The request was to find mums who felt GP’s and NHS Direct unnecessarily sent babies and kids to A&E to suffer ‘long waits and inappropriate care’
As one of the mums on the thread so rightly said “GP stands for General Practitioner, they’re not experts in any speciality. Therefore if they’re not sure they will refer to hospital so a child can be seen by a specialist. If the GP thinks its urgent that referral will be A&E. I’d much rather be sent and it turns out to be nothing than a GP think its nothing and it turns out to be something bad. It isn’t inappropriate care and no parent would begrudge a long wait to be seen and ensure their childs health.”
I personally hate these anti NHS stories that are angled to make us think negatively of what is essentially really good and free health care. A friend who has recently returned from the US says she took the NHS all for granted until she was suddenly living somewhere where you have to essentially pay for everything from GP visits, to hospital emergency care. My own experience of my GP and NHS Direct is equally good. Yes they may err on the side of caution, but what parent wouldn’t want this? We’ve had a fair few ‘go to A&E referrals’ and though 98% of these were not serious but we did have two serious things spotted at A&E and so were hugely thankful for the referral.
Of course the NHS is not beyond criticism but real stories would be so much better than all these skewed ones aimed to make us afraid of what is a really good health care system.
So what’s your experience of your GP/NHS Direct? Let us know.
GP Bashing
I love mum (and dad) opinions don’t you? Parenting blogs, and sites like Mumsnet may get a lot of flack for being outspoken (and sometimes rude) but they are great places to basically get a realistic look at what parenting is like in 2013. So I love it that a recent request post on Mumsnet from a journalist basically asking for mums to complain about how GP got the bashing it so rightfully deserved from mums.
The request was to find mums who felt GP’s and NHS Direct unnecessarily sent babies and kids to A&E to suffer ‘long waits and inappropriate care’
As one of the mums on the thread so rightly said “GP stands for General Practitioner, they’re not experts in any speciality. Therefore if they’re not sure they will refer to hospital so a child can be seen by a specialist. If the GP thinks its urgent that referral will be A&E. I’d much rather be sent and it turns out to be nothing than a GP think its nothing and it turns out to be something bad. It isn’t inappropriate care and no parent would begrudge a long wait to be seen and ensure their childs health.”
I personally hate these anti NHS stories that are angled to make us think negatively of what is essentially really good and free health care. A friend who has recently returned from the US says she took the NHS all for granted until she was suddenly living somewhere where you have to essentially pay for everything from GP visits, to hospital emergency care. My own experience of my GP and NHS Direct is equally good. Yes they may err on the side of caution, but what parent wouldn’t want this? We’ve had a fair few ‘go to A&E referrals’ and though 98% of these were not serious but we did have two serious things spotted at A&E and so were hugely thankful for the referral.
Of course the NHS is not beyond criticism but real stories would be so much better than all these skewed ones aimed to make us afraid of what is a really good health care system.
So what’s your experience of your GP/NHS Direct? Let us know.
The request was to find mums who felt GP’s and NHS Direct unnecessarily sent babies and kids to A&E to suffer ‘long waits and inappropriate care’
As one of the mums on the thread so rightly said “GP stands for General Practitioner, they’re not experts in any speciality. Therefore if they’re not sure they will refer to hospital so a child can be seen by a specialist. If the GP thinks its urgent that referral will be A&E. I’d much rather be sent and it turns out to be nothing than a GP think its nothing and it turns out to be something bad. It isn’t inappropriate care and no parent would begrudge a long wait to be seen and ensure their childs health.”
I personally hate these anti NHS stories that are angled to make us think negatively of what is essentially really good and free health care. A friend who has recently returned from the US says she took the NHS all for granted until she was suddenly living somewhere where you have to essentially pay for everything from GP visits, to hospital emergency care. My own experience of my GP and NHS Direct is equally good. Yes they may err on the side of caution, but what parent wouldn’t want this? We’ve had a fair few ‘go to A&E referrals’ and though 98% of these were not serious but we did have two serious things spotted at A&E and so were hugely thankful for the referral.
Of course the NHS is not beyond criticism but real stories would be so much better than all these skewed ones aimed to make us afraid of what is a really good health care system.
So what’s your experience of your GP/NHS Direct? Let us know.