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It& #39;s wonderful that awareness surrounding menopause & premenstrual disorders, including PMDD, has increased in recent years, but so demoralising how hard it is to make progress in terms of providing access to adequate care for all. I& #39;m pondering on this having spent two months 1/
..applying for a local position to deliver LARC and menopause services - completing online learning, sitting through slide after slide on information governance, etc, etc - only to be told there is now no longer a position as this was a pilot they& #39;re not sure they& #39;ll renew 2/
...This makes zero sense. The waiting list for LARC in East Anglia is crazily long - women are suffering as a result and more and more pressure is being piled on GPs, who are already buckling under the weight of a failing system. Services for menopause, PMDs and LARC should 3/
...NOT be seen as niche! How long do we have to keep saying this? How can we not, collectively, see that investing in these services benefits ALL? I had a hospital position, in a gynae clinic, for one year before it was decommissioned due to "no need". Both the consultant and 4/
I rallied against this but to no avail. I have met with commissioners at two other hospitals in the East, and been met with enthusiasm and even a tentative job offer to run an NHS service, but *nothing* has ever come of it as it& #39;s always vetoed at the last hurdle. Why? 5/
There are posts after posts on social media about how doctors need to be better trained in menopause, PMDD etc and - yes - there& #39;s an issue here. However, there are now SO many of us who have undertaken training in our own time & at our own expense who desperately want to help 6/
...but we are constantly prevented from doing so. The main reason there are now so many private menopause clinics in the UK is because there is a HUGE unmet need. I, like @mymenopausedr and countless others, are qualified to run an NHS menopause service but no one will let us 7/
That& #39;s the long and short of it, and it& #39;s exhausting, frustrating and, frankly, upsetting on so many levels. I get emails from women asking if their GP can refer them to me via the NHS and I have to explain this is sadly not possible and I cannot change this. In such cases... 8/
...the patient will go back to their GP, taking up another appointment & yet more admin time. It& #39;s a lose-lose situation for all. The patients aren& #39;t getting the help they need, and GPs are overburdened & wrongly demonised, yet again. I take my hat off to all my GP colleagues 9/
...It is an impossible job - especially at this current time. GPs are trained as generalists, not specialists, but the access to specialist services on the NHS is woefully inadequate despite the fact there are now *several hundred* of us trained to provide these. It& #39;s madness 10/
I know I& #39;m ranting into the ether, but this needs to be said (at least, I need to get it off my chest!). The narrative around better menopause training for GPs is needed & well intentioned but overlooks the major issue, which is system failure. GPs are NOT the bad guys here 11/
