Doctor First - Or should it be patient last?

Loanranger

The elephant in the room is the increased population. More and more of us expect a free of chrage NHS, for it to be available on tap and to be able to offer all the latest, expensive, procedures and drug therapies on request.
The GPs who 'only' earn £56 k a year are only working part time. A surgery near me has several who earn £100 k plus.
Many women are attracted to general practice because of the part time hours, they can specify exactly what hours they will work.

brook2jack

Actually £56,700 is the average salary for a salaried gp working full time.
The £100,000 figure would be partners in a practice . The vast majority of younger gps are salaried.

Undervalued

brook2jack wrote: »

Part of the problem is the number of times per year , on average, a patient sees a gp has more than doubled in the last decade.

On average each patient registered at a practice sees a gp 7 times a year and this is creeping up year by year. The rates for seeing nurses in practice are also creeping up year by year.

Ah, that is interesting.

So if, like me, the number of visits has halved or more (fortunately) then I can feel double aggrieved!

Add that to the practice having fewer doctors and seemingly unable to recruit no doubt explains the meltdown situation I am experiencing.

What is harder to understand is why they are struggling to recruit in what would appear to be a decent setup in a reasonably desirable city? I would have thought many other areas would struggle far more?

My other question was if anybody had any views on the private GP appointments offered by some of the private hospital groups (e.g 30mins for £100). Also if such an appointment led to lots of more extensive tests etc how easy would it be to switch back into the NHS system?

brook2jack

They struggle to recruit because very few graduate doctors are choosing to go into gp practice. Around 20% of gp training posts are unfilled and this has been a trend for several years.

Why? In the words of a GP

People will only jump through the multiple hoops if the rewards are worth it - there used to be job satisfaction and rewards - anyone with an ounce of intelligence is going to steer well clear.
Impossible job/ high risk stress/ physical and mental health problems
Low rewards financial and job satisfaction
High risk of complaints leading to public humiliation posted on the Internet / Gmc hearings / risk of manslaughter
Risk of bankruptcy if u are a partner
Over regulation
It was never like this how sad
It's gone to far now we are at tipping point - don't get trapped

MoneySeeker1

brook2jack wrote: »

Part of the problem is the number of times per year , on average, a patient sees a gp has more than doubled in the last decade.

On average each patient registered at a practice sees a gp 7 times a year and this is creeping up year by year. The rates for seeing nurses in practice are also creeping up year by year.

I didn't know that - which would all help lead to a "perfect storm" - between extra visits, fewer gp's and increasing population. No wonder there are problems.

Does the info. that says people are seeing gp's more than normal these days indicate why? I'd be interested to know whether it's people being more ill on average than they used to be, people being more "cautious" than they used to be or employers demanding medical certificates to be off work ill (ie where they previously took employees' word for it more)?

Seven times a year is a lot. I'm now sitting here trying to figure out how often I see a gp and I think it's been twice that I've asked to in the last 6 years and I had to swop to a new doctors practice about 2 years ago and haven't been there yet (except to tell them I'd chosen to swop to them and fill in forms to do so).

brook2jack

If you want to understand this is an excellent document to read https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/default/files/field/field_publication_file/Understanding-GP-pressures-Kings-Fund-May-2016.pdf

To pr!cis

More patients with complex medical conditions
40% of all consultations about mental health and rising
People making appointments for trivial , self limiting conditions
People not willing to wait for results, consultations rising expectations
Moving care from hospitals back to gp care
More non medical work eg sick notes
More preventative work eg greater number vaccinations
Greater administrative burden

Etc

Tallaght

I always book online and manage to get an appointment.Most doctors have only a 10 minute consultation time slot per patient.

Dymphna60

@ undervalued
If you decide to go down private route would you come back at a later date with update?

Undervalued

Tallaght wrote: »

I always book online and manage to get an appointment.Most doctors have only a 10 minute consultation time slot per patient.

That is exactly how my surgery used to operate until it all started to degenerate about two years ago.

Similarly ten minute appointments which, for many issues, is not enough leading to very late running. This is why I suspect (with all respect to Brook's earlier comment) they must sometimes be glad of a few "no shows" to catch up.

Many years ago when I needed the GP quite a lot I was granted a few 20 min appointments but these had to be booked manually with the GPs special permission.

brook2jack

Undervalued, gps and dentists are paid in very different ways.

Dentists are paid nothing at all except when a patient undergo treatment, so every no show means there is nothing to pay the expenses of the practice . Moreover no shows means any problems will be worse and emergency appointments are more likely to be needed throwing time keeping into chaos.

GPS have some practice expenses paid and are paid a set amount , each year, to look after patients , so don't direct lose out financially if a patient doesn't turn up, however it may mean they don't meet their targets and 10 minutes per appointment doesn't give a lot of time to catch up.