What should GP surgeries offer carers

[purge11]

Hello Fellow Carers

I am in the midst of doing some outreach to GP practices. I want to see what the GP practices should offer carers at least. So I have devised the following questions.

1. Are there any Carer leads at the Surgery?
2, How do they identify carers?
3. What Carer groups do they have?
4. How many carers have taken up in these health checks?
5. Where are carers signposted to?

I am wondering what else should be asked at these GP Practices regarding carers, plus what problems would I encounter?

Thanks

[Melly1]

I would ask what reasonable adjustments the surgery makes for carers.

Melly1

[bowlingbun]

Can we volunteer our own surgeries? Mine desperately needs more compassion, for a start. I've been there for nearly 50 years, carer for 35 of them. I get no recognition or support whatsoever!

[purge11]

Hello all,

Thanks for getting back to me.

Reasonable adjustments sounds good, I could explore that.
Plus showing more compassion, can be looked at as well.

Anyone else got any burning questions that should be asked at a doctors surgery?

[Greta]

I've had the problem that my brother suffers from delirium and seems to have no short-term memory left, and in addition sometimes lies to doctors, but appears compos mentis when people chat to him. He hasn't actually got dementia. A GP who had forgotten this explained the results of tests to him when I was away. By pure accident I picked this up on the phone, because there was a total confusion between careworkers and GP's surgery about whether tablets had yet been described. The results of tests have to be given to me or to the care agency.

So there is the situation that every single medical issue has to be reported to me, the carer - or to the care agency manager when I'm away - but this information is not properly registered or realized by the GPs' surgery.

How to put this concisely? That the carer has to be informed and everyone should know this.

[purge11]

Thanks Greta,

Thats interesting. I am wondering if your brother has some care plan or on his medical record it should state the carers name and their wishes.

Perhaps I could check with Doctors surgery keeps a carers register

[Greta]

I am not sure what you mean by care plan. He has double-handed care from careworkers four times a day and the agency has a care plan. But I am the carer in that I am responsible for organizing everything. This is noted in the GP's records, but it is sometimes forgotten, and it is also sometimes forgotten that he does not remember the medical information he is given. I say this because I think a lot of old people are like this and yet doctors seem to keep forgetting it, or they don't look at their records before seeing him.

[Greta]

Actually I can boil down the advice here. It's not about the carer's wishes. It's about important medical information getting through to someone who can hear it. If an old person goes to the GP with their husband or wife, the husband or wife is going to hear the diagnosis and remember it. But if the old person is bedridden and appears to understand things, the GP needs to know that the information must be given to the carer or care agency or whoever is responsible for keeping an eye on treatment. The GP has a record of this but forgets it.

I do remember the details of what happened now. Brother was told he did not need a major operation, but he reported to the care agency that he did need a major operation, and the care agency manager decided the doctor hadn't even been because the information didn't make sense.

[charles47]

I'd ask what training practices have had in identifying carers - chances are, they don't really know what a carer is or why they should be helping them.

[Henrietta]

I am fairly confident my surgery have good practice. I always seem to get immediate appointments for both myself and for Dad. I have a magic phone number for palliative care for Dad to get immediate D/Ns to do home visits and everything regarding Dad is always done via contact with me.
I made sure I asked to be recorded as his main carer with the gp surgery and I think a lot of people fail to do this. Drs aren't mind readers so make sure you ask to be recorded officially with the practice as main carer.