Stop wasting GPs’ time with warts, hay fever and sick note requests, doctors plead

• Doctors’ Association is planning campaign for lessons on using health service

Patients should stop wasting GPs’ time with warts, hay fever and sick notes requests, doctors have pleaded.

In a book entitled Why Can’t I See My GP? Dr Ellen Welch puts forward the case that the next generation should be educated on how to use the NHS correctly.

She believes pupils should be taught in their PSHE lessons how not to waste doctors’ time when they grow up.

Welch, who works as a locum part-time GP in Cumbria, told The Times: ‘We can’t deal with everything. It is too much. We cannot deal with a nation being ill if we have to do all this.’

The Doctors’ Association is also planning a campaign for lessons on how to use the health service, set to start in 2024.

Welch, 43, a former chairwoman of the Doctors’ Association, said GPs had been unfairly blamed for being idle and continuing with online consultations after the pandemic, which she herself has done.

She said: ‘The NHS is so vast and confusing even for people who work in it to navigate. If we put it on the curriculum from a young age, teenagers will know when they grow up how to use it effectively and what GP practices can and should deal with.’

Welch noted that health anxiety has risen since the pandemic, but added that people need to be aware that you do not need to trouble your GP with minor ailments such as ‘hay fever, conjunctivitis, a sniffle’ and the early stages of a cough and cold as most of those will go away without treatment.

She advised on using a common sense approach for self treatment, such as visiting the pharmacy for a cold remedy or using eye drops when possible. 

Latest data for England shows 71 per cent of GP consultations are face to face while 24 per cent are over the phone.

It comes after suggestions that the NHS is discriminating against elderly patients with one in six GP practices now taking bookings online only.

Dr Victoria Tzortziou-Brown, Vice Chair of the Royal College of GPs, said a lot of high quality, safe care is delivered remotely in general practice on a daily basis.

She said: ‘It is important that GPs and our teams are able to offer patients access to our services in a variety of ways, and whilst many patients prefer to see their GP face to face, many appreciate the convenience that remote consulting offers.

‘The College’s position is that the method of consulting should be a shared decision between clinician and patient based on clinical need, and clearly remote consultations will be more appropriate for some patients than others.

‘Whilst there is risk associated with all medical consultations, delivering remote care comes with specific challenges and limitations, as highlighted by this research. 

‘It makes a number of helpful recommendations in terms of identifying patients for whom remote care may not be appropriate and to support GP teams to ensure remote consultations are delivered as safely as possible.’