GP = Ghastly Practice

As of this morning mother has been signed off work for another week. She's not a happy bunny. After the MI in august she was off of work until the new school year and more recently she has been off for a week with Laryngitis. However, this has progressed into a serious chest infection warranting heavy antibiotics. The GP has been most unhelpful by just writing up a sick note and telling her he hopes she feels better soon.

My question is; Does it rely on training and experience as to the kind of treatment you receive?

I know that GP's are not masters of the universe and do not know everything, but I know from my own training that if you complete a full assessment and you listen to your patient, then you can't go far wrong. This works for any health profession. Nurse's, Doctor's, Ambulance personal etc. Cracking out a book to check so that you can be 100% sure would not be a problem. When I was 7 I had an inner ear abscess, my GP pulled out his encyclopaedia and confirmed his diagnosis was correct. I thought this was great, it proved that he was not going to second guess himself.

Do these quick spin GP's just see patients for 10 minutes at a time, with only enough time to only discuss one problem to then write up a prescription and wish them well until next time? It takes the average member of the public around 3 days to acquire an appointment to then be told about what you can and can not talk about with your Dr. Your made to feel like a time waster if your problem is deamed as trivial so you wait another 6months until your limbs are hanging off before you make another appearance at the surgery.

Most of the time you go in to find that you are not seeing your regular GP and instead you have an over zealous locum smiling and nodding at your every word, whilst incessantly staring at the computer screen. Maybe this is a new way of assessing patients that I just haven't heard of yet?

From my own personal experience I was diagnosed with Chondromalacia patella using a two year old MRI scan. The GP I saw know's I am a student nurse so threw the symptoms back at me asking for my opinion. She was some what disgruntled when I told her that if I knew what the problem was then I would not be sat in front of her! I had the scan when I was 18 so now two years on my symptoms are worse, the pain is sometimes unbearable and I have the added fear that if the problem has worsened it could potentially ruin my career.

I know that I should be offered another scan so that the Orthopaedics can reassess and I can either be treated conservatively or with much heavier treatments such as a knee wash out or key hole surgery.

Than again, what do I know, i'm only a student!