General Chat

In the DM

Online and telephone GP appointments can miss serious illnesses and put patients at risk of deadly errors, a major study found.
The elderly and others with urgent conditions face wrong diagnosis and potentially fatal delays to care that would be less likely if seen face-to-face, analysis suggests.
Poor rapport-building and inadequate information gathering means patients are more at risk of being under-diagnosed or given incorrect treatment, they found.
Those with communication difficulties – namely the old and very young – are in most danger and should always be offered in-person appointments when requested, researchers suggest.
A team from Oxford University, Plymouth and the Nuffield Trust studied data from 95 UK safety incidents between 2020 and 2023, including complaints, reports and settled compensation claims.
Several safety incidents involved clinicians assuming that a diagnosis made on a remote consultation was definitive rather than provisional.
Serious errors - including some fatalities - relating to serious conditions such as sepsis, congenital heart disease, cancer and diabetic foot complications 'would likely have been readily diagnosed with an in-person examination', they said.
'Especially when subsequent consultations were remote, such errors could become ingrained, leading to diagnostic over-shadowing and missed or delayed diagnosis.'
In one case, a 16-year-old girl died of sepsis after a GP spoke to her older sister on the phone and mistakenly diagnosed glandular fever.

Some disturbing analysis there.

I can't remember when I last saw a GP at our surgery. We usually get channelled to a Nurse practioner.
My biggest concern is the way they put rules in place and won't deviate.
Back in 2021, my daughter said that I should get a mark on my face looked at, so I phoned for an appointment.
I was offered a telephone appointment for about 12 days later and questioned what was the use of that?
"Well that's the way we do it", I was told.
When I did at last speak to someone on the phone, I was told that I would need to go in to the surgery and see someone.....

As you say Ann. Tell me something I don't know !!

What a waste of their time and mine and a delay in treatment required.

On more than one occasion when a face to face appointment was needed I was told no appointments available so I went there said who I was and what I was told over the phone, I respectfully asked to see someone there and then and that I would cause a scene if it didn't happen, hey presto there was a cancellation, had to wait a few minutes but I did get in.

We don't seem to get many problems here thank goodness.I have always got an appointment when I have needed one.

Thankfully our doctors have resumed appointments and if it’s urgent you can ring after 3 pm and get an appointment for after 5.30 to see one of the doctors if you don’t mind which one

They will ask what the problem is and if not sure will talk to one of the nurses to see if it’s really an emergency

Must say they have been very very good with me

And they have just resumed the annual mot with a nurse . Usually was about your birthday time but I haven’t had an mot for two plus years and just been invited in even though birthday is March

Guess they have been trying to catch up