What is your GP like?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6276793.stm

What is your GP like? average of £100,000 for doing referral work mostly, does that justify all the tax money we pay going towards them?

Discuss.

Added later ***
Here are some figures which may be of interests to you guys.
UK population: 60 million
NHS: £92 billion cost (£7.5 billion prescribing costs)
Primary care (GP): 261 million consultation
Secondary care: 13 million outpatients and 8.5 million admissions

As we can see, a lot of cost goes towards GP (jack of all trade doctor)/primary care

More alarming figure:
11% of hospital admissions are due to treatment error (why would your GP tell ya that when they eventually refer you to the right people, and in some cases too late)

35,040 people die each year in UK as a result of misprescribing, that's 4 death/hour (official figure from medical journal)

so perceived responsibility from public is one thing, actual incompetence leading to serious illness and death are mostly gone unquestioned.

Don't feel I can say how much they are worth but I do think our local gp's are all fantastic. We have a practice with about 5 or 6 gp's and I don't have a preference which one I or my children see, they are all caring and patient and everything you would hope for in a gp.

I also have to say that the practise seems to work well, dealing with the normal appointments and urgent appointments. I hear many people complain about their gp so I feel very lucky.

And no I don't work for them or have any relatives there !

Every GP at the local surgery is damned good. Very extensive knowledge of pretty much everything, and what they don't know, they have books on the shelf in their office explaining perfectly.

The few times me or the family have been referred, it's always been to a specialist, and always a damned good one.

The surgery itself is great. Phone the receptionist & try to get an appointment, not a problem. I can phone at 9am & walk out of the doctors after the appointment by 10:30am the same day.

I was at this surgery before taking out private medical cover, and I'll still use them as my first port of call, that way, they claim from my policy with a minimum of paperwork, and they get their money without it affecting the rest of their budgeting apparently.

IMO rubberduckofdeath, you're wrong. All of mine are, as I'm sure Tomcat's are as well.

Originally Posted by rubberduckofdeath

Just another reason the NHS is falling apart.

No doctor I've ever seen has deserved £100k a year!

Do you want to compare what they do to what our wonderful footballers do........ ?

Originally Posted by rubberduckofdeath

No, because I think football's a girls game and I think they're an overpaid bunch of t055ers....

well at least we can agree on something here then

I think GPs mostly do a wonderful job, its just the pay level seem to be a bit excessive for the things they do. you have a cold, you make appointment, and by the time you get seen, you've probably already near recovery. And a lot of people went to see GP to get sick notes etc which takes about 7 mins/patient according to guidelines. GPs prescribe "safer drugs". At some countries, similar roles are only for junior doctors and gets paid very little. After all, life and death situation usually occurs at A&Es

Originally Posted by KrZ

I think GPs mostly do a wonderful job, its just the pay level seem to be a bit excessive for the things they do. you have a cold, you make appointment, and by the time you get seen, you've probably already near recovery. And a lot of people went to see GP to get sick notes etc which takes about 7 mins/patient according to guidelines. GPs prescribe "safer drugs". At some countries, similar roles are only for junior doctors and gets paid very little. After all, life and death situation usually occurs at A&Es

If I have a cold, I go to the chemist.

If it's more serious, I call the GP's and I'm seen that day, I can't remember when it took longer than 2-3 hours from phoning them.

More serious than that, NHS Direct & request a non-emergency ambulance. More serious than that, 999.

Life & death can happen in your own home, and my GP's still do home visits.

But then, I'm out in the sticks, and certainly the older folks in the community NEED home visits.

ours is rubbish, we have two they are husband and wife thats £200k pa
and the health centre is rubbish too, book an appointment 2 days before you want to get ill.

Just to throw a spanner in the works.
Many people slate their GP but the fact is that it's the practise which is to blame a lot of the time.
I have a nightmare trying to get an appointment, but when I do, I am seen by the GP and go away happy.
Don't forget that these GP's don't get paid for what they do, they get paid for what they know and could do. If I took my son or daughter to see the GP with a mysterious illnes and he spotted that it could be quite serious, I would say that he /she is worth the 100k salary.
If a lorry driver delivers a load to the wrong address it is easily sorted in a couple of days by re delivering to the right address. If a GP prescribes the wrong medicines then the results could be fatal. I for one, do not think that I would like that responsibility, even for 100k.
If people only went to the doctors for "proper" illnesses then getting an appointment would be easy and we would all be happy with the service. Possibly...................

Originally Posted by Furry Ginger One

Just to throw a spanner in the works.
Many people slate their GP but the fact is that it's the practise which is to blame a lot of the time.
I have a nightmare trying to get an appointment, but when I do, I am seen by the GP and go away happy.
Don't forget that these GP's don't get paid for what they do, they get paid for what they know and could do. If I took my son or daughter to see the GP with a mysterious illnes and he spotted that it could be quite serious, I would say that he /she is worth the 100k salary.
If a lorry driver delivers a load to the wrong address it is easily sorted in a couple of days by re delivering to the right address. If a GP prescribes the wrong medicines then the results could be fatal. I for one, do not think that I would like that responsibility, even for 100k.
If people only went to the doctors for "proper" illnesses then getting an appointment would be easy and we would all be happy with the service. Possibly...................