My G.P is dangerously useless

Count yourself lucky that you're in the UK where you don't have to pay through the nose for 'useless' GP services.

So many G.P's i have seen are literally useless. I have a place at medical school and i have tried to do indepth study of what a doctor does, and i just can not fathom what on earth G.P's actually learn.

I have been misdiagnoised so many times.

The G.P's answer to every ilness is 'anti-biotics' or 'anxiety', which led to a gross misdiagnosis for me.

I was diagnosed with a condition which the G.P's should have known about, and they had no idea. I may as well tell it to you: SVT, POTS, and a few other ilnesses. They had no idea, were rude to me, misdiagnosed me ect

They STILL did not know what that meant! The consultants offered me no support whatsoever, gave me a medication and said 'use it'.

I am hopefully going to become a doctor,but i must say, 80% of doctors i have seen especially G.P's could have had their job done by a farmer.

All they do is check for the obvious signs, give you anti-biotics no matter what, and then keep you like that and refer you if you get worse. So much for skill?

Is there an organisation i can see to anonymously report G.P surgeries ? Do these G.P's actually get trained properly ? Do we expect G.P's to know too little about too much?

I've always wanted to be G.P due to the relaxed life-style, but i am totally put of. I want to go into medicine to give people answers, to be useful, and i don't think handing out anti-biotics all the time is a good use of my life.

I hope to make money and go private.(as in, pay for my own private doctor as they probably care more)
Seriously, it's one big joke.

You've missed our point. You can't have shadowed any more than, realistically, 10 GPs at an absolute maximum. Even if you had shadowed 50 GPs and found many to be incompetent, that still does not mirror the entire state of GP services.

Your bad experiences are not sufficient to label all GPs as ****. Not even a majority.

You're showing ignorance by not accepting that, and by thinking you could do a better job in a similar instance. You clearly do not understand the budgetary constraints GPs are under, either. They cannot refer every single case to a specialist.

Why on Earth did he go to his GP for a broken leg? That's exactly the sort of event you go to your local A&E for.

Furthermore, depending on the fracture, antibiotics aren't always inappropriate.

I find the rest of what you've said very unlikely.

We pay tax and NHS contributions. Eitherway, as lucky as we are to have the NHS - and we truly should be grateful- that is no excuse for below par service.

There is literally no arrogance in me with regards to this issue. 20% of doctors i shadowed were brilliant. The fact is the majority of doctors (literally) were terrible.

I'll name what they've done:

> Hid a diagnosis from me, when i was 16 and competent.
> Misdiagnoised me so many times
> Started to use religion to patronise me
> Told me to stop coming to the surgery, and then later acknowledged they mis-diagnosed me
> An ENT consultant who i was referred to barely made any checks and was laughing at me, until we pushed him to actually help us.
> Can't even tell me what SVT is, can't give me any help information and support.



Clearly i am not trying to paint them all with one brush, but if you read the news, you'll see that negligence and incompetence, especially by G.P's is a growing issue in the NHS. There have even been under cover documentaries.

We need to stop giving doctors immunity from their actions and start making them more accountable.

So it is far from arrogance, it's concern, perhaps anger too.

I can understand why you are upset because you have been mis-diagnosed but you just seem to have so little respect for the career you are about to embark on. It just baffles me.

I've been mis-doagnosed too but I haven't made generalisations about a whole professional and slagged my superiors off.

It makes me want to be the best doctor I can be.

I think your arrogant more from the manner in which you write. In your situation it may be fair enough to be angry, if your GP has been incompetent then he should have to review his actions and make sure he won't make the same mistakes again.

Though putting that aside it sounds like you've came across a "few" bad doctors and then generalized. Of course there will be bad doctors but you'd expect this to be the exception. The news is hardly a good source, they love a story and especially one that involving the health service.

I can't really comment on most of what you said in regards to your own condition as we don't know the story though if they can't explain SVT then fair enough that is pretty shocking, especially as they should be the ones leading your care. But in this case you should really be contacting the practice in question.

Doctors are accountable for what they do and in a way this only makes the problem worse. Hospital doctors are so scared of getting sued that they spend more time writing in the notes than they do with the patient. This not only affects the doctors, but the students. You'll find that the doctors have less and less time to teach you on the ward. Instead you'll be doing bloods and cannula's all day.

Indeed. The NHS should offer a high standard of service to everyone, no exceptions.
I was rather more confused about you being a medical student interested in general practice, yet simultaneously mocking and degrading the training that a GP undertakes...

yea,

Doctors a definitely losing their respect in society (by me anyway)

I think they should raise the entry requirements in all med schools from AAA to A*A*AA or something very very hard to get. (only a minority of people in society would get this, which would mean A LOT less donkeys would apply for med school)

This would mean only the academic elites would have the ability to be a doctor ( you may argue that academia is not everything blah blah... shut up. If you are not smart I don't want you deciding what illness I have.)

To be frank, some of the people that went on to medicine at my school were complete dumb asses I wouldn't let them look after my gold fish never mind my health

Let me make it clear, I have absolute respect for doctors. I shadowed brilliant doctors during my work experience, and when they are actually competent and doing their jobs, they are brilliant.

But when you get about 7-8 G.P's who lie about diagnosis (illegal), misdiagnose you for two years, do the old anti-biotic drill (was useless btw), patronise you, acknowledge they made a mistake, spend an HOUR talking to someone without seeing you (not important! casual chat!), lying, it does take it's toll.

Again, i speak about the G.P's i personally have had. This is more than my own experience, the fact is, many G.Ps , perhaps not all, are way below satisfactory.

It's prompted governing bodies to try to bring in regulations so that doctors get tested regularly, doctors that are not competent get striken off, doctors from abroad get extra training.

So i have absolute respect for doctors - the ones who do their job.

And i totally relate to your last line. Having had a horror esque experience , i totally want to be the opposite of most of the doctors i have seen.

I could ask a medical student what SVT is and they'd give me an answer, but TWO doctors could not.

Where did informed consent go? Involving the patient in their health-care decisions by telling them atleast the main elements of their ilness?

Yet my GP saved my life by having very up to date knowledge and ensured that I got rushed into hospital.

You've got a very, very narrow point of view and very limited data so your conclusion's are pretty much useless. I could assume that because my GP rocks, all GP's rock. However I know my point of view is limited so I wouldn't paint all GP's with the same brush.

Ha ha! Oh yeah because everyone would be happy with an army of Sheldon Cooper, Big Bang Theory types looking after us!

The Sheldon Cooper GPs would get soooooo bored listening to little old ladies complaining about their gammy legs.

The point is, it isn't all about academia!

G.P's are not as accountable in my view. There have been documentaries exposing G.P's who have sexually abused patients, G.p's who were there for decades and were dangerous to patients (totally incompetent).

Google Shipman.

I feel G.P's need more regulation personally.

Ha ha! Oh yeah because everyone would be happy with an army of Sheldon Cooper, Big Bang Theory types looking after us!

The Sheldon Cooper GPs would get soooooo bored listening to little old ladies complaining about their gammy legs.

The point is, it isn't all about academia!

I don't need to google shipman, i am aware of who he is. Again you're relying too heavily on the media's portrayal of healthcare. GP's will internally review each other very regularly, in the GP practice i am attached too they regularly meet up with other local GP's (~50 in total) to discuss cases such as your own and how they can better patient care. Part of their training is reflection; they're constantly reviewing performance.

I feel that you are forming opinions without an actual understanding of the topic. Again i would suggest that you wait until you have studied clinical medicine before criticizing. If you still feel very strongly that they are too unregulated then maybe a career in public health?

Why on Earth did he go to his GP for a broken leg? That's exactly the sort of event you go to your local A&E for.

Furthermore, depending on the fracture, antibiotics aren't always inappropriate.

I find the rest of what you've said very unlikely.

I just don't feel the regulation and discussion is enough. I appreciate i have a lot more to learn , but two years of misdiagnosis occured with me, and malpractise.

The truth is, if a patient does not complain, it is unlikely much will happen. If we ignore shipman, there are many G.P's who, through undercover journalism have been exposed (documentaries).

So many G.P's who miss basic signs of appendicitis (an old friend of mind saw 3-4 g.ps, and they ALL missed it).

I just feel that the culture surrounding health-care and doctors must change. People need to be given a form after every meeting (a small one) to rate and comment the service they received if they wish to, and to post it in an anonymous box in reception.

The problem isn't the quality of the GP's. It's the consistency of the standards. There needs to be something in check to ensure all GP's are performing more or less to the same level

- Future med student 2x offer holder.