GP 'consultation'

reddressman SG

Hello,

I like to discuss about GP and medical fees.

Generally, fever / cold / flu are common illness.

When a person has high fever, the doctor prescribes the usual medication.
When a person seems to have flu like dripping nose, they prescribe the usual medication.

Such patients still pay for the GP's consultation.

When I asked the GP, how sure he is that it is flu, he cannot reply.
When I asked him what exactly is the virus, he cannot reply.

Bacteria, virus cannot be identified by the naked eye or the symptoms.

This is why GPs can only base on their 'experience' and prescribe.

I am not sure if now there is such device that identifies immediately if a fever patient is suffering from dengue , but I think if its dengue a person is having, the doctor will initially not know its dengue and prescribe fever pills.

So, what I am saying is GPs based on symptoms and experience and what they studied. When it comes to knowing what is it a patient is having, they can usually cannot say for sure. This is how I understand it based on my experience having seen GPs many times over decades.

Should such consultation fees be lowered since they cannot tell what is the actual problem ? Kenna Dengue but prescribed fever pills?

Or would you suggest consultation fees be adjusted and lowered?

ifish SG

isnt dengue a fever too?

reddressman SG

what i meant was dengue has the same symptom as fever.

dakkon_blackblade SG

IIRC, there is a rapid test kit for dengue fever. In any case, whether the patient is suffering from dengue fever or some other kind of fever can be determined by a blood test, specifically for the platelet count. If it falls below a certain level, the doctor can be reasonably sure that the patient is suffering from dengue fever.

In any case, I'm not sure what you want to speak out about in this thread - GPs giving the same type of medicine for a wide variety of symptoms, or the dengue problem?

ifish SG

have u gotten dengue before?

dengue fever the fever is usually very high.. and gp or any other polyclinic doctors will usually refer this people to hospitals.

one test to see whether u have dengue is to check the platelet level. and to do that, you need your blood to be taken.

if gp do, it would take at least 1 full day.
if hospital do, less than half a day.

and surely u dont the gp to anyhow diagnose u with dengue rite?

dragg SG

they have recently lifted the guidelines for consultation fee.

i only see them charging more, not lesser.

ifish SG

note: thats only a guideline..

as much as there's some doc who rob pt..especially those shopping mall gp,

there are some neighbourhood doc who charge very low.. some even ask pt to treat first pay later..

reddressman SG

I am not sure how GPs handle dengue fever case when the kits were not available.

What I do know is GPs go by symptoms.

I am confident they could not tell for sure exactly what you are having.

Next time, when you have a flu (touch wood), just ask your gp, what exactly you are having. Which strain ?

Dengue is just a general example. I am sure many problems start with fever-like symptoms.

They usually prescribe panadol or the likes.

By the time things get worse, then we go to hospital and wait.

What I try to say is maybe GP fees could be lowered since they could not tell what problem you are really having for general cases I mentioned. Maybe many other examples exist.

I also notice many clinics are grouped into a holdings or something like that. Like a group of clinics and kind of franchisy.

I believe as a larger group, they could get lower price for drugs.

Yet, I see the GP fees have gone much higher than before.

People need to speak up as I do not believe in being helped when you don't start helping yourself first by discussion about the expensive GP services. I think hospital fees may also have gone up.

Medical service should be to help people, not profit from them.

Sadly, I see hospitals and clinics run by profitable organisations.

fortunately, some religious clinics give highly subsidised services if not free.

Commericialism vs morality.

pure focus on commercialism and business and money could mean life gets tougher and tougher and all things measured in $$$.

does it mean that a person has no means to survive if he has no money to get the help he needs? $$ is more important than life?

do you have the right to live without money?

is a persons worth / life measured only in $$$?

ghimpheng SG

hello what is GP ?

ifish SG

general practitioner aka doctor

kaoya SG

haha.. funny lei u

nowadays, ppl pay more than $50 to cut hair, pedicure... wat not
u eat outside at food court oso $5, watch movie on sat also $9.50
den fall sick, go see doc so stingy

in life where got gurantee one
u pay money to stockbroker, also don't gurantee stocks sure go up
u pay money to insurance agent, also don't gurantee ur life

hey dude, u muz understand why u go see doc mah
they dun make a certain diagnosis
they juz make sure u aren't having anything more serious lah
if not have to go hospital
some ppl see doc to get mc lah

if u want exact diagnosis also can,
u go n pay $200 to do all e test each time u got flu lah Cool

if u not willing to pay, can always go polyclinic $4 mah

doctors oso normal ppl leh
need to get married, support their parents, pay children's school fee
still need to pay rent, pay high insurance
u tink charity issit?? Rolling Eyes

dakkon_blackblade SG

Exactly. I think the TS is a little naive in this...

fudgester SG

You know, there is a reason why they are known as general practitioners. Rolling Eyes

You certainly cannot expect a doctor to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of every damn disease and medical ailment known to mankind. Rather, what GPs do is to attend to low-level ailments which they can treat, and to refer cases which they cannot handle to the specialists.

And if the symptoms suggest the flu, of course he would prescribe the correct medications. You can't blame the doc if the symptoms don't suggest dengue, no? Or are you saying that the doctor should conduct dengue tests on every single patient who has the flu?

If you want to know, I spent $8 last week on a visit to the polyclinic because I had a small suspected cyst in my mouth. The doctor just examined it, explained that he couldn't adequately diagnose the nature of the cyst, and referred me to a dermatologist at SGH. No medications or treatment whatsoever.... he just explained that he suspected it to be a benign haemangioma which needed further evaluation by a specialist.

I'm not whining about the GP, no?

Skibi SG

personally, i think GPs are a redundant profession. times have changed in that medical information for treatment of illnesses is free available on the internet. in other countries, europe etc... where there are proper pharmacists, most ppl can buy the medicine for common illnesses instead of having to visit the doctor.

ifish SG

like wad others had stated, there are many common symptoms which lead to a more dangerous illness..

if let say, you have a cough, runny nose and fever, is it just a normal flu or someting else dangerous like perhaps SARS?

yes u can read up all the illness all that. but at the end of the day, when you lying down there with high fever, do u even bother?

SingaporeMacross SG

Unfortunately, the elderly do not know what the internet is. Some of them can't read either.

Besides, we can't issue ourselves MCs. Razz

Skibi SG

Like what TS said, your guess is as good as the doctor's. imo it is probably even better because normal flu and viral flu feel different. when you visit a gp he's going to ask you questions on how you feel etc... if you purposely lie to him i sincerely doubt he can give you an accurate diagnosis. ask yourself how many GP's actually bother to feel your pulse, check your eyelids, look at the tongue, take note of the face colour and skin condition? they just prescribe medication according to what the patient tells them. might as well skip the 3hrs waiting time at the polyclinic or the $25 consultation fee at a normal one and buy ur own medication. if you insist on doing a blood test for SARS everytime you get a flu, im sure its going to cost a whole lot more than $25.

ndmmxiaomayi SG

They are called GP for a reason. Just like cleaning a computer of viruses, it doesn’t mean no sign there’s no viruses. Some just don’t show signs at all till something serious happens.

ifish SG

firstly, u shouldnt be lying to the gp.

and im not sure about ur gp.. but mine does..

yes the doc is human and dont have x-ray vision to straight away diagnose you accurately..

but they sure knows if anything is wrong.

how would u know ur heart is beating normally. u got stethoscope at home?

even if u do, how do u define normal?

reddressman SG

As it is clear that some of you also think the same , that GPs are over-rated as in they over-charge, for 'consultation' in my view. I mean, consultation given such that they almost all the time will not know exactly what disease you have?

The 'diagnosis' is general. Thus the term 'General practitioner'?
In this case, an experienced senior nurse can do the same job.

Why pay more for general diagnosis?

Last time GP 'consultation' fee not as high. Now, dunno why so very high.
Like this more 1st world standard in medicine is it?

Same kind of general diagnosis even though more fees charged.

And as I said, they cannot be sure what you having, many of the times.

Drugs given can be those that kill all suspected viruses or baterias rather than just the ones that you are having. This to me means you are eating more drugs than necessary, which means not good for health.

Yes, GPs are humans and they got doctorate. But that is not what I disagree on. I am debating that the fees gp charge are too high.

I suggest using more nurses to take over the common disease diagnosis and leave the GPs to work on more difficult tasks of more value so that they deservingly can charge the high fees.

Patients should not be charged GP consultation fees for common diseases.
This is a wastage of good useful and hardearned money. Also, GPs time should be spent on more serious cases.

There should be 2 rates to charge for medical 'consultation'.