snap +1

Do you really think surgeries let people know when Doctors leave?

The most we have done is notice in waiting area, and on website and practice leaflet. Given that, as I said previously, there are no "personal lists" it would be pointless and costly for a surgery to inform every patient that a particular doctor is leaving.

I guess not but given he's been gone for over a month (6 weeks in fact) I did kind of expect them to have updated the practice website to remove him.

Really? This is the NHS

I won't say anymore. I'll wait for Cloaked one to swoop in lol

In other news the thunder flies/thrips (whatever you want to call them) are out in force today making everyones life itchy and miserable (and that's just the people inside - the poor sods who work outside round the site and wear hi-vis are being swarmed by the bloody things).

I doubt 'the NHS' has very much to do with a single practice's web site, since GP practices have effectively been private businesses for donkey's years.

Private except that the contract with the Govt is essentially unilateral - they can change T&Cs but we can't, we get a fixed income per patient, if we do more work we don't get paid more, lots of boxticking which doesn't help the patient or GP but means the Govt can say they have done xyz, we can't pick and choose who we see etc.

In all honesty, they've either forgotten about it, haven't gotten round to it, or can't be bothered. Don't know if the doctor is retiring or leaving and whether it's amicable.

Pedantic much?

I have no idea who my GP is now. I expect I’ll find out next time I get a repeat prescription. Our surgery has just lost three GPs (all left at the end of June), and got two in who seem to be sharing the week’s load.

I have no idea if this is a good sign or not.

I've never had the same GP twice here, I didn't realise it was a thing?

My surgery asks me if I want to see my GP but I have no idea who (s)he is so I just say the 1st available one

I think the last time I saw my actual GP was 1999. I have no idea who I see these days.

I have never once seen my current GP (the one named on my medical card). When I moved to Nottingham I was initially staying with the parents of one of my friends, whose mum was a practice manager so naturally she signed me up with their GP and that was that.

In the 35 years I have been living in this city I have never once needed to go and see him. I would imagine that the actual GP named on my card has long retired by now. In fact I don't even know if the practice is still going! The address on the card is sufficiently local to be a feasible choice for my current residence (I know people who do go to their GP and it's further than I would have to) if the practice still exists.

Work colleagues, who would go and see their GP with what I considered alarming regularity, used to be amazed at this situation, but I would point out that when I was ill I didn't take me any longer to get well enough to come back to work than they did after seeing their doctor and being prescribed antibiotics.

I've had one trip to A&E in the last 35 years when I tripped and fell, splitting my chin open on a flight case I was carrying. Left to my own devices I would have probably repaired the damage with micropore and cotton wool, but our singer insisted on taking me to A&E where because my injury wasn't life-threateneing it took ages for me to be seen and eventually stitched up. I got a nurse friend to remove the stitches the following week at her home where it was done quicker and in far more pleasant surroundings than a return to A&E or a trip to my GP (the two official options) would have offered.

I suppose I've been lucky, and as I get older this luck be less likely to hold out, but for now I'll continue to be thankful that my health has been so good.

Attila is my GP. Not the Hun though.

Here you generally have single doctor GP practices, it is generally the specialists that have combined surgeries in order to get through the referrals. I've been to my orthopaedic surgery 4 or 5 times and seen 3 different doctors - although for each individual problem I've always seen the same doctor (i.e. 4 years ago I saw doctor 1 for an operation on my left heel, 2 years ago I saw doctor 2 for the left heel - he was also surprised with what the first doctor had done, d1 cut the heel open from the back, d2 went in from the side, with a much smaller hole).