My understanding is: a GP can achieve between 4-5 times more of these, than face to face, so as long as allocated appropriately, more people get what they need.
Does that follow? If the need is just to have a consultation fine, but isn't the consultation usually just the preface to a diagnosis and treatment? Are there any stats that show whether or not phone consultations are as efficient as face-to-face with regard to resolving issues?
I think phone consultations are fine if your problem is something you've had diagnosed before and it's just a matter of getting a prescription. I had a telephone consultation with a consultant ( that sounds wrong). He asked me about my weight. I told him I was a bit overweight but not fat. That was my subjective assessment. With a face to face or zoom, he could have made his own objective assessment. If you can see a person's face, you can have a better idea of whether or not you have been understood. This works both ways. It is very difficult to pick up the nuances of communication on a phone call with someone you have never met.
@Chris-P-Bacon that’s entirely your choice but if you don’t like it complain to someone who can actually do something about it not a receptionist who has no power and has to be polite however rude customers are.
I did, twice ..it fell on deaf ears. And you're assuming the receptionist was polite - and I was rude. I simply remarked I wasn't prepared to impart private medical information for the purpose of triage to a non medical professional which I still maintain is a reasonable stance...at which point she (it was a she) became curt & abrasive - and its not the first time this individual or the others within the team for that matter has responded in such a manner. I have suggested patients be given the option to discuss their medical conditions only with the GP, Practice nurse or Practice manager via written feedback - no response. I'm not saying all GP practices are the same - these are just my own experiences.
The receptionists at our GP always ask what it is you want to see someone about, so that they can make an appointment with the right person. They don't want or need all the details. So for example when I had a suspicious skin lesion, the right person to see was one of the nurse practitioners who has had specialist training in that area and has more knowledge and more experience in taking the photos to send to the dermatology dept. than the GPs have. HRT, that's another nurse practitioner with specialist training in that area. Routine annual review for autoimmune arthritis, that's a trained healthcare assistant to take the blood for testing, then one of the nurses for the actual review.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Ok, I can see that mandatory mask wearing in situations where elderly, confused or disabled people are damaged by the rule, needed urgent addressing. But did you read the comments below the article? I quote:
"I hate masks, the people that wear them..." "Me too. My feelings for those I see still wearing them veer between pity and contempt."
Good grief! What right has anyone to hate me for wearing a mask? Or for wearing anything else, come to that - a headscarf, or unfashionable clothes? What harm does my mask-wearing do to them? I might suspect I have Covid and not want to pass it on - or I might be severely immune compromised and be trying to protect myself. It has NOTHING to do with anyone else.
End of rant.
The vocal anti-maskers are odd people but if they haven't got the intelligence to work out why people wear masks after two years of constantly being told then is their opinion really worth anything?
I had to go to the supermarket yesterday after being let down by our shopping delivery. Technically I was out of the infectious period but I wore a mask and took the usual precautions anyway just in case. I noted a few odd looks and smirks from some people. No one looks twice at the people coughing and sneezing all over the fresh food though.
It's also funny that our shopping delivery had a lot of substitutions and the driver told me that if I touched anything that needed to be returned then he wouldn't be able to accept it back. He also told me that the staff at the supermarket in all departments are allowed to turn up to work while contagious so he wasn't sure why it mattered if things were touched by a customer.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
The vocal anti-maskers are odd people but if they haven't got the intelligence to work out why people wear masks after two years of constantly being told then is their opinion really worth anything?
Clearly, their opinion isn't worth anything unless they vent their aggression on mask wearers. I wore a mask when rehearsing with a choir, with an international group of jazz musicians, shortly before our recent holiday to the UK. I felt that the risk of infection from a group of people I didn't know, who'd come from far & wide for this rehearsal, was sufficient for me to want to take precautions.
As I left the stage after we'd finished singing, a couple of the jazz musicians quite forcefully asked me why I was wearing a mask. I was too taken aback to think of a snappy reply, but fortunately a couple of more feisty members of our alto section stuck up for me...
So - no, their opinion wasn't worth anything. But their borderline aggression was extremely unpleasant.
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
Just been for my first eye test since before the pandemic. I was the only person in the shop wearing a mask, but I assumed the optician would, seeing how close up and personal they can get while peering in my eyes. No, he wasn’t wearing a mask, but asked me to pull mine down while using the machine thingy with the interchangeable lenses, so I didn’t steam them up. I took the opportunity to ask him why he wasn’t wearing a mask. His response was that it was no longer policy, and that he got as many complaints when he wore one as when he didn’t. “Anyway” he said, “ that’s all over now” If it hadn’t been for the facts that I finally had covid a few weeks ago, and am fully vaccinated, I might have asked him to put on a mask, or made my excuses and left. It seems to me that it would have been good manners to take note of my mask, and ask if I would prefer him to wear one. Not very impressed.
I don't mind if somebody wants to continue wearing a mask..it's doesn't bother me at all, but the simple matter is, mask wearing is no longer a legal requirement or mandatory. If I'm not going to object to anybody wearing one I don't expect those same people to object that I choose not to. Especially when no other precautions such as social distancing, hand sanitising, self testing are, on the whole, no longer being observed or indeed a legal requirement. "Following the science" works both ways.
There are 39 people in our hospital with covid, none on ventilators which is a good improvement, but 7 deaths which is a lot more than the week before. This from the week ending 5th November.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Posts
Does that follow? If the need is just to have a consultation fine, but isn't the consultation usually just the preface to a diagnosis and treatment? Are there any stats that show whether or not phone consultations are as efficient as face-to-face with regard to resolving issues?
I had a telephone consultation with a consultant ( that sounds wrong). He asked me about my weight. I told him I was a bit overweight but not fat. That was my subjective assessment. With a face to face or zoom, he could have made his own objective assessment.
If you can see a person's face, you can have a better idea of whether or not you have been understood. This works both ways. It is very difficult to pick up the nuances of communication on a phone call with someone you have never met.
And you're assuming the receptionist was polite - and I was rude.
I simply remarked I wasn't prepared to impart private medical information for the purpose of triage to a non medical professional which I still maintain is a reasonable stance...at which point she (it was a she) became curt & abrasive - and its not the first time this individual or the others within the team for that matter has responded in such a manner. I have suggested patients be given the option to discuss their medical conditions only with the GP, Practice nurse or Practice manager via written feedback - no response.
I'm not saying all GP practices are the same - these are just my own experiences.
As I left the stage after we'd finished singing, a couple of the jazz musicians quite forcefully asked me why I was wearing a mask. I was too taken aback to think of a snappy reply, but fortunately a couple of more feisty members of our alto section stuck up for me...
So - no, their opinion wasn't worth anything. But their borderline aggression was extremely unpleasant.
If it hadn’t been for the facts that I finally had covid a few weeks ago, and am fully vaccinated, I might have asked him to put on a mask, or made my excuses and left. It seems to me that it would have been good manners to take note of my mask, and ask if I would prefer him to wear one. Not very impressed.
"Following the science" works both ways.
This from the week ending 5th November.