Why are doctors seemingly so incompetent?

I'm not sure about some of the stuff you've said about endometriosis there. Obviously I'm still a student but the speciality was in my last exam so it's fairly fresh, and endometriosis is generally something we're taught to look for in younger patients and it's not always there from birth. Just be careful about what you read in the internet!

I totally understand, why people who have a good income opt for private healthcare.

Went to the nhs doctor today, spent about 10 minutes waiting.. And when I finally got in there she was so quick to try and get me out the door :/ i was trying to explain why I think I fractured my thumb and she was like yes yes I'll refer you and then told me to book another appointment for the other issue I wanted to resolve. :/ so I have to wait 2 weeks to see a doctor because the current doctor didn't want to "spend more time" resolving my other issue with me :/

In my experience, ask for younger doctors which are still consultants, they tend to be much better than older docs.

Hence why most surgeries ask you to only discuss one medical issue at each appointment. The vast majority of them will give you a double appointment if you ask for one, to discuss more than one issue, or something that will take longer than the time alloted.

Hence why most surgeries ask you to only discuss one medical issue at each appointment. The vast majority of them will give you a double appointment if you ask for one, to discuss more than one issue, or something that will take longer than the time alloted.

Well all of my doctors told me that I was too young to have it, that they don't look for it in younger patients, and that was including the specialist in gynaecology and the surgeon.

So I was going with what the specialist said, not something that I read on the internet.

I'm glad that they are telling you to look for it in younger patients, because everyone that I know that has it, had the same experience as me, had it from a young age, but weren't diagnosed until they were older because 'it is only in older women'.

And my friend who has just graduated to become a doctor told me that it was usually something that was there from birth, and so I was going from his information as a medicine graduate

Well it's all just theories in reality. There's a school of thought that you can be born with a predisposition to developing it under the right conditions. The most common theory is of retrograde menstruation though, as far as I'm aware- it's fairly common anyway and the idea is that if your immune system fails to mop everything up then it becomes endometriosis. Pretty specialist anyway, but interesting to note. But yeah- we're told to consider it in any women of reproductive age upwards and I think we had a case in our last exam where the patient was in her 20s.

medicine is HARD. retaining all the knowledge you've learned at medical school and more is even harder. there are some good doctors but i've found the best ones are the ones who are specialised not GP's because they know their field in more depth.

Appointments are normally listed for a set time of about ten minutes or so. This ensures that they know how many people they can see in one day and run to schedule as much as possible.

Hence why most surgeries ask you to only discuss one medical issue at each appointment. The vast majority of them will give you a double appointment if you ask for one, to discuss more than one issue, or something that will take longer than the time alloted.

People bringing in a whole list of issues to discuss delays all the appointments after them, which is most probably the reason you had to wait ten minutes for your appointment rather than going straight in. You can't expect to be seen on time AND spend unlimited time with the doctor, it doesn't work like that.

This thread is retarded.

There is a reason the NHS is free. Many people simply cannot afford private health care.

This fallacy is perpetuated almost daily. The NHS is *not* free. It costs 8% of the UKs GDP. It costs around £106 BILLION a year (that's £120,000,000,000). This is footed by the taxpayer. It is like automatically having an insurance premium in a single network (an HMO, anyone?) taken out everytime you spend or earn a wage.

And what you don't seem to understand is that that is a fixed cost for you as a worker. It does not cost you to use the service.

The doctor I went to see at my University Health Centre was brilliant. He was really friendly, explained everything he wrote down and then spoke in depth to me about the tests he was sending me for and why... sadly my past experiences of doctors in my hometown have not been great, they just don't seem interested and have never been particularly helpful.

The doctor I went to see at my University Health Centre was brilliant. He was really friendly, explained everything he wrote down.

This is a very interesting post to look at. It highlights (albeit n=1) what you think is good. Essentially, patients like being informed, which is totally understandable given the nature of what is at stake.

I would hope you are reassured at the fact that whilst this aspect was sometimes neglected in times gone by, the GMC and medical schools have taught undergraduates more emphasis on this.

However, its not perfect. The day to day demands of the job (which are out of our hands, e.g. 5-10 mins an appointment) are onerous, its difficult to do all the good things you mentioned in that timescale. Unfortunately, the only way I see that us possible to get that level of attention (half an hour chats etc) is to go private.