I’m glad it worked out for you.;-)
Far far too many horror stories all around the country for them not to be true, just wish we could all live near pats as her service seems pretty good ! 
THANK-YOU Lilac … Reading some of this thread others have not been so lucky…but it’s so difficult to know what to do …if I was able to go along with the first consultant …which is probably what I would have done!..it would have been the wrong thing to do… for me…we are all human… doctors consultants everyone…and make errors of judgement …sad for some …but thats just the way it is…
Me too, according to my GP in 1974!
I’d had a fall off 10 feet tall steps up to a Hercules aircraft I was working on and fell on part of the undercarriage - right on the base of my spine.
I still remember the appalling pain and partial paralysis for about an hour and it turned out I’d done a fair bit of damage but I listened to a physiotherapist rather than my doctor - just as well in the end.
May I just add here that I see that the government is now considering, or about to bring in yet more “league tables” to name-and-shame GPs failing to diagnose Cancers.
This is just plain wrong in my opinion!
They want GPs to take the pressure off hospital A&E departments, with no attention at all given to the funding problems they already have and now they want to kick GPs in the teeth with more bureaucracy and humiliation?!
IMHO Jeremy Hunt should have stayed as Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport!
We need someone with a medical background at the very least, not someone obviously more intent on the political power ladder! stevmk2
Couldn’t agree more, and bad as cancer is many people are living with debilitating things that can fairly easily be corrected lets see some of them targeted for a change.
Not sure that GP’s detect cancer do they its usually done by a consultant after biops or scans as was my case.
Good point caricature - hadn’t thought of that but I think you’re right.
What’s occurred to me too is, if this new “league / listing” goes ahead, are we going to see doctors & consultants default to a more positive identification of Cancers just to cover themselves, as some Cancers are, apparently, notoriously difficult to diagnose?
That could cause far more problems and costs would spiral out of control in my opinion.
I’d be interested in a more informed opinion. stevmk2
Well Julie, like everyone else I can only speak as I find, but in our county things are far from perfect.
You are correct.
A GP may ‘suspect’ cancer going by your signs and symptoms and then will refer for for investigations i.e blood tests, scans etc.
I think that is where maybe the scare stories of not detecting cancers come from,there might be symptoms signs that may need further investigation which might not get referred up the ladder.
I can’t see how the doctors in my health centre can diagnose anything…there is a 10 minute slot…after that it is byeee!!
We only get 5 minutes barely time to say hello how are you and take a seat.
This I have heard before lilac and also that they will only discuss one problem only.:shock:
We have as much time as is needed to discuss any problems.
Yes…you have enough time to tell the doc what is happening…and how you feel…it is like a self-diagnosis…no examination…watching the clock go to 9 minutes…and come out with a hastily scribbled prescription!!
let’s get on an even keel shall we and we can only speak as we find. I have an excellent doctor, he has a jovial manner and I always manage to come out with a laugh - he sits infront of his pc and has my full medical history before him - can read it accurately and very quickly - I don’t go to see him for counselling [he has a counselling service attached to the practice for that] - he deal with my immediate medical concerns - he only needs 10mins as I do to update me and he also runs a busy practice and has lots of others to see who are anxious to see him. A counselling session usually takes between 30-60 mins because of the nature and need of that interaction - doctors do medical not counselling
we have a ten minute slot but we can make a double appointment when necessary which I did recently, it gave me lots of time to talk to him and I had a lot to say!
Who said anything about counselling ? 5 minutes isn’t long enough to deal with even a medication review
I have meds for High blood pressure, allergies including epipens and steroids and anti histamines, anti shaking tabs, painkillers, vitamin K and hormone meds. Most lately my appointments have been about fibroid which is making my life bit of a misery. I don’t want a chat although a hello please take a seat seems minimum of politeness, not asking for anything other than medical advice and to know the meds I am taking are still needed.
I haven’t seen anyone else here say anything about counselling either !
At the surgery that I go to it’s the same - 10 minutes only and that’s supposed to apply to just one ailment but I think that all depends on the workload and the amount of patients either in the surgery or due-in for an appointment, although how they actually get appointments is a mystery to me at times!
I obviously do not know about other practices, apart from my wife’s, which is different, but everyone that I know says that their doctors restrict the time allowed so I actually asked one of the nurses that came yesterday and she said that as far as she knows, 90% of GPs do this in Milton Keynes.
With my own doctor and the practise that I use they do have a lot of problems with some patients from foreign countries.
We have a large number of Bangladeshi people around here and many of them come from rural parts of Bangladesh where doctors are a luxury so when they get to the UK, the more recent arrivals will trot along to the doctor for simple ailments that most of us self-medicate, like coughs and colds, mild eczema, and athlete’s foot.
My doctor’ actually told me that and he said it’s very difficult for some of them to understand the principles of asking someone other than a doctor for minor ailments and - strangely - they tend to trust doctors far more than anyone else!
My doctor’s Bangladeshi - from Glasgow! - and he is pretty good and his “bedside manner” is better than some I’ve met, including his own father but the problems of patients who go along about minor ailments is quite serious to both the practises my doctor attends.
Both practises are at the top limit of patients and many, many other practises are the same in MK, so much so that some are not accepting any more patients at all so the pressure then reverts to the one hospital we have - which was originally supposed to handle just 70,000 people!
We have something like 220,000 here now so it’s only going to get worse! stevmk2
This concept of alotting only a specific and limited amount of time per patient is foreign to me. Here, the doc’s office manager schedules appointments for the day… You go at your specified time and usually you end up waiting an hour to see him. BUT once you get into his office, you take as much time as you need, and you get to discuss anything and everything that is of medical concern to you. There is no specified amount of time. The doc stays until his waiting room is empty and no more patients are scheduled. So seeing a doc and getting the Bums Rush is not something I have dealt with. Sure… it’s a pain to sit and wait, but knowing that when I get to see him I will have the time I need to satisfy my health concerns is worth the wait.
We still have to wait ! last time I was there I waited 3/4 hour for my 5 minutes. Yes they stay until finished but they don’t arrive on time usually so we are always running late.