I am not an expert on these matters I am about to write about; in fact anything I say here is just my own observations and thoughts; so don’t scream and shout if I am contradicting your own thoughts on the subject, in fact I would be interested to know what you think!
The lowly GP or General Practitioner is the subject and I only say lowly because he or she is the first rung in the ladder to getting real medical help. Your GP may be the road block or another good term is the stumble block in your receiving immediate attention for a possibly serious problem.
They can hang on to you for months while they decide what your ailment might be or what the cause is, finally after the pills and medicine trials have been gone through with no visible effect they will refer you to the hospital, the next step on the ladder.
Yes I know and you don’t have to tell me; if they sent every patient to the hospital that they were unsure about it would probably be months before you even got a first appointment.
What I am wondering is, how often do our GPs receive extra training on all the new medical problems and possible cures that surface, do they just read up on them?
All the new drugs coming out every day, do they stop to read all the information on them and possible side effects before prescribing them?
Here is one instance from just last week. My son in law went to the doctors as he was in a lot of pain with his side and his back, the GP said it could be his kidneys and prescribed a common or garden pain killer that can be bought over the counter.
He took the prescription to the chemist but questioned him about it as he knew that certain pain killers were not suitable for various stomach problems, the chemist confirmed his suspicions that the pain killers were unsuitable and advised on another type.
Now if they can get a simple matter like pain killers wrong what else are they getting wrong?
The GPs workload has lessened considerably in the last few years, night calls are a thing of the past, in fact you have to think twice or three times about phoning after 7 pm even if it seems serious a problem.
Even when you do phone you can expect to wait two or three hours and sometimes longer before a doctor arrives if it is after hours. That is my experience anyway.
If you have a really serious problem never wait for a doctor just ring for an ambulance.
I do understand that the GP must get frustrated at times; their time is wasted by malingerers just looking for a holiday from work, or someone with a common cold who seems to think they need antibiotics to cure it.
So looking at things practically our lowly GP is a necessity that goes on experience rather than learning.
