Doctor's Visit

Summer_H

I recently visited a doctor with a minor problem. I also had another query which she refused to talk about saying she hadn't time and I would have to make another appointment. Is this normal for doctors to do this? Another visit would have meant time off work, wait in the waiting room for approx one hour and of course pay another fee. Also I had only taken five minutes of her time. There were several notices in the waiting room about fees but nothing about "one consultation/one problem".

Any opinion/advise on this practice would be appreciated. Thanks.

samson09

Find another doctor.

Summer_H

samson09 wrote: »

Find another doctor.

Good idea.

Eerie

What an odd thing to say...

Docs have always asked me at the end of consultations if there is anything else i'd like to talk about. I notice this because I always feel like they think i'm hiding some deep dark secret that i'm not telling them!!!

Also, as a medical student, it is drilled into us to always ask at the end of consultations if everything is OK, anything else bothering them etc... Yours apparently wasn't listening that day in class...

I know GPs are under pressure for time and all but geez!

Get a new doctor!

AmcD

I think you were unlucky, as this would be fairly unusual. Fair enough if it had already taken 30 minutes to wade through your minor problem. Usually patients ask me a few things and I go through them as best I can. If I see written lists with ten items, then I start getting worried.
If you are a private patient you are free to see another doctor.

Summer_H

AmcD wrote: »

....... Fair enough if it had already taken 30 minutes to wade through your minor problem. .......

No - I was just five minutes with the doctor, 30 minutes waiting.

AmcD

Summer_H wrote: »

No - I was just five minutes with the doctor, 30 minutes waiting.

Like I said- IF you had been there 30 minutes already, it would have been unreasonable. After spending 5 minutes sorting out a minor problem, it sounds like there was time to go through other issues.

smk89

its unethical for a doctor to ignore any problems. in my experience if you pay €50 for a doctor you damn well sit in the seat and force them to listen until their ears are blue.

If you are unhappy about the service you can complain.

AmcD

smk89 wrote: »

its unethical for a doctor to ignore any problems. in my experience if you pay €50 for a doctor you damn well sit in the seat and force them to listen until their ears are blue..

Ok, but if everybody does this, then you will have to put up with waiting for hours in the waiting room.

smk89

AmcD wrote: »

Ok, but if everybody does this, then you will have to put up with waiting for hours in the waiting room.

and we dont do that already. if the hse wants to run healthcare like a business then we may as well treat it like one and get our moneys worth

AmcD

smk89 wrote: »

and we dont do that already. if the hse wants to run healthcare like a business then we may as well treat it like one and get our moneys worth

General practice is a series of private businesses. It is up to each GP as to how they run their businesses. There is a contract with the HSE to provide care for GMS patients- the HSE do not run general practice (this may explain why it works).

Unfortunately you will never know why you have been kept waiting. Here are a few examples why I might run late:
A teenager comes in with a crisis pregnancy.
A particularly unwell elderly person with a complex medical history needs assessment.
An immigrant with no English and no interpreter presents for the first time.
A young man comes in who is acutely suicidal.
A mother comes in with her two children and wants all three to be seen, but has only one appointment.

I would be very conscious of people waiting in out in the waiting room and would do my best to keep up- but general practice is unpredictable because any person can present with ANY problem.
Some GPs do take longer than others, this is where you can make a choice and see another GP instead.

ergo

smk89 wrote: »

in my experience if you pay €50 for a doctor you damn well sit in the seat and force them to listen until their ears are blue.

all wannabee GP's take note!

Thoie

AmcD wrote: »

Unfortunately you will never know why you have been kept waiting. Here are a few examples why I might run late:

Everyone understands (even if they grumble) about why you might be waiting to see your GP. It's not acceptable for a GP to limit a visit to a single issue - besides anything else, sometimes the "By the way..." is the symptom that makes the little lightbulb come on over your head. The layman might come in with the weird rash (stupid example), and just happen to mention the neck pain on the way out the door, but the two combined might ring a bell with a GP.

tallaght01

my non GP thoughts on this:

If you make an emergency appointment, and the GP has slotted you into a crowded afternoon, or come to your house, then you should only be asking about the emergency.

If the surgery is taking the "one visit, one problem" stance, the GP surgery should have a sign up, asking that you make a double appointment/ask for a double session if you: A) have more than one problem to discuss Have a complex problem to discuss C) Have multiple family members to be seen. This is common in the UK.

In fairness, though, satisfaction ratings for GPs tend to be pretty high, and they get the balance right most of the time. General practice is possibly the only area of healthcare in Ireland where you can get seen on any given day of your choice. That's particularly impressive, and is very rare worldwide, in my experience.

I don't think people realise how stretched your time is as a medic, and when they tack on "oh and could you have a look at my back?" onto the end of their consultation, it can add another 15 minutes on.

I always get a chuckle out of people like smk89, acting the bigman on the net because they've paid 50 euro. You go to a solicitor and get seen on the same day, pay him 50 euro and try your luck at sitting there until he sorts out your other legal problem, on top of the one you booked in to get sorted, and see how long you last in his office

Svalbard

OP, your experience sounds dreadful.

I wonder are there any extenuating circumstances you didn't mention or were unaware of, but assuming there were not, it was quite rude of your doctor.

A good consultation skills course for any doctor will emphasise the importance of identifying the reason(s) for the consultation and summarising the presenting complaint(s) early, thus allowing the patient to voice all issues at the start of the consultation and allowing the GP to explore each one in a logical sequence.

So either the doctor failed to make use of this technique, or you kept your second problem to yourself until the first problem had been dealt with. While that might not seem like a big deal to you, I assure you, it is!!!

There is nothing more frustarting than when you have explored one problem, examined, discussed and devised a management plan and then, thinking the consultation is over, the pateint reveals another problem. You may think it's better to deal with one thing at a time - believe me, its not.

Lay all your cards on the table for your GP. Try giving a little thought beforehand to what you want to get out of it. Make a list of you like, but (and here's the important bit) let the doctor, having heard ALL the issues you want to discuss AT THE START, decide how and in what order they are to be addressed. Makes like easier for all concerned.

nesf

smk89 wrote: »

and we dont do that already. if the hse wants to run healthcare like a business then we may as well treat it like one and get our moneys worth

Eh, it's extremely selfish of people to purposefully tie up GP time unnecessarily. If it can be sorted in 5 minutes, it can be sorted in 5 minutes etc.


The OP has genuine grounds for complaint though. The only explanation I can think of is that you presented with something that really shouldn't need you to go to a GP about and the GP had a lot of other people waiting and figured that your second problem would be as minor as the first. It still should have been listened to, it's perfectly possible for someone to present and talk about some minor problem first and then at the end mention off-hand something apparently minor to them that is more serious etc.