NHS dors work too

I agree with you GillT57. I live in a Conservative stronghold and the availability of GP appointments is dire. Private GPs are popping up all over the place and I've had a number of people tell me how wonderful they are. All very good, but I seriously couldn't afford it, especially as I'd have to pay for any medications and referrals.

Growstuff the problems you outline are being made worse by a lot of people's inability to see what is going on and why, how many of those same people who grumble about not being able to get a GP appointment will vote Tory on Thursday? Throw in a little bit of victim blaming as well, suggest that GPs get paid so much that they can 'afford' to work part time, tell people in pain that if they had only been thrifty and saved up for their surgery they could have it done privately..........we all recognise the symptoms of a failing system. Sorry to hear of your ill health as a result of teaching, I worry about my DD and she is still young and childless.

What tips would you pass on to "failing" hospitals Sussexborn? My understanding is that hospitals are failing for a whole host of reasons.

At the election hustings this week, the Conservative candidate said the problem at A&E was "demand" (which isn't actually true). She said people shouldn't go to A&E if they're ill. The problem is that people can't get GP appointments and there isn't a 24/7 walk in centre (none at weekends). It also has high numbers of people coming from care homes and those living on their own, who have fallen or have breathing difficulties.

The problem is that the whole social and healthcare system is being starved of funds, the population is ageing and, is on average, more frail.

In any case rubysong, after training for ten years (or what whatever it is now), I think people deserve to be able to live a reasonable life, even if they work "part-time".

I know GillT57. I was a teacher - not a young one either and I was was working before work and into the small hours - no fun as a single parent of two young children.

I burnt myself out literally. I had a breakdown and, a little later, a heart attack, so stopped. My GP friend has told me she's seen that happen to too many people and she doesn't want it to happen to her.

My GP practice has mostly part-timers. In addition to the reasons given by JaneA, my surgery premises is just in an ordinary house so very crowded and cramped. If there was funding for more staff, they would not fit in.

If you phoned my GP you would almost certainly not get through. You would redial for about 30 mins and then be offered an appointment for 3 weeks time. You can book online, waiting time is the same. If you are an emergency then you can try to get through at 8 am. However unless you are lucky you can't get through - see above. They suggest you to a and e.

Rubysong All of our local GPs work part time. They are obviously earning enough to live well on two or three days work a week. As a result there are long waits to see a particular doctor who may know 'the whole story'. If they all worked full time it would not be such a problem.

You are making a lot of harsh judgments there. How on earth do you know what those doctors are doing when they’re not at the practice?
Perhaps they are young parents who are job-sharing because they want to devote some of their time to a young family.
Perhaps they have a part-time hospital appointment so they can further their knowledge and experience so that ultimately they’ll be providing a better service to people like you.
Perhaps they’re taking time out to sit for higher qualifications, with the same aim.
Perhaps they’re content to earn a part-time salary to achieve a reasonable work-life balance.

Finally, your last sentence assumes that if they all worked in practice full-time, the Government would commit the funds to pay them. In your dreams

Growstuff your GP colleague working at home, unpaid, on her non rota days is how the NHS keeps going. My DD, a young teacher, works at least 3-4 hours per day before or after school, plus at least one afternoon at the weekend, thus making her hourly rate rubbish ( and illegal) It is the exploitation of people like my DD and your GP friend, and most NHS staff which keeps the creaking system going, and still people want more, want better services, without being prepared to pay the additional taxes necessary to provide these essential services for all of us.

Had excellent treatment at www.uhcw.nhs.uk/
My September appt was 9am. I was see promptly, collected chemo type cream from pharmacy, and out just after 10am.

Latest appt this week on Wednesday was at 10 so half expected a longer wait. Seen just after 10 by a very kind and caring doctor. Best news! Aldara had worked!

My next follow up appointment, in six months time, arrived on Friday morning.

Wouldn’t exactly be rocket science to use the excelling hospitals as a template for the failing ones.

GracesGran I have no objection to technology, but yes I do want continuity of care, which can't happen with remote tele-medicine or widespread use of locums. GP practices are being encouraged to use more physiotherapists, clinical phramacists, nurse practitioners, etc as a cheap alternative to GP consulting. That's all very well for certain acute conditions, but not if people have ongoing, chronic conditions.

Researchers have shown that patient outcome is better when they have continuity of care.

I don't think there is any doubt that, like teachers, doctors want to live in pleasant and well-served areas. You often find that older reporters of their experience and some of the younger ones, don't like change - not being able to see "their own" doctor, not wanting to use technology, etc.

But there is without a doubt a shortage of GPs and huge pressure on those working in the surgeries.

rubysong The problem is finding GPs to fill vacancies. My surgery has had a vacancy for a partner since the former one retired nearly two years ago. There has also been a vacancy for a salaried GP for a year. The vacancies are covered by locums, who cost more and don't provide continuity of care.

A friend of mine is a GP, who works (is paid for) three days a week. She has told me she arrives every morning an hour before she's paid to be there, so she can go through paperwork which has built up. Sometimes I've popped in to see her during the evening and she's still phoning patients at home long after surgery has closed. Apparently she does that, so that she can talk to patients without being constantly interrupted. I know she usually overruns the time for surgeries because many patients take more than ten minutes. She's working a 13/14 hour day. A 39/42 hour week is as much as most people work.

For many I think the answer to that is 24/7 hazel93, or whenever I want to see them!

What do you call full time exactly ? My GP works 3 days a week, 11 hours a day, to see as many patients as possible she leaves the admin., unless urgent, for the next day. In a good week that means another 7 - 8 hours work on her days off.
I call that full time.

All of our local GPs work part time. They are obviously earning enough to live well on two or three days work a week. As a result there are long waits to see a particular doctor who may know 'the whole story'. If they all worked full time it would not be such a problem.

I don't think that's silly at all MOnica. I refuse point blank to see the nurse practitioners because I find them so patronising. I don't go to the GP very often, but when I do, it's because I'm at my wit's end with some symptom or other. I'm diabetic and that's how the nurse practitioner thinks of me - everything is put down to diabetes. She doesn't have the training to associate symptoms with any other condition. I get a lecture which I could read about in any of the NHS published literature, delivered in a way that one would speak to a child or (as you say) reserved for doddery old ladies, who supposedly have lost their minds.

How to privatise a public service: starve it of funds so people have to pay for good service. Then fully privatise the service while extolling the virtues of free market competition. It worked with the railways, water etc. Why should the NHS be any different.
PS Boris lies - in case anyone hasn't realised this!

I was sitting in a coffee shop, about a month ago, and happened to be next to a final year medical student. She was having a (loud) Skype chat with a friend.

The young lady was very well spoken, clearly quite middle class. She spoke of her distaste for the patients at the GP practise she was working at. She decried the work load.

Mainly, what she talked about was how, as soon as she finished training she was going to hot foot it abroad to work.

NOW, I know this makes me a hypocrite. I'm a teacher and I've worked abroad and am going to work abroad again. BUT the main reason I'm going to do this is because I can't get a permanent job in the UK due to the seniority of my point on the pay scale.

What shocked me was that this girl was publically rude about her patients and her willingness to take OUT of the British system and put nothing back in. The exact opposite, in fact, of many of our overseas trained nurses and doctors.

? Of course it works, be no point at all otherwise. Can it work better is the question. The answer to that question is yes. Very very much yes.

I admit it is silly but what completely undermined my conficence in the nurse practioner was that she kept using the word 'bless' in every sentence, said in that patronising tone use for older women that implies that the person you are speaking to sees you as some half witted old dear, to be dealt with quickly and cheaply and bustled out of the surgery.

Money is stealthily being siphoned off to privatisation.

Tooting "Ask your GP" is a private triage service, which GP practices pay for. It's not available across the country, although most GP practices do now have arrangements for triaging.

There have been a number of complaints at my practice about it because patients (especially those with chronic conditions and terminal illnesses) don't feel they're getting an appropriate and adequate service.

I agree with you MOnica. That's the way things are going. Phone consultations are not the answer.