SBAndy
Well-Known Member
I've found the standard of GPs has dropped massively in recent years. No idea if its related to workload or changes in pay & conditions but its nothing like it used to be.
For 18 years I had the same GP, he's been my parents GP and my Grandparents (on my Dads side) GP. He recognised you when you walked in and knew your family history.
Now I go to my surgery its pot luck of one from an ever changing line up of GPs. They have no clue of your history, to the point if you go in for a follow up appointment they've asked you to make they have no idea why you're there. Just seems to be get you in and out as quickly as possible and if they can give you a few pills even better.
I've got a few ongoing health issues, hopefully nothing major, but I'm at the point where I've looked into going private as even pre-covid getting anything sorted was a nightmare. Going private was pretty quickly ruled out when I saw the cost.
Massively agree on this, and spoke to a doctor recently who is completely disillusioned with it all. The profession seems to take a conveyor belt approach now, and you’ve got 10 minutes to get to the bottom of the problem.
I also wonder how much of it is the general public’s psyche as well - I remember watching a documentary called ‘The Doctor Who Gave Up Drugs’ (not as exciting as it sounds!) many years back and he basically wanted to stop handing out prescriptions to everyone and instead look at tackling the root cause. Patients weren’t interested, they just wanted a quick 5 minute sob story about whatever and to be given some pills to sort it. Some got quite agitated and started to argue with the doctor about it.