R I C H

Yes. Have an elderly mother in law to take care of. Sold our house in under 48hrs this week, business sale due imminently, so will look at a new year move.

Shard

Big move. Hope it goes well. How long did the Canadian adventure last?

R I C H

Thanks - much less of an adventure moving back. We've been here 13 years.

Aviator

If I read the the notice correctly and assuming the doctor works normal hours at $30 to $35 an appointment, max 7 mins per appointment (which seems normal), each doc earns $1800 a day, taking 20 working days off per year, $432000 pa, after $7000 a month to use the clinic, they get left with $348,000 a year. And the govt does not subsidise their expenses, were they looking for sympathy?

R I C H

That's broadly what I thought. I've no issue with what they earn, it's the implied whining about their situation that's misplaced and unnecessary IMO.

Shard

+1

dave_j

Like most business arguments, this one is about money.. with niggling emotional overtones.

No doubt the average GP has to deal with unpleasant patients and I've had to deal with the odd officious GP but that's par for the course. As a design engineer I had to deal with my share of people who'd rather be doing something else, it happens in all professions, we all have bad days.

But it's the bottom line that's the point of the notice. From the patient's viewpoint the odd missed appointment is something to be welcomed. How many times have you made an appointment to meet your doctor at Xam only to be delayed and seen later at X+++am. I appreciate that some patients will require a deeper examination than others but squeezing us in to an extent where the experience is poor for all concerned doesn't help and the temptation to assign such practice to the maximisation of income is all too easy.

My wife was a teacher, and somewhat poorly paid in comparison, and her out of hours workload was at least that described in the notice but it was accepted as part of the job, it was something that needed to be done. I don't ever remember her complaining to her pupils about it.

No, this notice should have been better phrased and indicates a desire to maximise daily temporal resources but uses financial arguments to make a bad case.

BristolUK

She probably sent you outside in the corridor.

bats

My FB feed frequently has posts from complaining GPs but teachers are always posting about how tired and overworked they are and nurses mostly post about how wonderful they are.

It's irritating and doesn't endear them to me.

Novocastrian

There's a thread about that somewhere.

Good for you for thinking about your aged parent-in-law, We were in the same situation 2 and a bit years ago, and our returning to help him did more good than did the doctors.

Tirytory

7 minutes per patient... are you having a laugh?

A healthy person with one problem can take 10-15mins, without getting to patients with complex needs, the ones who can't stop talking, the elderly who spend 7 mins just getting into the room and settled into a chair, mental illness, baby checks, paps, cancer pts, I could go on and on..

My husband has said that even the NHS are considering that the 10 min allocated to an appt is not realistic and they are looking to move to 15 mins..

Also the 7,000 is off by quite a bit too.

R I C H

6 patients came and went during the 35 minutes I was sat in the waiting room. I was given 4 minutes. It was a waste of an hour of my time off work - information that could have been given over the phone or by letter.

Without knowing detailed finances of the surgery business, it's impossible to comment on the $7,000 figure.

Shard

I don't understand why surgeries aren't more flexible on phone (or Skype) advice. We've had various minor issues which could have been dealt with by a call, but the whole system seems geared up to pull you in and sit you down in front of a GP.

Tirytory

You should change your doctor then! I will freely admit that my husband isn't the fastest, but he's thorough and has a great reputation in town. I do think the fee for service system is flawed for the reasons you're describing though. My husband is moving clinics, on Friday actually, to work with more ethically minded doctors. He works with one dr who's work. We've had a lot of his patients asking to roster with my husband now he's leaving.

Well Aviator felt he could comment..

Tirytory

I think that's only true of certain drs surgery. More forward thinking or larger practices have the means and ability to restructure appt system. I know my friends practice in the UK have one doctor who only does triage by phone for a session. Both doctor and patient satisfaction has gone up.