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This is a link post Chris Morris explains the state of General Practice at the LMC conference
Thought my fellow B3ta GPs would enjoy this, delighted to learn that my favourite comedian is such a strong advocate for General Practice.
(I helped save b3ta! 2 Can Chunder Word to your mums, I came to prod bums, Thu 25 May 2023, 23:06, , Reply)
This is a normal post Great stuff.
Speaking as a patient, I'd love a return of face-to-face GP appointments. If the receptionist grudgingly allocates you a phone call after running through their flow chart, it's so impersonal, and from someone different every time, half of whom end the call as soon as they possibly can. Been years since I was granted a physical visit, but I think I used to be seen for anything up to 20 minutes. Lucky to get five minutes for a call. But I suspect our practice is ridiculously oversubscribed now, since the nearest two shut down.
 (I helped save b3ta! Turtle Power https://fb.watch/kUNqFc8qaY/, Thu 25 May 2023, 23:56, , Reply)
This is a normal post I still do as many face to face appointments as I did five years ago
Far more in fact.
GP appointment demand has gone up over 20% just in the last three years though and the administrative burden has increased far more than that. We cover 14500 patients, up a thousand from a couple of years ago. Staff sickness has also massively increased with six of my colleagues off ill over the past couple of months, two off on maternity leave and one on long term sick due to burnout. We're trying to book as much locum cover as we can but availability is limited.
I started my on call at 8 this morning and finished seeing patients at 2.15pm going late into my afternoon surgery which started at 2pm and finishing at about half seven before finally going home to eat something and then start on my blood results and letters.

Higher demand and fewer doctors means waits for a routine appointment are now five weeks. The reason the receptionists seem grudging is they literally have no appointments left to book patients into. It's the same at my wife's practice, it's the same at my friend's practices, we haven't been able to get appointments for my children with our registered GP.

I know it's just as shit for other public services, the country is fucked.
 (I helped save b3ta! 2 Can Chunder Word to your mums, I came to prod bums, Fri 26 May 2023, 0:14, , Reply)
This is a normal post Is increasing NI the answer to get more cash in, or are there just not enough medical staff about?

(I helped save b3ta! Turtle Power https://fb.watch/kUNqFc8qaY/, Fri 26 May 2023, 0:28, , Reply)
This is a normal post Voting Labour is the answer. We can't afford the cost of Conservatism, and running the NHS into the ground is the tory plan.
Removing tory incompetence and tory corruption will free up billions of pounds per year (this is not even a joke). We need to pay doctors and nurses at least the same that Australia and NZ are offering, and increase recruitment too.
 (I helped save b3ta! brb redeemed this feature on, Fri 26 May 2023, 0:42, , Reply)
This is a normal post Run it all into the ground, while propping it up with huge contracts for their private sector mates?
Surely not!
 (I helped save b3ta! Turtle Power https://fb.watch/kUNqFc8qaY/, Fri 26 May 2023, 9:39, , Reply)
This is a normal post they will need some proper redistributive fiscal policies mind you
And they will need to sell them properly. An axe needs to be taken to the Murdoch empire basically. On day one. He's ailing now so it's the right time
 (benito vaselini no not that one, Fri 26 May 2023, 10:25, , Reply)
This is a normal post
the
empire
 (I helped save b3ta! Turtle Power https://fb.watch/kUNqFc8qaY/, Fri 26 May 2023, 11:53, , Reply)
This is a normal post National Insurance doesn't pay for the NHS but yes increasing funding is part of the answer.
Staff retention can improved by making staff feel valued rather than getting the media to make them scapegoats for underresourced services not being able to cope with demand, addressing pension and other problems that mean it makes more financial sense for senior clinicians to retire in their 50s than keep working and stop imposing unnecessary workloads and targets to achieve short term political goals.
 (I helped save b3ta! 2 Can Chunder Word to your mums, I came to prod bums, Fri 26 May 2023, 12:03, , Reply)
This is a normal post Maybe you can answer this for me:
Why have I never encountered a competent GP receptionist?
 (I helped save b3ta! jonbob loves you, Fri 26 May 2023, 2:09, , Reply)
This is a normal post They do exist
Our GP's receptionists are on the whole very good, when there are enough of them to be able to answer the phone. I don't know if it's better recruitment or training.
On the other hand, when my wife went to Hastings to stay with family while waiting to have our baby, the GP receptionists behaved like their job was to prevent you from seeing a doctor.
 (I helped save b3ta! tarka_dall Like normal dall, only a bit more spicy, Fri 26 May 2023, 6:46, , Reply)
This is a normal post I think very few people appreciate how difficult and stressful their job is.
Most people assume it's as simple as 'answer the phone, book the appointment'.
Most of the patients ringing in will already be feeling frustrated at having to wait in a queue and often having to make several attempts to contact the surgery for what might seem like a fairly straightforward request. The receptionists are constantly having to apologise for a situation that isn't their fault and trying to manage patient's expectations whilst knowing that often they won't be able to provide a satisfactory resolution eg they either tell the patient that they can't have an appointment that day or they have to explain to an irate clinician why they agreed to give a patient an emergency slot for something that clearly wasn't an emergency.
They have to remember all the various protocols and services and which clinical staff can deal with particular problems, have to make decisions about how urgent things are without having clinical training, are subjected to constant abuse and get paid less than if they worked on a supermarket till.
 (I helped save b3ta! 2 Can Chunder Word to your mums, I came to prod bums, Fri 26 May 2023, 7:35, , Reply)
This is a normal post I really should have reported the two I encountered some years back.
As a patient in the waiting room, they were loudly discussing patient medical details, with names.
 (Pie of Meat ___°¬¯O¯____\o/_____/\_,____Y¯¯Y, Fri 26 May 2023, 15:19, , Reply)
This is a normal post I had some dentist in Pennsylvania send me a patient's entire medical history to my gmail the other day
Not just the teeth, what sort of cancer he's got, his bowel problems the lot
 (benito vaselini no not that one, Fri 26 May 2023, 16:13, , Reply)
This is a normal post You fucking stupid fucking cunt

(The Porcupine From Purgatory Writtern By the Winners, Fri 26 May 2023, 7:56, , Reply)
This is a normal post ODD?

(I helped save b3ta! brb redeemed this feature on, Fri 26 May 2023, 14:41, , Reply)
This is a normal post Having been in a couple of doctors waiting rooms recently, its the patients who are arseholes.
So many people turning up with a headache without an appointment, wanting to see the doctor immediately. There's a pharmacy across the road for fucksake
 (benito vaselini no not that one, Fri 26 May 2023, 10:18, , Reply)
This is a normal post Everyone is entitled to healthcare, even inconsiderate thickos.
At the other end of the spectrum are people dying quietly because they don't want to make a fuss.
 (I helped save b3ta! Turtle Power https://fb.watch/kUNqFc8qaY/, Fri 26 May 2023, 10:42, , Reply)