I would say that you get a huge range of doctors. I think sometimes people give GPs flack because they won't tell them what they want to hear. One of these occasions would be a girl that came in when I did work experience at a GP and asked if she could get hair removal on the NHS because it was 'bothering her' and the GP basically said no, explained that her case was extremely minor in the view of the hospital and that if it wasn't causing her any mental turmoil there wasn't much he could say to try and convince them otherwise - she seemed pretty annoyed when she left but what more could he do? I imagine she's gone home like 'oh that doctor was useless he wouldn't help me!'.
I personally have actually been pretty lucky on the being referred for problems front, unfortunately they've not quite figured out what's wrong with me. I do have one personal complaint though, that a doctor diagnosed me with 'depression' when I was 13 and now it's slapped across my notes, every time I go to the doctor whether it be a chest infection or glandular fever they try and suggest it's related to depression. There was no way in hell I was depressed - it really was hormones and my parents being over zealous and naive.