DR. Barcellos, Corbin Avenue, Ferndown, professional or political

[wash2wash]

On Tuesday 6th March after taking my Son to school I chanced my luck that there my be a cancellation slot at my local doctors surgery, I have been struck down with some virus and the first time in ten years I feel quite pants, The receptionist kindly asked my to return at the close of surgery as there are emergency slots allowed for here- great I said what time is the end of surgery, 10 o`clock she said, `tonight` I said, `no` she said AM, bearing in mind I have just taken my Son to school the present time was only 9 o `clock, surgery on this day apparently lasted all of one hour, never mind this wasn`t the issue at this time. I returned at 10 o`clock and in ten minites was called to go in with Dr. Barcellos, I started to explain I has some sort of throat infection for3-4 days days, he sternly replied ` theres a virus going around ! people think that antibiotics will help but they don`t`!. He looked into my mouth( he was one side of the desk I was the other- he clearly didn`t want to get close. He asked me if I had taken my tempature- which I hadn`t, he then asked if I had children in the house, I replied I had a son, again his stern reply was `it would be a good idea to have a thermometer in the house then!`
The end result of my visit was that I would better pay for my own tablets as it would be cheaper, I don`t have a problem with that but his recommendedation of tablets were not available over the counter I learnt when I got to boots, not only has he saved himself from giving me a prescription he sent me away to buy a product that was only available on prescription. I left Boots with 60 Zinc tablets whilst reminding myself why I hadn`t set foot in a doctors surgery for a very long time previous to this.

[zippyRN]

On Tuesday 6th March after taking my Son to school I chanced my luck that there my be a cancellation slot at my local doctors surgery, I have been struck down with some virus and the first time in ten years I feel quite pants, The receptionist kindly asked my to return at the close of surgery as there are emergency slots allowed for here- great I said what time is the end of surgery, 10 o`clock she said, `tonight` I said, `no` she said AM, bearing in mind I have just taken my Son to school the present time was only 9 o `clock, surgery on this day apparently lasted all of one hour, never mind this wasn`t the issue at this time. I returned at 10 o`clock and in ten minites was called to go in with Dr. Barcellos, I started to explain I has some sort of throat infection for3-4 days days, he sternly replied ` theres a virus going around ! people think that antibiotics will help but they don`t`!. He looked into my mouth( he was one side of the desk I was the other- he clearly didn`t want to get close.


all that a doctor ( or other health professional ) needs to be able to see if someone is complaining of a sore thorat is the back of the mouth to look for

1. signs of inflammation

2. signs of bacterial infection

3. signs of potential airway compromise

as you freely admit you think you have a virus , the doctor has confirmed that for you ...


He asked me if I had taken my tempature- which I hadn`t, he then asked if I had children in the house, I replied I had a son, again his stern reply was `it would be a good idea to have a thermometer in the house then!`


yes it would ,along with a selection of age appropriate GSL (and perhaps some P) meds for the residents of the house to cover routine needs such as simple analgesia ( paracetamol) a non steriodal anti imflammatory ( such as ibuprofen) , and things like cough medicine, immodium, indigestion remedies and basic first aid supplies

a significant proprtion of GP and Emergency Department time is taken up dealing with things that any informed lay person could deal with should they have taken the time to have a reasonably stocked medicine cupboard , gone to their locla pharmacy or used a simple information source such as the guidebook NHS direct put out when first launched ...


The end result of my visit was that I would better pay for my own tablets as it would be cheaper, I don`t have a problem with that but his recommendedation of tablets were not available over the counter I learnt when I got to boots, not only has he saved himself from giving me a prescription he sent me away to buy a product that was only available on prescription. I left Boots with 60 Zinc tablets whilst reminding myself why I hadn`t set foot in a doctors surgery for a very long time previous to this.

what medication did he suggest btw?

[craigwalsh]

A significant proprtion of GP and Emergency Department time is taken up dealing with things that any informed lay person could deal with should they have taken the time to have a reasonably stocked medicine cupboard, gone to their locla pharmacy or used a simple information source such as the guidebook NHS direct put out when first launched ...

Isn't this really true of life?

I'll bet if you spoke to the folks on most computer software and hardware support desks, they'd also say that most of the calls they receive could have been handled by someone simply reading the manual or the online "knowledge base."

It's like a question on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" It's very easy if you know the answer.

GP's and ER personnel deal with these issues on a daily basis, so the treatment of colds, flu-like symptoms, etc. is commonplace for them. (And yet, sometimes, even they get it wrong.) But for the average non-medical person, fevers and coughs can be scary things.

I'm always puzzled about "pain radiating down the left arm." Severe pain radiating down the left arm is a classic sign of heart attack. But how many other things can cause pain in the left arm?

If I think that my GP will treat me with some degree of contempt if I go to see him with (say) a strained muscle in my left arm, won't I be reluctant to see my GP if I am having the early sign of a heart attack? See my point? If GP's treat patients with arrogance and contempt, it just means that the doctor-patient relationship is flawed. And I think that's a shame.

But that's why I created this website.

[zippyRN]

Isn't this really true of life?

I'll bet if you spoke to the folks on most computer software and hardware support desks, they'd also say that most of the calls they receive could have been handled by someone simply reading the manual or the online "knowledge base."



what happened to personal responsibility ?

or is that optional in this day and age ?

medicines legislation is constructed to aid the lay person in managing minor, self limiting illness and injury ? how so by the existance of the GSL and P categories where the individual themselves or with the guidance of a pharmacist can effectively manage these conditions ...


It's like a question on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" It's very easy if you know the answer.


see above re personal responsibility


GP's and ER personnel deal with these issues on a daily basis, so the treatment of colds, flu-like symptoms, etc. is commonplace for them. (And yet, sometimes, even they get it wrong.) But for the average non-medical person, fevers and coughs can be scary things.


neither of my parents are from health professional backgrounds yet they like many other lay people manages to successful raise their children and treat our minor illness and injuries with GSL and P list products where indicated and with the advice and guidance of freely available literature and the advice of the local community pharmacist , reserving visits to theGP or the Emergency department for when they were really needed...


I'm always puzzled about "pain radiating down the left arm." Severe pain radiating down the left arm is a classic sign of heart attack. But how many other things can cause pain in the left arm?


isolated left arm pain is unlikely to be a symptom of a cardiac event ...


If I think that my GP will treat me with some degree of contempt if I go to see him with (say) a strained muscle in my left arm, won't I be reluctant to see my GP if I am having the early sign of a heart attack? See my point? If GP's treat patients with arrogance and contempt, it just means that the doctor-patient relationship is flawed. And I think that's a shame.

But that's why I created this website.


the point is not about how peopel are treated but about the waste of resources that people create by failing to take basic self care advice which is frely available from many reputable sources and not holding basic first aid and 'medicine cupboard' supplies, which are freely available or can be purchased without prescription from a pharmacist...

[Margorie]

Dear Wash to Wash
I'm not surprised that the GP was a bit short with you (do you really think it's fair to name the person? I don't). You had a virus; most of us know that a virus cannot be treated by antibiotics, and one just has to have some R&R and wait for it to improve. It's lucky for you that you hardly ever need to go to the GP, and I would suggest that you didn't need to go on this occasion. Don't let it put you off if you ever feel more than "quite pants", however.
Hope you feel better soon.
M

[jenny]

Gee - in what other job could you get paid for providing such a lousy service and treating the customer like a waste of space? The patient feels really ill so goes to the doctor for advice. The doctor trivialises the patient's complaint, patronises the patient and then gives the wrong advice about the availability of a treatment. I call that a lousy service.

[zippyRN]

Gee - in what other job could you get paid for providing such a lousy service and treating the customer like a waste of space? The patient feels really ill so goes to the doctor for advice. The doctor trivialises the patient's complaint, patronises the patient and then gives the wrong advice about the availability of a treatment. I call that a lousy service.

the 'customer' of health care is the PCT as it is they who pay the bill in the case of the NHS

patients are patients

[craigwalsh]

the 'customer' of health care is the PCT as it is they who pay the bill in the case of the NHS

A bit of illogical thinking. Where does the PCT get the money to pay the bill? I can assure you that the PCT certainly doesn't "earn" the money. Perhaps --- just perhaps --- they get it from the taxpayers.

Who just happen, in most cases, to be the patients.

Or am I being thick?

[Olaf-Rye]

I do think that many physicians ought to be more cognisant that their job is to serve the patient and that they ultimately pay their salary. Because a Primary Care Trust issues their cheques does not alter their responsibility to the patient, and certainly does not absolve them from the responsibility of treating them with some respect and consideration. Even when an ailment is easily treated with over-the-counter medications, they can hide their annoyance at having their time wasted. This is just basic customer service and good manners, which medical personnel should observe.

I have had miserable experiences with physicians that assume all non-medical staff are fundamentally idiots and are not entitled to comprehensive explanations of treatment, which infuriates me and always compels me to remind them that they are on duty to serve me and provide me with sensible explanations of their advice concerning treatment. Many of the complaints levelled at the NHS are a result of this poor attitude to the patient and a lack of communication (the NHS complaints authority states this explicitly), so some decorum and politeness is certainly in order.

I am currently embroiled in a complaint process against the palliative care unit and oncology team in this region because they did not do all they could and dared hide their indifference behind their guidelines. Moreover, they did not provide me with the information I explicitly asked for on behalf of my father-in-law on many occasions (I hasten to add, with his permission), which I found betrayed their contempt for the patient. The pity is, I checked with doctor friends abroad (in Australia, Denmark, Canada, the United States) and they were all profoundly contemptuous of the lack of effort.

It is easy for people to hide behind a massive bureaucratic octopus like the NHS, so it is essential that you rattle the tree with complaints through the appropriate mechanisms. If they cannot make an effort for you in the surgery, make them put in the effort in answering official complaints. If they have such a lousy attitude and you cannot easily dismiss them in a public system, use the system against them. A few nights of writing letters to justify themselves might make the remember their manners.

[jenny]

I think that the more traditional doctors who have a closed and negative attitude towards their customers (ie: tax payers who fund the NHS service) are making themselves redundant. They only have themselves to blame. For instance, you can bypass a useless GP by referring yourself directly to a specialist. You can google a good specialist and get feedback on their performance and see what papers etc they have written.

If you are lucky and look after your own health carefully, you can pretty much avoid going to the doctor at all, apart from in the unfortunate event of needing emergency health care.

And more and more people are using alternative medicine and trying to avoid drugs. Some of the more enlightened medics are incorporating some alternative health care into their practice.

[zippyRN]

A bit of illogical thinking. Where does the PCT get the money to pay the bill? I can assure you that the PCT certainly doesn't "earn" the money. Perhaps --- just perhaps --- they get it from the taxpayers.

Who just happen, in most cases, to be the patients.

Or am I being thick?

well in that case perhaps the tax payers ought to be holding the government to account for their failings in relation to funding healthcare ... a point which appears to have been missed in the comments i made

[jenny]

How can the tax payer hold the Government responsible - short of electing in a new Government? There is no mechanism in place to ensure accountability. This is one of the problems with the health service - it is too highly centralised and the user (the patient/tax payer/customer) does not have a voice. In reality - what can you do if you are dissatisfied with the health service, apart from voting in a new Government.

I pay for private health care because I think the NHS provides a sub-standard service. However, I resent having to pay taxes for a service which is inefficient and one which I, personally, do not wish to use as it does not deliver the goods. I think it's all in a horrible muddle and mess. We only have ourselves to blame - we have been far too complacent and have put up with a low standards. We are now paying the price with hospital acquired infection rife and with poor health outcomes compared with other first world counties.

Another big problem is a culture of arrogance, bullying and an absurdly old-fashioned hierarchy in the NHS. It's a pretty short-sighted policy as health care workers also get ill - so it would be in the interests of everyone to drive up standards for all.

[aabarcellos]

i offered wash etc an appt within 1 hour . solpadeine is available off prescription . why name me rather than use our complaints system
dr barcellos

[aabarcellos]

thanks to those who have the sense to trust their doctors and sorry for those whose spend their valuable life complaining ..
doctors are used to dealing with every sort of person from the kindest souls to the nastiest criminals , their demands and moans and most consider this their vocation. They spend 10 years training and are the brightest nad most devoted students. Those who expect doctors to breathe in their virus spread it round patients and family are few. Most realise the value of the thermometer and I used it in this case. However i need to learn to please all and luckily over 80 per cent are very pleased with my service most rating the service as excellent

[craigwalsh]

I see that Dr. Barcellos (presumably user aabarcellos) has posted a couple of messages today to refute the earlier postings in this thread. We’re happy to have Dr. Barcellos participate in this forum, and fully understand that there are often two sides to every story.

In addition to his posts, I have received --- as the forum administrator --- four e-mail messages from Dr. Barcellos.

In his first message, at 9:51 this morning, he wrote:

you have a posting with my name mentioned where a patient has tried to and made allegations about my care. I feel this is not the route especially as a google search throws up this complaint as the first search on me. The patient has not complained to me . She was slotted in 1 hour after request and had a 3 day sore throat as you know was viral . Using antibiotics for these throats encourages MRSA and is shown in many studies to be pointless. My surgery does not run for 1 hour . I have 2 sites and mornings run easily into afternoons after visits . I start at 7.30 am and finish at 6.30 or 7 pm often missing lunch. I am requesting you delete my name or I will contact my defence to take matters further.A few minutes later (9:56 AM) he wrote again:
this patient has made accusations about me and i feel she needs to address these with me and withdraw my name as this is not a forum for specific complaintsAt 1:51 PM:

thanks to those who have the sense to trust their doctors and sorry for those whose spend their valuable life complaining ..
doctors are used to dealing with every sort of person from the kindest souls to the nastiest criminals , their demands and moans and most consider this their vocation. They spend 10 years training and are the brightest nad most devoted students. Those who expect doctors to breathe in their virus spread it round patients and family are few. Most realise the value of the thermometer and I used it in this case. However i need to learn to please all and luckily over 80 per cent are very pleased with my service most rating the service as excellent. I feel this naming is unfair and would be grateful for my name to be deleted thanks.And at 1:57 PM:
there are some inaccuracies in this thread. The first one is that s webber did not remember he had attended a few years earlier rather than 10 years and i have details of a fairly extensive consultation
I suspect this sudden flood of messages is prompted by the fact, as observed by the doctor, that when you do a Google search for Dr. Barcellos this forum “thread” comes up as the first and second items. This means is that our efforts at search engine optimsation (SEO) are working, and postings on this forum are being indexed in Google and other search engines.

Dr. Barcellos advises “this is not a forum for specific complaints.” How does he come to that conclusion? This is a forum for patients --- starting, originally, with me --- to vent their frustration about their dealings with the NHS. In the hope of being somewhat fair-and-balanced, there is an area here for people to post compliments about the NHS, although I’ve never understood why someone would seek out a website prominently called NHS Sucks to post nice things. Still, they’re free to do so if they want --- and some have.

As the forum moderator, I see my role as removing messages that are vulgar or are commercial (so-called “spam postings”). I certainly don’t have the power to verify the veracity or the fairness of postings, nor do I provide any sort of arbitration or mediation service. That’s just not the role of a forum --- this forum, or really any forum.

This is simply a place for people to post their comments --- comments that are entirely their own. If statements are libelous that’s really between the person who claims to be libeled and the author of the posting. I simply provide a forum for the free, largely uncensored exchange of information and views. As a forum, people are also free to comment on earlier postings, and that’s happened here. (When I say "free" there is also no charge for posting messages --- and this site doesn't even have pesky advertisements.)

Sorry, Dr. Barcellos, but this is a forum for complaints --- specific or general.

I would encourage people to discuss any complaints that they may have with their GP and/or the practice manager, rather than running off to post a message here. In my own case, I raised my concerns with the practice manager at my previous GPs' surgery, and also used the formal NHS complaints procedure, before starting the forum. I personally found the NHS complaints system to be a farce: my complaint, sent by special delivery (as required) to John Rostill --- the Chief Executive of the Worcester Acute Hospitals NHS Trust --- was “lost” by them. They readily admitted this.

But despite the fact that I provided them with a copy, they never addressed my complaint: it technically, I suppose, remains “lost” in their system. It was always my cynical suspicion, but nothing I could ever prove, that it was easier to “lose” my complaint than to actually answer it.As an aside, I see that Mr. Rostill now has his own official “blog” at:

http://www.worcsacute.nhs.uk/news/news_ceblog.html

More taxpayer money spent on triviality. A quick look at his blog shows all sorts of glowing statements: the use of the words “Fantastic! [emphasis his],” “As good as it gets,” “Well done!” And my personal favourite: “In May, we managed to deal with over 80% of complaints in the prescribed time. It looks as though for June we have exceeded 90% - well done everybody!” I wonder how many other complaints were “lost,” like mine?
Back to Dr. Barcellos and his angst.

As mentioned, I don’t censor this website. The person who posted the original comment can always delete it (or ask me to do so) if they are so inclined. I have received a couple of these requests in the past from folks who have posted their tale of woe, and then kissed and made up with the NHS. While I personally think the message should remain on the forum, with an update, I am always prepared to honour requests --- from the author of the posting --- to delete it.

The other approach --- and a better one, in my opinion --- would be for the doctor to simply post his side of the story. I accept that there are issues of patient confidentiality involved, but I didn’t make the rules.

Dr. Barcellos has candidly admitted, “However i need to learn to please all and luckily over 80 per cent are very pleased with my service most rating the service as excellent.” I guess he should be happy with an 80% success rate, and it sounds like he is working on improving his bedside manner.

As far as contacting “my defence to take matters further,” I would observe that this is what’s called a consumer commentary website. It is domiciled on a web server in Delaware, and owned by a company in Florida. Under American law, consumer commentary websites have been supported by the courts. Please see:

http://www.couttssucks.com/artman/publish/article_13.php

In the Bally case, the judge quoted Justice Brandeis:
If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the process of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not the enforcement of silence.