welcome back to my channel.

Today I'm going to interview my mum.

Can you introduce yourself?

My name is Catherine and I'm a doctor

and I've worked for most of my career as a GP in the UK.

and I've worked for most of my career as a GP in the UK.

So if someone was feeling sick

and they wanted to see the GP,

how would they go about doing that?

All of the different surgeries are independently run,

so things will be different in different practices.

Things like how they organise their appointment system

will be different in every practice.

Lots of surgeries now are doing telephone appointments,

lots are doing video appointments,

lots are still doing come down to the GP and get seen.

But the way you organise

that will be different in every surgery.

In lots of surgeries, you can now book online.

What you'll need to do is get familiar

with the surgery that you're registered at

and how their appointment system works.

So if you want to book a Covid vaccination,

how do we do that?

There are essentially 3 different ways

that you can get Covid vaccination.

Either you can book online

to go to one of the major Covid vaccination centres

which are all over the country,

or you can have it at your GP surgery.

If you're going to have it there, they will call you

and you'll have it done there.

Or now there are lots of pop up walk-in centres

that you can go to, to have it done there.

And you need to look in your own area

and see where that's being offered and done.

So I received the text message to have my vaccine done

but I don't know-

That came from your GP surgery I think.

Okay, but it wasn't at the surgery.

No, because some surgeries aren't doing it

in their own surgeries.

They've grouped together

and it would all be done in one central place.

So it's like the surgery organising it

but at a different venue.

Yes.

Someone asked an interesting question which was,

how much do people pay for the NHS every year,

even if you're not sick at all and you don't use the NHS,

how much do taxpayers pay for it?

Well, how much taxpayers pay I think is unclear.

Individuals just don't pay anything for the NHS.

It doesn't matter whether you use it a lot

or you don't use it at all, you don't pay anything.

Increasingly, medicine, and GP practices in particular,

are trying to do preventative medicine.

So you may be called by your GP surgery to come in

and have some checks done,

such as for instance, your blood pressure,

even if there's nothing wrong with you.

Because they're trying to pick things up

before you develop any symptoms.

But you don't pay anything for that either.

But that's not true for prescriptions, right?

The prescriptions aren't free.

So there are some things that you do have to pay for.

So, dentistry, you have to pay for.

Opticians, you have to pay for.

Although some people are exempt.

Prescriptions, most adults will have to pay for,

but again there are exemptions,

so patients over the age of 65 don't need to pay.

Children don't pay.

Patients who've got ongoing particular medical conditions,

they don't pay.

But everyone else has to pay a prescription charge

which at the moment is £9.35.

So that's quite a lot.

So it doesn't matter what drug you receive,

you have to pay £9.35.

Another big question that everyone keeps asking is,

how long does it take to be referred

and is it normal to wait about 2 months to see someone?

Everything has to come through the GP or the GP surgery.

The GP surgery is what's called the gatekeeper

into the rest of the system.

That's excepting A&E.

Anyone can go to A&E.

To go to see a specialist,

you need to be referred by someone in your GP surgery.

#NAME?

But it could be a nurse or it could be a pharmacist

in the practice or it could be lots of...

there are lots of other specialists

who are starting to work within the practice

such as physiotherapists, pharmacists, paramedics.

They can all refer in as well.

But it needs to be somebody within that system.

Also, opticians can refer in and dentists can refer in.

They can all refer in to specialists

but you have to see them first

and then the waiting list will vary

depending on what the problem is

and how long that particular department

waiting list is at that time.

So certain things such as referrals for cancer

are under a special pathway

where you'll be seen within 2 weeks,

but other things can be very much longer.

And of course, Covid has made the whole situation

much much more complicated.

So if you don't want to wait that long,

is there somewhere else you can go?

Like a private system?

Yeah, so there's a private system

that works alongside the NHS

that people either go to and pay themselves

or they have an insurance policy that will pay

for them to go to see the private specialist.

Often they will ask for a GP letter as well.

Not always but often they will.

Particularly if it's an insurance referral.

What we're going to do now is a little role play

where I go and see the doctor.

Hello. How can I help you today?

Yeah, so I've had a cough for about a week now.

Really bad cough and it's not Covid.

I know it's not Covid because I took one of the tests

and it was negative.

It's just really annoying me because it's quite bad.

Phlegmy cough.

Like kind of bringing stuff up but...

So it started a week ago

and since then do you think the cough has got better,

worse or stayed the same?

It's pretty much stayed the same for the last week.

When you say, you're bringing up mucus,

what colour is the mucus?

Just see-through, like just clear.

Okay and have you had a temperature at all?

Yeah, I did have a bit of a temperature.

I was kind of hot in the night for a couple of nights.

That's why I thought it might be Covid as well.

I thought it was a fever.

Okay and what about eating and drinking?

Are you eating and drinking okay?

Yeah, fine. No changes in that.

And is it affecting your sleep, the cough?

Yeah, it's keeping me up in the night and I can't sleep.

That's what's really annoying about it.

Yeah sure, that is annoying, isn't it?

What about a runny nose?

Have you had a runny nose?

No, just a cough.

Okay. Have you had any other symptoms at all?

Any vomiting or problems with the bowels?

No.

Have you lost any weight?

No.

Do you often get coughs or colds?

Or is this the first time this has happened or for some time?

No, that's what's quite strange about it.

I don't usually ever get a cough.

Are you otherwise fit and well?

Yeah, I'm pretty healthy.

And do you take any medications for anything?

No. I thought it could be some sort of,

I guess Covid virus type of thing, like a flu,

so I was thinking maybe I could get some antibiotics.

So what I need to do really is I need to examine you.

Is that okay?

Right, I've examined you

and the good thing is you don't have a temperature

and your oxygen levels are very good

and your pulse is good.

That means there's not a significant infection

going on around the rest of your body.

And I've listened to your lungs and they sound good too.

There are no obvious signs of infection there.

Okay great.

So I think you're right.

I think it probably is a viral infection.

I don't think it's a bacterial infection,

so not from what we would call

a chest infection or pneumonia.

They are caused by bacteria and I don't think it's that.

And you mentioned about antibiotics.

So antibiotics only work against bacteria.

They don't work against viruses.

Hmm, okay.

So I don't think the antibiotics would actually help you.

I know it's tempting that you want to take something

to get rid of it.

But I don't think that's actually going to help you.

I think, unfortunately,

this is going to have to run its course

and settle on its own.

It sounds like it's already beginning to improve

because it sounds like you had a bit of a temperature

at the beginning and that's gone.

And it will take a few days for the cough to settle

because the cough is the body's defence

against having an infection.

So you will continue to cough

while your body's getting rid of it.

So is there nothing that you can give me?

So, I'm really sorry but I don't think antibiotics will help.

And ultimately it's your body that's going to fight it off.

But there are some things you can do

that will help potentially.

You could get some cough medicine

because sometimes that can help you

bring up the phlegm a bit better.

And then it makes the coughing settle for a while

if you bring up the phlegm more effectively.

The only thing you need to watch out for is

just sometimes you can get a bacterial infection

on top of the viral infection.

So you'd know that was happening

because you'd get a temperature again.

You would be coughing worse.

It might be green. You'd probably feel unwell

and maybe need to be in bed rather than up and about.

And if that was happening, you should come back

because it may be that you do need antibiotics

at that stage.

The chance of that happening is very small,

so we wouldn't give antibiotics just in case.

So you can go to the pharmacy

and talk to the pharmacist

and they'll advise you about

the best cough medicine to have.

So that concludes our seeing the doctor episode.

If you have any more detailed questions

then definitely we'd recommend that

you see your own doctor at your GP surgery.

So yeah, we'll see you soon!