months when he has said they should eat prunes. Patients are leaving the practice in droves - the ones that aren't feet first. His second job is an assessor for ATOS. - no, this isn't a joke and isn't made up - I suppose it fits in with his GMC hearings)

Its easy to look in retrospect and see the problem. If the patients were constipated this is not a red flag for bowel cancel. Its has to be greater than 3 weeks change in bowel habit to becoming looser. If we sent everyone for constipation for endoscopy the NHS would sink. Only someone with all the information can judge if on presentation those patients were treated reasonably.

CompBunny

Its difficult to say...in the past few years, I haven't had a single doctors appointment (GP, the specialists I have been hurriedly referred to have had more time to assess me, but have still been rushed!) that has lasted more than 2 minutes. Yes, I have even timed it. In this case, I don't blame their incompetence, just their ridiculous time constraints. Ten minute appointments my foot!

However I think we all have horror stories that highlight genuine incompetence But like most things, its pot luck as to whether your case is in the hands of a) a generally good doctor or not b) a doctor who has seen that specific set of conditions before and c) how thorough they are.

I do not believe that 99.99% of doctors would purposefully misdiagnose or overlook something serious though.

elphaba

There's a doctor I refuse to see at my surgery after not being very helpful to me and 3 family members.

Aless

I have a pretty low opinion of GPs and have numerous stories I could recount such as my FIL showing the most obvious signs of prostrate cancer (his daughter is an extremely qualified nurse, so knows more than most doctors and doctors hate her because she can question them, and she told him he need to go straight to his GP and have the finger test) the GP refused to do the finger test for 3 months. When he finally did it - prostate cancer, straight down the hospital. That sounds like negligence to me but GPs rarely get sued for a couple of reasons, one being that the GMC is the strongest trade union in the country that protects it members above other concerns. One of my friends used to do legal work for the GMC and the stories he could tell are shocking.

I have been misdiagnosed myself over some thing that need an operation.

The real worrying thing is the government plans to give all the responsibility for referring patients to GPs. The idea scares me witless. Where is the accountability with the power? People say you can complain or change practice. My dad complained about our GP when we were kids and the practice struck the entire family off the list and refused to treat us. Also in plenty of areas there is one only option if you want a GP. Such options often do not exist and if they do are insufficient.

I agree there are good and bad GPs like all professions but as GPs are self employed there is so little accountability that the system does not work. I think it is ridiculous that they are gate keepers to so much. The doctor's protectionist attitude is also not helpful. There are plenty of things you have to see a GP for that pharmacists could do, and it would be cheaper for the NHS too but the drs won't have that.

flashnazia

Just a thought but, if doctors had to deal with attention seekers most of the time, would you be surprised if they missed the occasional real illness?

Errata

I hope everyone who has a tale of woe about a doctor's incompetence reports the doctor through the appropriate channels. I hope, but I have no expectation whatsoever of that hope being met.

mr_rush

one being that the GMC is the strongest trade union in the country that protects it members above other concerns. One of my friends used to do legal work for the GMC and the stories he could tell are shocking.

Are you stupid? The GMC is not a union, it is the regulatory body.

Oldernotwiser

Toothsmith wrote: »

How much would we be complaining if every time we went to a Dr, we were treated as a suspected malignancy and sent off for biopsies/endoscopy?

I wouldn't complain at all; I'd consider that I'd got an excellent GP who was looking after me.

It would be better than having to wait for two months for a mammogram when I found a breast lump because the doctor didn't think it was anything to worry about, especially when it turned out to be cancer.

GlasweJen

I was 8 when I first lost conciousness, it was in a classroom in front of my teacher and 31 other kids. School advised mum to take me to the doctor who diagnosed premature puberty (no other signs of puberty at all).

I was 10 when I was regularly collapsing up to 4 times a day and I couldn't attend school for 5 months, that was anaemia (diagnosed without a blood test!).

I was 13 when I was referred to "medical mysteries" where the doctors asked me more questions about home life than they did about the fainting.

16 I had my appendix out, GP came for a home visit and told mum "Jenny probably has vasovagal syndrome, ask the hospital next time you're in for a tilt table test".

I was 17 years and 8 months old when I finally got the tilt test, it was positive.

I've went from that to a doctor who didn't know the difference between a pacemaker wire and a stitch, a doctor who told me I was pregnant when I was still a virgin, a doctor who decided that my condition doesn't exist and referred me to a psychiatrist!.

I don't think doctors are incompetent but I do think that they need to be allowed to think outside of the flow charts and patient pathways that they get forced into. I'm 24, I have a pacemaker and I'm on the transplant list for a new heart. That would have happened anyway, nothing can change what I have but it would have been nice to be taken seriously and not treated like an abused child when I first started to get sick.