GPonline - Latest Comments

Re: Hospitalised GP left screaming all night in ordeal that highlights NHS crisis

Christopher Heath — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 04:19:06 -0000

I agree with most of my colleagues above. Certainly our attitudes to caring for other doctors has changed. Treating each other for free and squeezing colleagues and family members in early was a perk of the job. The only perk. It used to be seen as a reimbursement for the inhuman hours and the family unfriendly lives we chose to lead in order to put patients first. Now we have part timism and the Working Time Directive and doctor’s striking over a 48 hour week. Tell new doctors about one in two rotas and they just laugh. Oddly though, care for patients and each other was clearly better then. No patient let alone a colleague would have been treated like this. Where was the ward SHO, the Staff Nurse, why couldn’t someone write this poor chap up for adequate pain relief ? I accept we need to hear both sides Dr Glasspool but if you ar a GP in Practice you will have heard this awful story many times and it’s getting more common. The odd thing is, despite accusations of underfunding, we all know that this sort of thing doesn’t happen on some wards, ion some nurses’ watches, in some hospitals.

Re: 'I had to shout, scream and beg for help' - a GP's NHS hospital ordeal

Mark Bloomfield — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 03:54:10 -0000

To be fair, this is a strange story. It is VERY unusual to have an open knee wound connected to a vacuum pump and to be in hospital for four weeks for this.

Maybe the author can give us more detail? Was this on a medical or orthopaedic ward? Was a knee prosthesis from a previous arthroplasty involved? Was there multiple previous / recent surgery to the knee before admission? Does the author have a number of associated medical conditions such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis or something else that may lower immunity? Was author on any other pain medication like tramadol, or an IV NSAID?

Not that this excuses the situation, but maybe gives some context. Personally, I have never understood the extreme reluctance to use opiates for acute pain relief and to up the dose or frequency when required. It is also strange that the hospital concerned did not have a 'pain team'.

Re: Home Office 'asked GP to deliver deportation notice to patient'

david jenkins — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 03:15:12 -0000

send a few patients round to the home office and ask them to check their ecg/spirometry/bp etc etc etc ! see what they say ! this is a gross abuse of their function, whoever initiated this should be publicly named and shamed

Re: Hospitalised GP left screaming all night in ordeal that highlights NHS crisis

Nisam Peder — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 02:29:37 -0000

I want to hear both sides of the story before allowing my BP to rise.

Re: Hospitalised GP left screaming all night in ordeal that highlights NHS crisis

Nisam Peder — Thu, 01 Mar 2018 02:28:28 -0000

I was a GP and I carried DIamorphine UNTIL, post-Shipman the rules changed to make it difficult to impossible to carry the stuff. Like, having to show my e register of ampoules monthly to TWO people to get it signed off, and that if an ampoule went on the floor the then PCT would convene a kangaroo court. I said at the time, "Patients will suffer" and they have. Of course, no one would think about a change of the rules as GPs are all potential mass-murderers. Think about it, Shipman may have killed 250 people but HItler and Stalin between them killed probably over 40 million. It's politicians that are dangerous.

Re: Hospitalised GP left screaming all night in ordeal that highlights NHS crisis

Linda Whittern — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 14:01:38 -0000

Mid Staffs WAS caused largely by inadequate staffing levels, themselves caused by a hospital management too keen to save money and apparently blind to what was happening to patient care.
I don't know enough about the other examples you've quoted to comment.

Re: Home-based BP monitoring helps GPs manage hypertension more effectively, research finds

john ashcroft — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 13:15:43 -0000

This is a very significant study, and reinforces a significant change in practice that should come from the Sprint study. It has already significantly altered US guidance and will no doubt alter NICE guidance with home BP monitoring coming routine.

Re: 'I had to shout, scream and beg for help' - a GP's NHS hospital ordeal

Harish Shah — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 13:11:55 -0000

I agree with you Linda Whittern! The problem is NHS is made to run down by every politicians at HOC, and it will never be the same again until we have a dedicated politician who knows about medicine. as far as this GP is concerned, he is not only unprofessional but I'm sorry to say he is absolutely useless, if he was my family GP I would leave him straight away, why? If I had been his patient, and if screamed like him at his surgery, he would call the police and throw me out.

Re: Satisfaction with GP services hits 35-year low - but remains above most of NHS

john ashcroft — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 12:38:38 -0000

It doesn’t come as a surprise. The failure to invest in GP is coming home to roost.
The money has been promised but so was a new contract.
Without a new contract that properly funds increased work the prospects look dire.

Re: Satisfaction with GP services hits 35-year low - but remains above most of NHS

john ashcroft — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 12:29:54 -0000

I’ve just a patie

Re: Hospitalised GP left screaming all night in ordeal that highlights NHS crisis

Harish Shah — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 12:14:22 -0000

Even NHS is run by IBA (Investors, Bankers and Accountants) who have no qualifications, even if they do have any qualifications, it is all "you scratch my back, I scratch yours".

Re: Hospitalised GP left screaming all night in ordeal that highlights NHS crisis

Harish Shah — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 12:10:19 -0000

This is not NHS, but hospitals run by investors, Bankers and Accountants. Can this GP name the hospital? Find out who the Chairperson and CEO's are, bet you none of them are doctors. Suffice to say Like Hospitals, like GP's and the trend continues. Name one privatised firms like British Rail doing good. I blame the politicians i.e. 560 MP's as a matter of fact whole load of them.

Re: Hospitalised GP left screaming all night in ordeal that highlights NHS crisis

JudgeDread — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 12:00:11 -0000

Not news, this is an allegation and you should present it as such. You are assuming the absolute veracity on the basis of the complainant being a GP. It may be true, it may be exaggerated. Strange that “anonymous” wants the World to know about it. Would he or she like allegations about his/her practice to be widely aired? I somehow doubt it

Re: Satisfaction with GP services hits 35-year low - but remains above most of NHS

Harry Longman — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 09:53:02 -0000

This is a sharp deterioration but it's tragic to see the knee jerk response from GP leaders, simply shifting the blame onto others. "Give us more money to do more of the same." They've repeated this endlessly year after year. It isn't good enough. Reflect - how could we, the responsible and trusted professionals, do better?

Re: Hospitalised GP left screaming all night in ordeal that highlights NHS crisis

Subhash Bhatt — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 09:00:46 -0000

in my medical school days we had professional brotherhood spirit and always looked after our colleagues. even in uk in past we could talk to consultant about our colleague and they would even agree to see them privately without charging fee. I never charged any private fee to medical staff. now if consultant see patient (dr) they may be accused of jumping Q.

Re: Oliver Giles: Why I'm choosing general practice

DALJIT SAUND — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 07:47:28 -0000

Commendable ideals. I hope you realise them and practice them throughout your career. However, you may find the System frustrating in reality - be prepared! The Family Doctor practice in the house at the end of your street is long gone. Doctors' surgeries are now mini hospitals where the patient is directed to the next available GP or by way of their ailment, for the standard 10 minute consultation. (Worse; sent to A&E!) Not uncommon for the patient to walk into the consultation room when the GP does not even look at him/her, but the screen and bashes out a prescription on the keyboard. There is no scope for 'continuity' or context; it is but a discrete consultation. As for home visits; history! We need people like you to reverse this this trend.

Re: Hospitalised GP left screaming all night in ordeal that highlights NHS crisis

Maureen Hume — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 07:11:27 -0000

This is precisely what happened to my late husband in a major London teaching hospital in 1997. Whilst an independent review was held after his death nothing changed according to others I met. I did not want money - I wanted improvement and so ..............

Re: Exclusive: Referral scrutiny delaying care

Dr Bashir Qureshi FRCGP,FRCPCH — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 07:08:24 -0000

Referral management centers are two edge swords, these can not only undermine GPs' professionalism and the doctor-patient relationship, resulting in patients real sufferings, even deaths, but also cut down the Hospital Consultant services who can only exist on GP referrals. Decision makers, please be kind enough to negotiate honestly and tactfully with GPs rather than punish them.
Dr Bashir Qureshi FRCGP. Author of Transcultural Medicine.

Re: Referral management scheme rejects one in three GP referrals

Dr Bashir Qureshi FRCGP,FRCPCH — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 07:06:44 -0000

GPs are under attack, in my opinion, intentionally by the decision makers who wish to cut down the size and performance of GP service in the UK for genuine national economic reasons.

Some lead researchers have certain aims and research findings in surveys can be made to fit their aims, these surveys are only sometimes reliable, not always. I seem to know that media is often impartial and constructive.

Re: Hospitalised GP left screaming all night in ordeal that highlights NHS crisis

Christopher Heath — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 07:04:12 -0000

I have asked two post graduate meetings I attended recently which GPs still carried morphine. At both it was about 10%. When I started GP 33 years ago it was nearer 100%. This is all due to professional cowardice and fear of being accused of being a Shipman. These awful stories are common. We should all carry injectable pain relief if only to protect our families and friends from suffering in hospital???? I had a patient with a dislocated hip who had nothing but Etonox for hours That is why only vets can call themselves humane these days

Re: RCGP calls for 'ethically questionable' referral management centres to be scrapped

Dr Bashir Qureshi FRCGP,FRCPCH — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 07:02:14 -0000

The RCGP Chair pf Council Prof Helen Stokes-Lampard is right in defending GPs who are under attack, in my opinion, intentionally by the decision makers who wish to cut down the size and performance of GP service in the UK for genuine national economic reasons.

Re: Hospitalised GP left screaming all night in ordeal that highlights NHS crisis

Christopher Heath — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 06:57:23 -0000

Haven’t you heard of Mid Staffs, Cardiff, Colwyn Bay the Liverpool pathway and all the other failures of nursing and doctoring? These weren’t due to staffing levels but a lack of commitment and vocation
and too much administration. Ask the GP whether the staff could have got hold of pain relief and administered it promptly, presumably a 5 minute job or how long it would have taken them to remove the dirty dressings from his room. Were they really too busy?
Let’s be honest. The NHS is failing all over the place and funding is only one cause. (See “Essays on Good Practice”
ISBN 978 1 78222 482 2)

Re: 'I had to shout, scream and beg for help' - a GP's NHS hospital ordeal

Masood Majoka — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 06:51:39 -0000

shocking but believable!!

Re: 'I had to shout, scream and beg for help' - a GP's NHS hospital ordeal

Linda Whittern — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 06:46:41 -0000

I'm delighted you had good treatment in Hull - your experience should be what everyone receives. Increasingly, it's not.
An example relevant to this GP's awful experience, though community-based:-
Because the local community hospital delivering palliative care (that patients' relatives rated as 'excellent') is under an STP threat of closure, a patient with terminal cancer was sent to receive "home first" care. The GP was so overworked he couldn't visit oftener than once a week, the assigned nurse wasn't qualified to prescribe or put in place the pain control relief needed. That patient endured days of agony, only relieved in the last few hours before she died.
Even if the patient's family had been stroppy enough to insist on her being returned to the care of her acute hospital, the hospital had no free beds to offer.
Collectively as patients, medics and voters, I think we need to tell government they MUST do better. We all depend on the NHS to deliver decent healthcare services when we need them.

Re: Hospitalised GP left screaming all night in ordeal that highlights NHS crisis

Sheree Hemingway — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 06:42:30 -0000

I am still traumatised from the 4 hours I spent crawling round the floor of local A&E waiting room in abject, off the scale, agony, begging for pain relief, after my dog managed to smack me in the mouth with her muzzle, smashing into my top front (crowned) tooth. It sheared at the root, but was hanging on by the nerve. I cannot even begin to describe the pain, and in spite of my husband begging anyone and everyone for some pain relief, I had nothing, and relief only came when the tooth root / crown came away completely. If you've seen Marathon Man - THAT pain, constantly, for four hours.........