Why doesn't someone tell the GP's?

SeaFields

stinkle wrote: »

The same effect can cause yeast infections in women

And men! A friend had to have a circumcision after several doses of antibiotics were needed to clear a bad infection and, as a result, he got a yeast infection behind his foreskin that he just couldnt get rid of :eek:

Bigcheeze

SeaFields wrote: »

And men! A friend had to have a circumcision after several doses of antibiotics were needed to clear a bad infection and, as a result, he got a yeast infection behind his foreskin that he just couldnt get rid of :eek:

i think there's more to your "friend's" story. :pac:

Calibos

While I do think a lot of GP's are overpaid I will never understand how people cannot comprehend that they are not paying for a prescription and when they don't get one they think they wasted €50.

You are paying for the 7 years of college and another 7 of low paid 80hour junior doctor status before they started making good money. You are paying for all that knowledge that they spent that time cramming into their heads while you had a not very mentally of physically taxing job and got to go boozing 3 or 4 nights a week.

Its the very same set of knowledge in their heads that allowed them put your mind at ease that you don't have anything serious that requires anything more than rest as the set of knowledge that allowed them to diagnose pnuemonia and send you to hospital.

Why do you think its money well spent to pay them for the pnuemonia diagnosis but not for the cold/flu diagnosis?? You are paying for the expertise that allowed a diagnosis not the diagnosis itself(or the prescription)

saa

theg81der wrote: »

I reckon doctors can be a bit arrogant and over-rated. They`ve got very used to doing a check list and don`t really think out side the box too much which means they can miss things they assume the person doesn`t have based on risk factors not being present ie if your a young woman and they do all the obvious tests and find nothing you have to be suffering from anxiety and stress.

If anyone thinks there is something not right with them, I have said it many a time and I will say it again

blood tests.

Bejaysus I wouldn't be taking my doctors word for most things, always ask if appropriate folk might think what a rip off 50 euro is but as far as I know they won't charge extra for the blood work but even if they do it can be so worth it, esp if its cheap or free [blood tests in the US are 50 dollars each, saw them being advertised in the Woman's clinic for 10]

And also if a woman walks into a doctors office she probably feels unwell if there are no psychically symptoms detected she will be quizzed over her mental health [I hope] but that will not be a proper diagnoses

Most of the time there are psychical symptoms for stress and anxiety and an elevated level of cortisol the stress hormone.

It sounds like you might of have a bad experience with a doctor [I definitely have] but I have to commend any doctor that takes time to discuss the mental well being of their patient.

The reason why anyone could be easily diagnosed with anything without having anything "wrong" with them is because everyone is on the spectrum for something it just depends on how this is affecting their life.

robinph

Calibos wrote: »

While I do think a lot of GP's are overpaid I will never understand how people cannot comprehend that they are not paying for a prescription and when they don't get one they think they wasted €50.

You are paying for the 7 years of college and another 7 of low paid 80hour junior doctor status before they started making good money. You are paying for all that knowledge that they spent that time cramming into their heads while you had a not very mentally of physically taxing job and got to go boozing 3 or 4 nights a week.

Its the very same set of knowledge in their heads that allowed them put your mind at ease that you don't have anything serious that requires anything more than rest as the set of knowledge that allowed them to diagnose pnuemonia and send you to hospital.

Why do you think its money well spent to pay them for the pnuemonia diagnosis but not for the cold/flu diagnosis?? You are paying for the expertise that allowed a diagnosis not the diagnosis itself(or the prescription)

No problem at all with them getting paid.

I do have a big issue with someones ability to pay at a particular time being the determining factor in if they get to see a GP or not in Ireland though. It just seems immoral to be asking vulnerable sick people for money before you will see them to make them better.

MyKeyG

Buceph wrote: »

Protest them, then! Refuse to go to a doctor. Even if you're really really sick, say "no, they'll just scam me" and don't go.

What an intelligent reply:rolleyes:. Like banks I have to use Doctors. I have no choice. It's abusing this necessity that I have an issue with.

drkpower

MyKeyG wrote: »

It amazes me how they expect people to accept that there's nothing wrong with charging extortionate sums of money for doing sweet fanny Adam. 'Go home and rest, that'll be fifty euro please'.

The advice is dependant on the diagnosis. The 'work' involved in this context is chiefly in coming to the diagnosis. That is what you are paying for. You may not value that work; and that is your perogative. If you dont want to pay someone to make a diagnosis, you are free to come to your own.

MyKeyG

ebixa82 wrote: »

Unfortunately you are not alone in being misguided and having no actual knowledge of prescribing and the harmful affects of over prescribing.

Awe resorting to putting words in my mouth in desperation. What a shame. I said nothing about prescribing harmful drugs and their effects. I merely explained that I understood there's a lot of anxiety related to sickness. Your father knows it's nothing to worry about the patient doesn't. What your father quite arrogantly calls idiocy I call natural apprehension.

And to suggest that medical professionals are as corrupt as politicians, grow up ffs.

Attack the post not the poster. Are you so immature that you're going to make childish admonitions instead of addressing my point? People NEED doctors. It is for that reason and that reason alone that to charge so much is corrupt. If you can give me one good reason why €50 for a five minute consultation is appropriate then I'll recant my entire opinion.

drkpower

MyKeyG wrote: »

If you can give me one good reason why €50 for a five minute consultation is appropriate then I'll recant my entire opinion.

1. Are you suggesting that doctors should charge per minute?
2. Can you think of who might lose out if a charge per minute policy was instituted?

MyKeyG

drkpower wrote: »

The advice is dependant on the diagnosis. The 'work' involved in this context is chiefly in coming to the diagnosis. That is what you are paying for. You may not value that work; and that is your perogative. If you dont want to pay someone to make a diagnosis, you are free to come to your own.

No I am not. As I have said a number of times I have no choice but to go to a doctor. I may have reservations about how much they charge but I'm not so ridiculous as to let it endanger my health. It's this necessity that allows doctors to charge €100 per consultation should they so wish! I think it's taking advantage as nobody can justify to me the amount charged for so little.

drkpower

MyKeyG wrote: »

No I am not. As I have said a number of times I have no choice but to go to a doctor.

Well, earlier, you claimed that, when they advise rest, they are doing 'sweet fanny adam'....

So, I presume that, in fact, you appreciate that they are actually doing something of value when they come to a diagnosis and advise you to rest?

MyKeyG wrote: »

I may have reservations about how much they charge but I'm not so ridiculous as to let it endanger my health. It's this necessity that allows doctors to charge €100 per consultation should they so wish! I think it's taking advantage as nobody can justify to me the amount charged for so little.

What do you believe should be the pricing structure and the appropriate remuneration for medical advice? (regardless of whether the state should fully fund or part subsidise it so that the cost to the consumer is lower)

MyKeyG

MyKeyG wrote: »

No I am not. As I have said a number of times I have no choice but to go to a doctor. I may have reservations about how much they charge but I'm not so ridiculous as to let it endanger my health. It's this necessity that allows doctors to charge €100 per consultation should they so wish! I think it's taking advantage as nobody can justify to me the amount charged for so little.

GPs are not half as wealthy as you seem to think they are. The reason consultations without a medical card are so expensive is:

1. Private patients are effectively subsidising medical card holders, as the GP practice is paid a flat amount per annum for each medical card patient, regardless of how often they visit. As a lot of medical card holders are OAPs, who tend to have more health issues, they visit more, and if the flat rate is divided by the number of visits the income per visit for the GP is quite low.

2. The money you pay isn't going straight into the GPs's pocket. A GP practice is a business with associated costs. Secretaries and practice nurses must be paid as well as rent etc.

Yes, GPs are not poor by any stretch of the imagination, but their pay is comparable to any highly educated and trained professional.

x_Ellie_x

Some doctors are listening too much to those warnings. :mad: A neighbour of mine went around to our local doctor a few weeks ago, the doc diagnosed him with a chest infection but wouldn't give him antibiotics for it as he said that they were 'over prescribed' and that the body 'has a natural way of fighting off illnesses' and all that crap and to come back in a week if he wasn't feeling any better. Just a few days later, about a week before Christmas my neighbour couldn't breathe properly and had to be rushed to hospital where he was diagnosed with pneumonia, and now his wife told me he caught MRSA in the hospital he's in (a certain kip of a hospital near the Guinness Storehouse). None of this probably would have happened if the doctor had given him the antibiotics in the first place! :rolleyes:

ebixa82

MyKeyG wrote: »

Awe resorting to putting words in my mouth in desperation. What a shame. I said nothing about prescribing harmful drugs and their effects. I merely explained that I understood there's a lot of anxiety related to sickness. Your father knows it's nothing to worry about the patient doesn't. What your father quite arrogantly calls idiocy I call natural apprehension.

Attack the post not the poster. Are you so immature that you're going to make childish admonitions instead of addressing my point? People NEED doctors. It is for that reason and that reason alone that to charge so much is corrupt. If you can give me one good reason why €50 for a five minute consultation is appropriate then I'll recant my entire opinion.

Whoever said my father was a doctor?

And, obviously, you know so little on the subject matter and have shown such ignorance there is no need for me to waste my time replying to any of your posts.

theg81der

saa wrote: »

If anyone thinks there is something not right with them, I have said it many a time and I will say it again

blood tests.

Bejaysus I wouldn't be taking my doctors word for most things, always ask if appropriate folk might think what a rip off 50 euro is but as far as I know they won't charge extra for the blood work but even if they do it can be so worth it, esp if its cheap or free [blood tests in the US are 50 dollars each, saw them being advertised in the Woman's clinic for 10]

And also if a woman walks into a doctors office she probably feels unwell if there are no psychically symptoms detected she will be quizzed over her mental health [I hope] but that will not be a proper diagnoses

Most of the time there are psychical symptoms for stress and anxiety and an elevated level of cortisol the stress hormone.

It sounds like you might of have a bad experience with a doctor [I definitely have] but I have to commend any doctor that takes time to discuss the mental well being of their patient.

The reason why anyone could be easily diagnosed with anything without having anything "wrong" with them is because everyone is on the spectrum for something it just depends on how this is affecting their life.

Didn`t get diagnosed with epilepsy (petit mal) till I was 23 and it was very active since I was 16 (like 10000 fits a day) saw 10s of doctors literally begged for help I was terrified and they gave me enough anti depressants and zanex to kill an elephant.

I was so scared I kept taking twice the dose to make myself sleep. I repeated over and over that I was panicking subsiquent to the events and although I was panicked when I got to their office because of what had happened.

I subsiquently did suffer serious mental problems and delussions and this was not picked up either - I somehow decided that the sky was communicating with me and I was the only one who knew an asteroid was about to destroy the planet (clearly the only explanation for the way I was feeling :rolleyes:). I was terrified of everyone and my partner used to wake up with me cowering in the corner thinking he had been possessed and was going to kill me.

So they took someone with a serious physical problem and created mental problem which they then don`t treat and tell me that I would have to try to kill myself to get help (exact words said to me by my doctor).

Now I wait till I absolutely have to go and I am so terrified when I do that I am visably panicked. I also don1t present a-typically with things eg. I have never one had a fever even though I`ve had 3 serious infections requiring hospitalisation. One of these only showed up as within in the normal on a blood test but nearly made me bleed to death (9 months straight of bleeding).

So I have an extremely negative view of doctors.

ebixa82

theg81der wrote: »

Didn`t get diagnosed with epilepsy (petit mal) till I was 23 and it was very active since I was 16 (like 10000 fits a day) saw 10s of doctors literally begged for help I was terrified and they gave me enough anti depressants and zanex to kill an elephant.

I was so scared I kept taking twice the dose to make myself sleep. I repeated over and over that I was panicking subsiquent to the events and although I was panicked when I got to their office because of what had happened.

I subsiquently did suffer serious mental problems and delussions and this was not picked up either - I somehow decided that the sky was communicating with me and I was the only one who knew an asteroid was about to destroy the planet (clearly the only explanation for the way I was feeling :rolleyes:). I was terrified of everyone and my partner used to wake up with me cowering in the corner thinking he had been possessed and was going to kill me.

So they took someone with a serious physical problem and created mental problem which they then don`t treat and tell me that I would have to try to kill myself to get help (exact words said to me by my doctor).

Now I wait till I absolutely have to go and I am so terrified when I do that I am visably panicked. I also don1t present a-typically with things eg. I have never one had a fever even though I`ve had 3 serious infections requiring hospitalisation. One of these only showed up as within in the normal on a blood test but nearly made me bleed to death (9 months straight of bleeding).

So I have an extremely negative view of doctors.

With all due respect to your diagnosed epileptic state you do appear to have some psychiatric issues which do not sound they were brought along solely by having a late diagnosis.

When you say you saw "10s of doctors" how many exactly did you see..20/30/40?

If someone is experiencing any form of seizures they would be sent straight to a hospital for tests. The most negligent and incompetent of Doctors might overlook this but this would be the most extreme case of negligence. To think that "10s of Doctors" missed this is bizarre.

Whatever about the delayed diagnosis they appeared correct in prescribing psychiatric meds to you.

theg81der

ebixa82 wrote: »

With all due respect to your diagnosed epileptic state you do appear to have some psychiatric issues which do not sound they were brought along solely by having a late diagnosis.

When you say you saw "10s of doctors" how many exactly did you see..20/30/40?

If someone is experiencing any form of seizures they would be sent straight to a hospital for tests. The most negligent and incompetent of Doctors might overlook this but this would be the most extreme case of negligence. To think that "10s of Doctors" missed this is bizarre.

Whatever about the delayed diagnosis they appeared correct in prescribing psychiatric meds to you.

You can`t see petit mal fits I don`t think you understand what your saying. I was a normal active teenager I had no issues. I wanted to be normal - working, shopping, going out with my friends and I was extremely athletic also. There was nothing to indicate mental issues and when my parents protested they were told to put pressure on me some girls get like this - they still feel guilty for letting doctors tell them I wasn`t sick when it was very clear but they trusted doctors like most people.

I was with quite a large practise and saw about 8 doctors there and repeated visits to hospitals (4 hospitals) where I saw many doctors. I then moved practices twice and saw everyone in those practises eventually the last doctor reluctantly refered me to a neurologist who didn`t seem to take me seriously either till she hooked me up to a EEG then she changed her tune very promptly - I had very active epilepsy she was suprised I could actually control myself so well with continual fits. Also part of epilepsy is an impending sense of doom and panick - that is also normal when I went to groups and met others with the same condition they had experienced the same. Early diagnosis is seen as a critical factor for determining how someone cops with it.

They didn`t send me to counselling or a psychologist they just gave a terrified kid bags of drugs. I was so frightened I can`t say the idea of taking all of them and ending the hell I went through didn`t cross my mind - that can`t be deemed responsible in any way.

Stiffler2

I haven't read the whole thread but the reason the HSE are telling people not to take antibiotics for cold / flu is to do with your immune system having enough balls to fight the flu itself.

Example - if you constantly take nurofen to fight a headache after a few years your body becomes immune to the anti-biotic and it no longer works.

You then need a stronger anti-biotic to deal with your sickness
You shouldn't take pills every time you get sick.

Apparently they only have a few drugs left that are stronger and once we become immune to these stronger anti biotics we're all screwed.


Above statement should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Terms & Conditions apply

gcgirl

theg81der wrote: »

ebixa82 wrote: »

With all due respect to your diagnosed epileptic state you do appear to have some psychiatric issues which do not sound they were brought along solely by having a late diagnosis.

When you say you saw "10s of doctors" how many exactly did you see..20/30/40?

If someone is experiencing any form of seizures they would be sent straight to a hospital for tests. The most negligent and incompetent of Doctors might overlook this but this would be the most extreme case of negligence. To think that "10s of Doctors" missed this is bizarre.

Whatever about the delayed diagnosis they appeared correct in prescribing psychiatric meds to you.

You can`t see petit mal fits I don`t think you understand what your saying. I was a normal active teenager I had no issues. I wanted to be normal - working, shopping, going out with my friends and I was extremely athletic also. There was nothing to indicate mental issues and when my parents protested they were told to put pressure on me some girls get like this - they still feel guilty for letting doctors tell them I wasn`t sick when it was very clear but they trusted doctors like most people.

I was with quite a large practise and saw about 8 doctors there and repeated visits to hospitals (4 hospitals) where I saw many doctors. I then moved practices twice and saw everyone in those practises eventually the last doctor reluctantly refered me to a neurologist who didn`t seem to take me seriously either till she hooked me up to a EEG then she changed her tune very promptly - I had very active epilepsy she was suprised I could actually control myself so well with continual fits. Also part of epilepsy is an impending sense of doom and panick - that is also normal when I went to groups and met others with the same condition they had experienced the same. Early diagnosis is seen as a critical factor for determining how someone cops with it.

They didn`t send me to counselling or a psychologist they just gave a terrified kid bags of drugs. I was so frightened I can`t say the idea of taking all of them and ending the hell I went through didn`t cross my mind - that can`t be deemed responsible in any way.

How are you now?
My aunt had the same but it damaged her brain and she has been institutionalised for years

theg81der

gcgirl wrote: »

How are you now?
My aunt had the same but it damaged her brain and she has been institutionalised for years

I`m great the fits stopped about 24 except for a few pre menstrual or if I`m very sick. Pregnant at the moment and have been warned this is often a time when they resurface so please god they won`t and I`ll have a healthy pregnancy.

Sorry about your aunt can I ask in what way she suffered brain damage? I feel sure that I have suffered short term memory loss and have been diagnosed with dyslexia (in the test for dyslexia my short term memory was flagged as been very poor) - I really can`t read books at all any more and still continue to experience some strange thoughts and anxiety, I have never managed to get back to fully normal. I suffer migraine about 50% the time also and generally seem to have some cognative difficulty.

Guy:Incognito

spurious wrote: »

Doctors know everything, they got 600 points in their Leaving and became doctors to help people.
No way would any of them be writing prescriptions for unnecessary antibiotics just to screw 50 quid out of a punter.

your there and paying you 50 anyway whether they give you a prescription or not.

It's not "no win no fee"

Nothingbetter2d

the flu and headcolds are caused by viruses not bacteria... antibiotics only work vs bacteria... there is no known cure for the common cold or flu. the only antivirus i know of are for computers not people lol.

Odysseus

You pay for the consulation not the script, if you leave without a script it is generally good news. However, there is a mentality amongst people that they should leave with a script and it's bad vaule if they don't.

Yet there is a significant amount of people that eother don't change the script or don't finish the course if it's something like anti-biotics.

desertcircus

x_Ellie_x wrote: »

Some doctors are listening too much to those warnings. :mad: A neighbour of mine went around to our local doctor a few weeks ago, the doc diagnosed him with a chest infection but wouldn't give him antibiotics for it as he said that they were 'over prescribed' and that the body 'has a natural way of fighting off illnesses' and all that crap and to come back in a week if he wasn't feeling any better. Just a few days later, about a week before Christmas my neighbour couldn't breathe properly and had to be rushed to hospital where he was diagnosed with pneumonia, and now his wife told me he caught MRSA in the hospital he's in (a certain kip of a hospital near the Guinness Storehouse). None of this probably would have happened if the doctor had given him the antibiotics in the first place! :rolleyes:

Good God. How does someone manage to blame MRSA on not enough antibiotics? This is an illness which exists specifically because of overreliance on antibiotics...

theg81der

desertcircus wrote: »

Good God. How does someone manage to blame MRSA on not enough antibiotics? This is an illness which exists specifically because of overreliance on antibiotics...

The point the person was making was he would not have been in hospital at all but for the doctors negligence in treating his chest infection-is a chest infection generally something you can fight off? only had one once and took 3 go`s of antibiotics to shift it.

last time i had a chest infection bed rest got rid of it
i'm wary of taking antibiotics unless i badly badly need it
my doctor told me to try some steaming before... i think i went that time for a sick note

pharmacist says the same
pharmacist is usually a good first port of call, they know their stuff

ebixa82

It's ironic that people are giving out about not being prescribed an anti-biotic when they attend a Doctor after paying a fee.

They are probably the same ones that go and complain about the rip off Pharmacists who overcharge them when they go to get their antibiotics dispensed.

stinkle

bluewolf wrote: »

last time i had a chest infection bed rest got rid of it
i'm wary of taking antibiotics unless i badly badly need it
my doctor told me to try some steaming before... i think i went that time for a sick note

pharmacist says the same
pharmacist is usually a good first port of call, they know their stuff

Couldn't agree with you more. I'm a bit prone to chest infections but usually go to the pharmacy first. I've often developed laryngitis if chest infection won't shift, so would go to the doc then. It happened when I was on hols a few years back though, and I was fine by the time I came home, with no need for doc. Being off work and relaxing probably helped a lot!

Wibbs

bluewolf wrote: »

pharmacist is usually a good first port of call, they know their stuff

+1. They certainly know far more about the medications for a start. On more than one occasion my pharmacist has given me bloody good advice over prescriptions for an elderly relative. Prescriptions that in two cases I can recall would have been potentially dangerous. One was dosage, where the doctor had effectively and dangerously tripled the dose, another was where mixing the new drug with an existing long term one was seriously contraindicated. Actually written in big bold capital type in the attached leaflet. I rang the doctor and was told not to be silly. Twat.

Like any job, you get good and bad doctors and I've met both. To be fair to the profession, they do have very good built in checks that weed out the real eejits, but some do get through.

Personally I've never had an antibiotic. Have had infections alright, but have been lucky and fought them off without them. Though have been offered them numerous times. In my experience some docs do over prescribe. A good friends doctor hands antibiotics like smarties and has done for years. Said friends immune system seems wrecked at this stage.

Another area I would be personally concerned with is IMHO over prescription of SSRI and other mental health drugs. Given that several studies have shown that placebo is as effective as these drugs for low to mid level depression, but obviously without the sometimes very dodgy side effects from the active drugs, it would seem to me that more care should be taken and not hand these out as a first response. This does seem to be a trend of late. Again some docs are worse than others. One quite local to me seems very excessive. An ex of mine went to her with a (real)chest infection and came out with a script for a well known SSRI and not the lower dose either, plus sleeping tablets. Why? Well in the course of the visit, she mentioned that she was worried and not sleeping well and was anxious over her situation. She was unemployed at the time, so naturally was showing those kind of reactions. A completely situational and expected emotional response. Answer? Get her onto a long term course of mental health drugs. Daft. Of course she did get a job a month later and all good after that. Needless to say she chucked the script in the bin. Now I may be concerned over nothing, but I say check back in a couple of decades and the issues we are now facing with antibiotics may well be mirrored with some of these mental health drugs. Daft? Maybe, but if this website had been around in say 1970 and I said the same about antibiotics I'll put money I'd have people, including qualified and learned people saying I was daft then.

Canis Lupus

x_Ellie_x wrote: »

that the body 'has a natural way of fighting off illnesses' and all that crap

It's called the immune system.