“Joe Bloggs probably doesn’t go to the doctors because he knows that

Comment on General Election 2010 Poll Results by David.

“Joe Bloggs probably doesn’t go to the doctors because he knows that he probably won’t get an appointment for at least 5 days, will sit in a waiting room with a load of ill people coughing and spluttering all over the place, feeling hacked off with the doctor who rushed him because he only had 7 minutes allotted to him and forgot to tell him about that other thing which he will now have to make a separate appointment for!”

You just made that all up Sarah as it’s not the GP service I and my family use on a regular basis.

I’ve a long term disability that had me back and forth to my various GPs for almost 20 years. Add to that having a wife and three kids (which 90% of the time I go with when they visit the surgery) and the normal sort of trips to GP surgeries etc… and I’ve spent more than my fair share of time seeing various GPs: moved quite a bit and since 20 have been part of 6 GP surgeries with at least double that amount of GPs. Even had a vasectomy at a GP surgery and a toe nail partially removed (that was awful, the injections to supposedly numb pain hurt like hell!).

Not one of the GPs or GP surgeries I went to could be described as you’ve described them Sarah. Each one had their own system, but all of them had the option if it was an emergency to see a GP that day.

We’ve called out doctors out of hours on possible emergencies (young parents = panic at baby with a cold :-)).

The best (though worst for me) GP system I used was you’d turn up unannounced and wait your turn (first come, first served). Tended to be an hour wait, though if you went at a non busy time 10 minutes. This was terrible for me as sitting/standing in a waiting room for an hour hurts my back, but for others they could get to see a GP within an hour of turning up. So if a patient decided they need to see a GP, they’ve probably seen a GP that day with that surgery.

Surgery we are with now you phone in the morning to book an appointment, if it’s an emergency they fit you in. If non urgent and no non emergency appointments available you can try the following day or book a day/time in advance (they prefer calling on the day). This surgery is also very open to using the phone for a consultation, which has been really useful for me as over the last few years I couldn’t travel to the surgery much. I had surgery on my back 12 months ago and all my GP consultations since have been over the phone.

I don’t recall a single GP limiting us to 7 minutes, quite the opposite, I’ve had consultations taking over 20 minutes without feeling rushed and chatting about life in general: almost every time we’d explain our kids are home educated and they’d try to covertly quiz them (check they aren’t illiterate), we’d have GPs etc… telling us they should look into going into the health service**!

** Pet peeve of mine and the wife, when we take the kids to the doctors or something we’d research what might be wrong beforehand, discuss with the kids etc… so they knew what might be wrong. We’d explain what we thought to the GP etc… and the kids would then repeat what we’d explained to them earlier. We’d have GPs thinking our kids are medical geniuses in waiting, very funny!

Two of my kids have needed emergency treatment (requiring hospital treatment) after visiting a GP and in both cases it was arranged immediately: we drove straight from the GP to the hospital where everything was in place ready.

A GP thought my wife might have an ectopic pregnancy (fortunately the GP was wrong), but she arranged for a consultation the following morning at around 8am. The consultant my wife saw went in early to fit the appointment in.

I’ve seen the improvements over the years, under the Conservatives I waited over 6 months to see a rheumatologist for the first time (suspected I might have ankylosing spondylitis, fortunately I didn’t) followed by a further 3+ months wait for the results of basic blood tests, followed by another 3+ month wait for a bone scan and another 3+ months to see the consultant again for the results. It took over 2 years just to rule out arthritis, by which time I’d been out of University for 2 years and was no closer to going back to finish my final year of a degree!

The health service is far from perfect, but it’s not like you describe it Sarah and it’s not the NHS the Conservatives almost destroyed with their lack of investment.

David