A&E waiting times

[The Mad Monk]

KingNothing said:

I'm currently going through the same with my GP about my back problems; "how long has it been hurting"; "about 8 years"; "ohh, here's a prescription for co-codomol, come back in 2 weeks if it's not any better", next time it gets really bad, I'm not even going to bother with the GP, just going to go waste myself and A&E's time, currently managing myself with over the counter medicines, with pain and restricted movement still present.

You may well be told "It is not an accident or an emergency, take these pills and see your GP"

[KingNothing]

The Mad Monk said:

KingNothing said:

I'm currently going through the same with my GP about my back problems; "how long has it been hurting"; "about 8 years"; "ohh, here's a prescription for co-codomol, come back in 2 weeks if it's not any better", next time it gets really bad, I'm not even going to bother with the GP, just going to go waste myself and A&E's time, currently managing myself with over the counter medicines, with pain and restricted movement still present.

You may well be told "It is not an accident or an emergency, take these pills and see your GP"

Probably. Not much else left for me to try though, GP is less than useless.

[Sway]

loafer123 said:

Beautifully drawn, and I agree with your clarification.

I am, however, concerned that we are discharging about 130% of people?

It's a non linear y axis...

[1602Mark]

KingNothing said:

The Mad Monk said:

KingNothing said:

I'm currently going through the same with my GP about my back problems; "how long has it been hurting"; "about 8 years"; "ohh, here's a prescription for co-codomol, come back in 2 weeks if it's not any better", next time it gets really bad, I'm not even going to bother with the GP, just going to go waste myself and A&E's time, currently managing myself with over the counter medicines, with pain and restricted movement still present.

You may well be told "It is not an accident or an emergency, take these pills and see your GP"

Probably. Not much else left for me to try though, GP is less than useless.

See another. Ask for a second opinion.

[Sway]

1602Mark said:

KingNothing said:

The Mad Monk said:

KingNothing said:

I'm currently going through the same with my GP about my back problems; "how long has it been hurting"; "about 8 years"; "ohh, here's a prescription for co-codomol, come back in 2 weeks if it's not any better", next time it gets really bad, I'm not even going to bother with the GP, just going to go waste myself and A&E's time, currently managing myself with over the counter medicines, with pain and restricted movement still present.

You may well be told "It is not an accident or an emergency, take these pills and see your GP"

Probably. Not much else left for me to try though, GP is less than useless.

See another. Ask for a second opinion.

Or, firmly but politely ask what exactly the doc expects to happen in two weeks of painkillers that hasn't been saved by years of the same sporadic treatment? Then to suggest an actual investigation into cause, rather than treatment of symptoms.

It's amazing how different your experience is at a GPs, if you lead with "I'm covered fully by private healthcare, here are my symptoms"...

[Brave Fart]

KingNothing said:

Two examples of GP's achieving nothing

This I think is an important issue: what is the point of GP's? As General Practitioners they know next to nothing about a given specific condition.
I waited three weeks for an appointment; when seen, the GP mis-diagnosed my serious heart condition that later required A&E attendance and admittance to the cardiac ward for one week. My wife was told by the GP that she was about to miscarry; our daughter was born six months later perfectly healthy. When I ruptured my achilles tendon the GP told me to rest; it later needed fixing with surgery.

GP practices must cost the NHS a fortune, and yet mine is closed at weekends, never has appointments, has the rudest front desk staff you can imagine, seems to confuse an arm with an elbow, and if anything tricky arises they say "oh, I'll refer you to a proper doctor" in effect. Or they fail to diagnose an obvious problem. Great.

Suppose we replaced general practice with drop in centres, staffed by nurse practitioners or similar, and diverted the funds to A&E and to proper hospitals staffed by doctors who actually know something; must be worth a try as a pilot or something? The current GP system just isn't fit for purpose, in my opinion.

Finally, a friend's daughter is studying medicine at Birmingham Uni - she reports that only three of her whole year group are considering general practice - it is seen as "not proper medicine" by the students.

[loafer123]

A lot of the diagnosis element of General Practice is now being replaced with algorithms and AI, which should change how they work and, along with the use of prescribing nurses and paramedics, make the waiting times and service quality much better.

[MG CHRIS]

To the op who thinks the fault is all boris and the evil tories you should come to wales. The nhs here is controlled by labour and is devolved to the assembly. It spends more money per person than in England yet its rates and record is appalling so no its not all the nasty tories and boris.
Its an overweight over blotted system which needs a massive reform however nobody will do it as if anyone dares touch it you have screams of you cant sell our nhs and all it needs is more money. Complex problems needs complex solution however that is frightening to people so we go back to its needs more money bla bla bla.
The one thing that really needs a massive change is the social care having going through it with my nan at the moment ive never seen a more appallingly bad service where it seems nobody talks to each other.