General Chat

My GP does have a downside. Due to the close proximity of the University and the
Polytechnic they have a huge number of foreign patient on their list, with a duration of perhaps two years.
Life time patients have to wait a week or more to see their Doctor, while the students
get seen pretty quickly. I'd guess they are on a preferred list, in health check, out.

The Doctors have a communication problem with some of them. They may be able to speak Latin, or a little French, but what about Urdu, Hindu, Cantonese ?

:-S

'In times gone by, doctors accepted that people often died of old age'.

Since the beginning of this year, our surgery has been operating a phone triage system if someone wants a same day appointment. Not sure how well that one works. No wonder so many people clog up A&E with 'minor' complaints.

Last year a friend had a reoccurrence of a problem and phoned wanting a prescription. The receptionist insisted she made an appointment...in 3 weeks time. By the time they'd finished their discussion, the next available one was 3 weeks plus 2 days. :-(

They've also been locking the doors between 1 & 2 so now you can't even collect/drop off prescription forms or make an appointment in person. With more than one receptionist, they could easily stagger their lunch breaks.

An increasing population, the Baby Boomers well into retirement with age related problems, the current crop of GPs retiring and not enough new ones entering the profession.

Because of the increasing persuation on non qualified drug company representatives
(there is undoubtedly a commercial interest) Doctors with little time to talk to a patient can and maybe do treat them with Valium and Prozac which quickly turns the patient into an addict, repeat prescriptions treating an addiction, not the presented symptom.

'Doctors surgeries are losing the equivalent of one GP per week because patients do not show up for appointments, an MP has warned.

Around 12 million appointments are missed each year, costing the NHS £160 million'.

{Daily Telegraph}.