Re: Thoughts about Doctors....
Originally Posted by
Lion Queen
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I've seen my doctor face to face during lockdown, my doctors surgery have been good of they felt it necessary to see the patients face to face they have done. I've also seen a nurse there for my B12 jab.
You are so lucky, LQ...when i went for my blood test, I had to go to the local hospital, not even the GP nurse was available to do it at the time.
Originally Posted by
carol
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Not just surgeries but hospitals too.
Last week Tony had a follow up phone call after having a minor procedure done at hospital 6 weeks ago. Normally they would have seen him. They had to talk to me & I answered as best I could..
He has also had a telephone check up from his Alzheimer's doctor.
I asked him what was the point in that? I reminded him we saw him in person 6 months ago so why the telephone now?
I pointed out they couldn't see if he was unkempt or the dead look in his eyes.
He replied with some mumbles excuse that I didn't understand. I think he was just opting out..
Carol that's awful. So much is being left to the family to try and deal with, with less and less support due to the virus, and so much is lost by not seeing folk face to face....other signs, like body language, the eyes as you say. I really hope its not going to be the norm.
Originally Posted by
Bathsheba
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I don't think it'll ever go back to how it was. Also, bear in mind that the e-consult system was introduced way before the pandemic reared its ugly head. Our surgery was one of the first to jump on that bandwagon. It's been around for some years now, but I believe all NHS GP practices were given a deadline to have the system in place (not sure about that, correct me if I'm wrong).
So no, I think this is here to stay. We can either ring the surgery and hang on for an hour or so waiting for a person to answer and tell us the doctor will ring us back, or we can use e-consult, with exactly the same result.
Can't help wondering what the doctors do all day now - if they're talking to patients on the phone instead of seeing them, surely that must speed the process up? Will local surgeries as we know them eventually become a thing of the past?
Oh I hope not, Bathsheba.....I don't know what e-consult is...I assume we have something similar here in Scotland but maybe called something else. And yes, what ARE they doing all day if they aren't seeing anyone, because there is no way a phone call lasts as long as an appointment does.