Dr DoLittle or nothing at all

[WorthingPagan]

Hi

Thought I would share some of my experiences here and maybe get some advice or feedback?

Basically, my wife and I are both ill and signed off work in reciept of benefits. I have Hepatitis C and Fibromyalgia and my wife has Anorexia Nervosa and Osteoporosis. We both moved and had to re register with a new surgery. The new Doctor we have been assigned to seems to me to be suspicious, obstructive and disbelieving of our health problems.

My wife has serious issues with food, so mealtimes are a bit of a battleground. She claimed some extra benefits to help with transportation etc as we live 4 miles from town and have no transport. The doctor was sent a form from the benefits people. Without even clarifying anything with my wife the gp filled in the form and said that in fact there was nothing wrong with my wife! It took months and months and complaints before the doctor finally accepted that in fact my wife has had an eating disorder for over 20 years. Recently she visited the doctor about anxiety and was told the best remedy was to lay on the floor! No other help or advice was offered.

For my own part I have only in the last few years stopped working as I have had Hep C since 1984, and to this day I have never been offered any counselling, compassion pain relief or anything useful. A request to be sent to the pain clinic was met with a lack of funding excuse. Counselling was rejected as I don't fit the criteria??? I did try treatment for Hep C a few years back but it was unsuccessful. I have never been offered anything other than a flu jab by this new doctor and to be honest I don't even bother going to the dr anymore because they do absoultely nothing and charge me £25 whenever I have needed a letter to support my applications for benefits or rehousing etc.

I've told the dr I feel suicidal, powerless, and scared, yet to my mind they don't seem to care. I have thought about re registering somewhere else but am put off by the distance to any other surgery and having to start all over again with a new gp. I've made complaints to the primary care trust etc and all they do is boff me off and tell me to register somewhere else.

Is this normal and acceptable in 21st century Britain for sick people to be left to rot?

Sorry for the waffle

Mark

[craigwalsh]

Hi, Mark --

First of all, thank you for taking the time to join the NHS Sucks forum, and for sharing your experiences with your GP.

As documented elsewhere on this forum, I also had problems with my former GP. I also complained to my Primary Care Trust (PCT), and found that --- like yours --- they didn't really care.

Can you imagine what it must be like to be a patient advocate --- PALS --- in today's NHS? Imagine the telephone calls and letters that you'd receive every single day? Makes me shudder. An "advocate" with essentially no powers.

Based on my own experience, I echo the advice of your PCT: change your GP.

I was with the same practice for years and years. They were fine --- when I didn't need them. But when I started to have medical problems, they were awful. Like you I thought it would be difficult "having to start all over again with a new gp." I thought that my chart would be marked with some sort of secret code to indicate that I was a troublemaker. I thought, "Better the devil you know . . . "

I was wrong.

When my former GP made the decision for me, by de-listing me, I thought I'd have problems finding a new practice that would accept me. I told the PCT, "Right, you find a GP for me. Good luck."

The PCT found a new GP for me within a day. The new practice is very close to my former practice. And it's wonderful.

In my former practice patients checked in at the reception counter. A generally glum lady then gave you a large plastic tag (about a foot long) with a number on it. You then sat outside the right examining room --- colour coded --- and watched the little lights. When your number came up, and when the green light was turned on, you went in to see the doctor.

In my experience the doctor rarely even looked up when you came into the examining room.

In the new practice, when you check in a smiling lady says, "I'll let the doctor know." You sit in a large waiting room, and the doctor will come down the hall and call you --- in person, by name.

Yes, the NHS defenders will read this and say, "trivial detail." And, of course, they're right --- it is "trivial." But it speak volumes about the differences between the two surgeries. In my old practice patients were truly treated as numbers, and subservient to the GP's. In the new practice I'm a name, and the GP will actually take the time to come and get me from the waiting area.

Changing GP's made a huge difference for me.

My old GP would only give me a sick note for three months at a time, so I had to go back regularly (I needed the notes for my disability insurance claim). My new GP completely re-assessed my situation, and wrote to my insurance company to say that, in his opinion, I was permanently disabled.

If you got lousy service at (say) your grocery store you'd take your business elsewhere --- presumably regardless of the distance. I would think that your wife's and your health is more important than where you buy your food.

I would follow the advice of your PCT and would change GP's. The process is painless, and it made a huge difference for me.

One final comment about "pain clinics." One of my private consultants said that they were the "ash heap of medicine," where doctors sent patients who essentially could not be helped. I visited a couple of pain clinics (in my case BUPA would fund attendance) and I must say I was unimpressed.

In one I would have lived in a shared flat that was up half a flight of stairs. I can't really climb steps.

Perhaps pain clinics have done wonderful things for others, but I wonder.

Thank you again for your posting. Please let us know how things work out for you and your wife. Don't let the NHS get you down...