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GP ... forgot I am diabetic..

Most GP surgeries in the UK now should have electronic records, and serious conditions that should be taken into consideration should be flagged. As always, the data has to be entered correctly for it to be of any use. It takes a button click to access it and the GP should have a list of who they are seeing anyway.
Before prescribing a doctor should check verbally what medication you are already taking, and if you have any allergies. No doctor/nurse should feel threatened if you ask what the tablets are and how will they effect you. There is a data sheet in every box, yes its give you lots of side-effects that most people do not get, but its good to know.
The NHS is changing the way it gives information all the time, https://patient.info/medicine , if your practice is online you can check some information on your records.
 
debzz, I haven't been here in a long while so you won't know me, but for what it's worth, i hear you, and i agree. there is still the hippocratic oath and there is still human caring. i understand all the excuses he might have had, but i deeply agree and most of all i see and hear you. and i understand your hurt.
 
Im also allergic to penicillin. I had a massive adverse reaction to an antibiotic ( Ciprofloxaxin) several years ago and as a result of that the medics have said that I must never be prescribed any of the new generation antibiotics because they are all based on the chemical structure of penicillin so can only be prescribed one of the old antibiotics like Clindamycin - at least theyre cheaper than the new generation ones so at I’ll be saving my GP money if I need antibiotics again
 
My husband is due to have an operation but because he is on warfarin he has to go 2 days before and stay in after the op until his blood is right again - somebody from the hospital rang him and asked why he was on warfarin when he told them it was because he had a metal heart valve and pacemaker she asked him how he knew it was a metal valve!
 
I find mostly it is a waste of time (depending who I see) going for a diabetes review. The staff turn over is ridiculous and you never see the same nurse twice and it is the same with GP's. When I went for my last review, the nurse asked me to get undressed and lie on the bed, she thought I had gone for a smear test! She then proceeded to change the type of basal insulin I take and I refused. The nurse then proceeded to tell me about the importance of looking after myself and to remember that I will always be a diabetic. I will never get better and be normal again!!! lol I asked her how long she had been doing diabetes patient reviews ........14 month. I politely told her not to teach me how to suck eggs. That I had been a type 1 diabetic for 51 years, longer than she had been alive. She told me that I didn't know everything, to which I replied "no I'm sure I dont, but I know a lot more than you. Remember that I'm not normal!" With a smile I walked out and booked another appointment but with the GP. Never think that your doctor or nurse knows everything or remembers everything. Some are better than others, but the overall responsibility of your care is your own.
 
I don't quite understand the problem with the doctors, they are overworked and understaffed due to government fund cutting. However, in 62 years of diabetic care I have only had one problem with my practice ( that was with the practice nurse who gave me information I knew to be wrong, so I called the hospital diabetic specialist nurse and was told I had worked it out right and fine tuned the human insulin to my needs). My doctors are aware imediately if they try to prescribe something that will interfeer with my control, because their computer tells them so. End of problem!
 

I didn’t read that reply as petulant at all.
 


Most of us are lucky enough to remember what is wrong with us, what medication we take and retain enough info to ask questions. We are lucky enough to be involved in our own health care. That is not true for everyone. When my mum started her crazy dementia journey she would quite often make an appointment, describe something( she could never remember what) and come home with yet more drugs. Which she would forget to take. Or take double when she remembered.

She forgot she was t2d quite early on, would have terrible headaches because she forgot her bp meds etc. After she was dx with dementia but while she was still capable of living independently she would still see her gp. They never seemed to look at her dx at all. Instead of wondering " is this person non compliant because she forgets to take her medications and thats why she is still hypertensive" the dosages were just all increased. She fell over a few times because on the days she did remember to take her meds her bp was in her boots.

My point is that not everyone is as capable as you are. Many people rely on a gp knowing what is wrong with them and trust them to get it right each time they are prescribed a drug. It is a gps job to understand how drugs interact with various conditions and other drugs. We have a right to expect that they do the job they are paid to do.

I am lucky at the moment. I can look after myself. In a few years who knows where I will be? Or you, come to that. In a few years, if you have started on the same path asmy mum would you expect your gp to have at least read that you have dementia?

Btw, I did report my mums gp. Once I found out what was going on, after picking her up from a and e after yet another fall. Nothing much happened. He is still there, although "lessons have been learnt".
 
Kentoldlady1 said:
not everyone is as capable as you are.
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You're too kind, but you over estimate my capabilities. I have to take what I'm going to say on a piece of paper otherwise I forget. At least we get to the point quickly.

Kentoldlady1 said:
When my mum started her crazy dementia journey she would quite often make an appointment, describe something( she could never remember what) and come home with yet more drugs. Which she would forget to take. Or take double when she remembered.
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I have witnessed my own mother, now sadly passed, going through the same thing. It's why she had a carer and then moved into a home, two things that don't come cheap, especially when you own your own home. Luckily she loved the home a lot.

Kentoldlady1 said:
We have a right to expect that they do the job they are paid to do.
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Of course they should do the job they're paid for, but how come we seem to think they can do it the way we think they should do it, in the time they are given.

I suggest we start giving them the time to do it properly! 10 minutes is quite obviously not enough time to read notes and see patient, and I suggest that getting up to speed on a person's notes deserves at least another 10 minutes, so we either need twice as many GPs or the 20 % that take 80% of their time start cutting back, or we develop a system whereby critical information is held in such a way that the GP can read it in seconds.

I can't comment on individual case, and if there has been real negligence then they should be reported. We expect a lot from our GPs, at the same time we should give them the tools to make the job easier. The alternative is Health Insurance to be paid until the day we die (see Mr Hunts views) and you can have as much time with the GP as you want, for him to read notes properly.
 

As I think has already been mentioned, dx is already flagged. There is no need to trawl through pages of notes to find it. It does not even take 30 seconds to find it.

I appreciate that there is only 10 minutes. But if it is impossible to read and take notice of a dx in the time available then all GPS would be making the same mistakes, and they are not. At my mum's practice it was just one gp that didn't bother.

And it really does come down to the individual gp. Some care. Some don't. It has always been the same. I think the big difference now is that patients are well informed and will not put up with bad practice.

My parents generation would never even dream of complaining about a doctor. Fortunately that is no longer true.
 
This is a very valid point and it must happen quite often I should think . Ten minutes does not seem a long time but it is enough to read the basic notes of all patients . Appointment systems are very flawed and as we seldom see the same GP this adds to it . I’m back at the surgery this afternoon so we shall see how my visit goes .... it’s a different doctor today ... watch this space lol
 
Oh my what an insult! It’s a good job we can laugh about how we are treated but to assume we are ignorant is not acceptable.
 
Thankyou very much for your comment
 
It is funny but again not acceptable. I got remarried 4 years ago and also past ‘ trying for a family ‘ on a visit to my practice The topic of my forthcoming nuptials came up and the GP asked me if I needed any contraception advise ... lol
 
But isn’t that what our notes are for ? And reading the cards would take as much time as reading notes ..
 
I hope everybody is communicating their thoughts and feelings to the only people that can actually do something about it. The GP!

I had hoped that some might realise that 10 minutes really isn't enough time to read notes and see a patient. I've heard so many going on about how they can't get an appointment for weeks and weeks. Lets give GPs 10 minutes between patients so they can read up on people's notes. My reckoning is that it will double waiting time for appointments, so we need twice as many GPs. My surgery has 4,500 patients (low by modern day standards) and 3 part time lady doctors. I can see any one of those doctors and I don't expect them to know my medical history intimately.

When prescribing antibiotics they will always ask me if I'm allergic to penicillin, even though my notes say I am (I'm not) and whatever they prescribe they would check for contraindications, but only if they had to prescribe.

Seems I'm not alone in thinking GPs need more time, see what they have to say at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38881464.
 
So I saw a different GP yesterday..a new one to the practice. Appointment was on time .. he had opened his room door stood there to greet me. I explained I had more than one problem ... not a problem he said .. listened very attentively then asked me how I was coping with my diabetes... marvellous
 

It's only a ten minute appointment. If I had to list all my meds, all the ways they interact and my allergies every time I saw a GP I'd have maybe two minutes to get to my actual problem. My named GP (not a random staff GP), trusts me to check the leaflet, and to stop treatment if there's a problem. She does remind me every time though.
 
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