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GP wouldnt do stitches

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Comments

  • #32
    dr.fuzzenstein
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,620 ✭✭✭✭dr.fuzzenstein


    OP never said the injury was to the child's face. Also, most of GP's seem happy enough doing them, the issue in this specific case was the doctor not doing them on young kids. I think it was more this GP didn't want to get bitten. :D
    In my personal opinion, it would be a poor doctor who couldn't put 2-3 stitches somewhere not too noticeable. We're not talking about major surgery here. I could learn how to do that on YouTube in 5 minutes:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P0rYS6LeZw
    Actually, in America people do, because of the insane and outrageous medical fees over there, but that's another story.
    Your point about waiting rooms full of people paying fiddy a head is kinda undermined by the very next sentence about public patients who could turn up 10 times a year at a total of 7 euro per visit.

    That one is a point always made by GP's. The argument is "This guy comes 10 times a year and I get a total of €70, this makes €7 a visit". Oh. My God! How do GP's make ANY money! We have to do something QUICK!
    But that is not the whole story. A GP is paid per medical card holder on his/her books, regardless if they come 10 times a year or not at all.
    Also, not every medical card holder is paid at that rate, older patients earn a higher fee for the GP. So the sums do not look quite a dismal as made out to be.
    All laid out here:
    http://www.hse.ie/eng/Staff/PCRS/Contractor_Handbooks/Doctor_Schedule_of_Fees1.pdf

    Some seem to do quite OK out of this:
    http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/gps-earning-up-to-650000-under-medical-card-scheme-29104217.html

    GP's like to remind us of the overheads and staff costs, but such is the way when you're running a business, be it a medical practice or a tire place.
    Of course you are free to say to people "Nah, I'm not making enough money out of you, you can hop off" or "I don't know, you look like you may sue me", but you yourself reminded me that this is a business.
    That kind of attitude is noted by customers. Maybe GP's should start charging for sweets for kids? Wouldn't that make business sense? Instead if giving a kid a lollipop, just refer them to the dispensing machine on the way out...


  • #33
    El_Duderino 09
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,071 ✭✭✭✭El_Duderino 09


    dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »
    I think it was more this GP didn't want to get bitten. :D

    So what if he decided not to risk being bitten. Isn't that the GP's decision to make? You seem to think GPs should provide a uniform service across the board. In fact medical practitioners are trained to a differing degrees in a whole range of areas. So what if the GP decides it's not worth the risk/time to stitch the child's head.

    You think the GP should provide the service even if it is below cost, and relatively high risk of being sued. How many other businesses would you make the same argument towards?


  • #34
    dr.fuzzenstein
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,620 ✭✭✭✭dr.fuzzenstein


    El_Duderino 09 wrote: »
    So what if he decided not to risk being bitten. Isn't that the GP's decision to make? You seem to think GPs should provide a uniform service across the board. In fact medical practitioners are trained to a differing degrees in a whole range of areas. So what if the GP decides it's not worth the risk/time to stitch the child's head.

    You think the GP should provide the service even if it is below cost, and relatively high risk of being sued. How many other businesses would you make the same argument towards?

    Yep, the doc can decide not to stitch or maybe not to see people with bad breath, anyone he doesn't like the look of or anyone whatsoever. He can have sh*tty attitude, tell people to fcuk off and charge what he wants. Its a free world after all. If anyone other than a clamper manages to run a wildly successful business with that attitude I would love to hear about it.


  • #35
    Nonoperational
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,401 ✭✭✭Nonoperational


    dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »
    Is it any wonder I haven't been to the GP in 10 years and not planning on going any time soon. By the time I need medical attention it would have to be a major catastrophe.
    GP's are pill dispensers sponsors by the pharmaceutical industry and the aim is to maximize profit. You will walk out the door with a prescription for antibiotics, steroids, cortisone cream or if nothing in particular is wrong with you, antidepressants. Part of the reason for that is people expect to be given something and big pharma only too happy to oblige. We are a nation of pill poppers. As for people suing: that is the number one excuse trotted out when someone doesn't want to do something. We are quite happy to ignore the rules in Ireland when it suits us. But more than willing to suddenly strictly obey them if we want to avoid something.

    The standard rabbles of the ignorant.


  • #36
    dr.fuzzenstein
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,620 ✭✭✭✭dr.fuzzenstein


    Nonoperational wrote: »
    The standard rabbles of the ignorant.

    Said some random stranger on the internet.


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  • #37
    clogher77
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15 ✭clogher77


    my daughter 18 months bust her head open over Christmas . nasty wound on forehead. deep and i couldn't stop it bleeding. I took her to gp . she closed wound with steristrips. no problems. no a&e. she has a small scar. I think most gp s are great.


  • #38
    Victor
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 78,729 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    Oink wrote: »
    My gp did a beautiful job stitching me up 3-4 years ago. It was more than just stitches in fact, as he had to do a small job under the surface as well. I would call it minor surgery. Very impressed.
    Some GPs do minor surgery.


  • #39
    dr.fuzzenstein
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,620 ✭✭✭✭dr.fuzzenstein


    clogher77 wrote: »
    my daughter 18 months bust her head open over Christmas . nasty wound on forehead. deep and i couldn't stop it bleeding. I took her to gp . she closed wound with steristrips. no problems. no a&e. she has a small scar. I think most gp s are great.

    I'm sure a lot of them are still about patient care and being a part of their community.


  • #40
    Pugzilla
    Site Banned Posts: 1,763 ✭✭✭Pugzilla


    Dr. Fuzzestein, you should study medicine and become a real doctor.

    Then you won't have an inferiority complex anymore.


  • #41
    RobFowl
    Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 11,669 Mod ✭✭✭✭RobFowl


    Pugzilla wrote: »
    Dr. Fuzzestein, you should study medicine and become a real doctor.

    Then you won't have an inferiority complex anymore.

    Mod note
    Attack the post not the poster
    Rob


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  • #42
    Traumadoc
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,521 ✭✭✭Traumadoc


    many Gps have no experience suturing anymore, partially this is because many do not rotate through a&e, also those that do are mostly triaging elderly medical , while the Nurse practioners do the suturing.

    plus to suture a face probably takes at least 1/2 an hour to an hour , with setup , anaesthetic , dressing etc. , many GpS cannot afford to spend that much time with one patient.


  • #43
    dr.fuzzenstein
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,620 ✭✭✭✭dr.fuzzenstein


    Nobody said face, that was an assumption (ass out of you and me) that someone made early on and somehow stuck.
    So the argument has been:
    On the pro side: surely a doctor can put in 3 stitches somewhere inconspicuous like the back of the head.
    On the con side: a GP should not be expected to do major facial reconstruction which will cost him thousands and the patient will ALWAYS sue for millions.


  • #44
    El_Duderino 09
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,071 ✭✭✭✭El_Duderino 09


    dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »
    Nobody said face, that was an assumption (ass out of you and me) that someone made early on and somehow stuck.
    So the argument has been:
    On the pro side: surely a doctor can put in 3 stitches somewhere inconspicuous like the back of the head.
    On the con side: a GP should not be expected to do major facial reconstruction which will cost him thousands and the patient will ALWAYS sue for millions.

    Yeah you're right. The OP is about a cut to the head. Post #13 was about a separate incident of a cut to the face where the A&E doctor referred them to a surgeon.


  • #45
    MrCreosote
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,320 ✭✭✭MrCreosote


    Can't believe this argument is still going. Anyone who thinks suturing up a 3 year old girl's face is simple and not a litigious disaster waiting to happen is dreaming.

    Most will get a better result (permanent don't forget) with some sort of sedation, which no GP is going to offer.


  • #46
    dr.fuzzenstein
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,620 ✭✭✭✭dr.fuzzenstein


    MrCreosote wrote: »
    Can't believe this argument is still going. Anyone who thinks suturing up a 3 year old girl's face is simple and not a litigious disaster waiting to happen is dreaming.

    Most will get a better result (permanent don't forget) with some sort of sedation, which no GP is going to offer.

    Well depends which post were talking about. There is no mention of face in the OP just cut head.
    Nothing that would require several skilled plastic surgeons, sedation, a staff of nurses and a 3 week hospital stay.


  • #47
    Nonoperational
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,401 ✭✭✭Nonoperational


    dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »
    Well depends which post were talking about. There is no mention of face in the OP just cut head.
    Nothing that would require several skilled plastic surgeons, sedation, a staff of nurses and a 3 week hospital stay.

    No, but perhaps one skilled plastic surgeon and a day case admission may be reasonable to afford the child.


  • #48
    dr.fuzzenstein
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 16,620 ✭✭✭✭dr.fuzzenstein


    Nonoperational wrote: »
    No, but perhaps one skilled plastic surgeon and a day case admission may be reasonable to afford the child.

    Oh yes, don't forget having the child airlifted by chopper, an emergency team standing by, there should be, of course, at LEAST two eminent and internationally renowned plastic surgeons, an ER staff of at least 25 of the finest experts in their field, aftercare and rehab and physio in a swiss sanatorium and it goes without saying find someone to sue who may be responsible for the child's accident. Then sue the plastic surgeons for millions of there is a scar. What a world some people live in. Meanwhile back on earth...


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