Is it me or are most GP's a load of rubbish?

Question

Has your GP ever been really so so wrong with a diagnosis? Nothing too grim and upsetting for everyone please. x

Answer 1

My family GP failed to recognise measles when my sister got it. My father got seriously ill and was unable to eat anything for two weeks. When we questioned the GP he just told us that 'people can survive for 60 days without food'!
My grandfather was also prescribed penecillin although he was allergic to it.
As for myself, I long wished wish someone would do something about my headaches other than tell me to take painkillers, or that 'everyone gets run down sometimes'. I could do that without all that training!
On the other hand my father has registered with a fantastic GP
who genuinely listens and cares. After I saw him (he actually examined me unlike the others) and found the cause of my headaches - so now I am getting treatment. So, I think it depends on the luck of the draw when you register really.

Answer 2

Speaking as a retired GP I do not think that most GPs are a load of rubbish. Most GPs are genuinely interested in their patients and are endeavouring to assist them within the very strict limitations set by the Government and the massive time wasting reports and red tape now involved in General Practice. Obviously GPs are human and will make mistakes which are greatly to be regretted but they cause the GP much distress as well as the patient and their relatives. Most problems in General Practice arise from poor communication and misunderstanding the position of both the patient and the doctor.

Answer 3

Yes, GPs often are a load of rubbish, at the local health centre one of the GPs treated my Dad for a terrible neck pain by sending him for painful physiotherapy when his medical records said he was at risk of developing bone cancer, which he died of 2 months later, the same GP told an elderly man to "go home and stop wasting my time" and shortly afterwards he too died of cancer. A different GP tried to treat my Mum for what was in fact a corneal abbrasion, but he insisted was conjunctivitis although he couldn't work out why it hadn't spread to the other eye. I saw every GP (4) in the practice before I got one to send me to a specialist when I had cysts in my eyelids, and when I developed a big a lump in my lip the GP told me a dentist would "pop it out", but the dentist couldn't touch it and sent me to a consultant, who sent me to another consultant who refused to take it out, more than 2 years later it is still there. I don't expect GPs to know everything, they aren't specialists after all, but they should be able to deal with commonplace illnesses. As far as I'm concerned they are a bunch of overpaid, callous, ignorant buggers. And don't get me started on consultants.

Answer 4

I think people expect too much from General Practitioners. These are doctors that are first line in dealing with illnesses and injuries. They are NOT specialists, and they do not have the training to deal with specialized problems. If a patient doesn't get a clear answer from their GP, then they need to be proactive in finding another doctor that will and stop whining about the one that simply hasn't the knowledge to help them. They are after all only human.

Answer 5

They think doing a blood test is a conclusive answer to everything. I'm embarassed to keep going back for my various thyroid symptoms, but as the test is always negative, i've got ME instead. or depression. Not mental. Physical. Take anti depressants. They treat everything. GREAT. Why do i even bother to go?! White blood count through the floor for the past year. Not sure what causes it, Depression or ME or a virus.
Getting the picture. bloody usless. So I trudge through life with this hanging over me, constantly feeling sooo drained, they dont know, take the A.Ds and if you dont feel better come back (gets the numbers up). I wanna see a real doctor.

Answer 6

How many GP's have you seen as a person?

I can't say much only having seen 2 or 3 but what the diagnostics they made were fine

Answer 7

I hate seeing the GP... when I was 15 I had a massive cyst and was in masses of pain, anyway he told me I was depressed and attention seeking! OMG 2 months later I "gave birth" to a cyst the size of a 9lb baby.

Ive also had ME and trying to get diagnosed is nearly impossible!

Theyre paid alot of money for nothing!

Answer 8

Yup! just been through months of it. He told me I had back ache ... I pointed out that as I had a spinal disease I could determine the difference between back pain and abdominal pain. Went to hospital and was told had back pain. Two days later, collapsed with blockage in colon and toxic poisoning. Told you I didn't have back pain! Still waiting for scan results after 12 weeks of pain and distress. He is good looking though ;-)

PS: There is an article in the Independent today about a 41 year old woman who went into hospital for an injection for piles and died six days later after four different diagnosis from four different doctors who didn't spot toxic poisoning after the injection. It's written by her husband and it is clear that had they diagnose correctly and treated with anti biotics she would be alive today.

Answer 9

Gp's nowadays just want you in and out of their office, because they only have 10 minute slots for each patient, its all text book cases, if they dont know what it is, they say the infamous 'viral infection'.

Answer 10

Mine is completely useless but where I lived previously my GP was superb.