Bad experiences at the Doctors

Sadly I think this is a bit luck of the draw.

Family has always had the same doctor, and has been great. Got my dad straight into theatre when he was experancing *slight* chest pains, got him immediatly to a hopsital and turn't out he had a blocked artery. I certainly feel confident about seeing him, our hospital - Basingstoke always gets good praises aswell.
 
My dad was diagnosed with "constipation" as he had pain in his stomach.
He kept going to see his GP, as the regular GP was about to leave for his retirement.

Anyways, so my dad was on laxatives to relieve the constipation.

He didn't sleep for nights etc.

Turned out his appendix was leaking, which created an abscess, this then burst.

It was only when the old GP returned that he was correctly diagnosed, quite an ironic diagnosis "You're dying".

He was sent to the hospital where he underwent surgery.
 
I think people in general are a reasonable bunch and understand that much of a doctor's workload comes down to judgement. ...
Indeed they are . . . and the vast majority of people don't complain about their GP; many people are perfectly happy with their GP and accept that GPs are human - if they aren't satisfied with their GP or practice, they can always change to a different practice :)

... I think if you read most of the complaints in this thread you will see that most people are not complaining about errors of judgement but actually downright incompetence. ...
Perhaps. I'm not quite so sure but then I haven't read every single post in detail and like you, I know the full background of none of them. I would not disagree that a small number of GPs, both young and old, are incompetent and should not be practising medicine. On the other hand, I would suggest that there is an increasing number of highly stressed individuals who waste the time of GPs with their belief that a cure is being withheld by a GP who is trying to protect his or her income or who is simply incompetent.

...
I think that if GPs were paid a more realistic wage people like me would be less inclined to question them. You talk of greedy ambulance chasers, yet how many GPs have agreed to lower their own wages to help out the NHS?

I have heard that the average wage is about £100,000, is this correct? What is a GP actually worth?
I feel quite confident that you aren't suggesting that if GPs were paid less, it would excuse their errors of judgement :confused:

However, GP remuneration and the wholly commendable and selfless tendency of Solicitors to lower their fees in order to reduce the cost of legal aid are topics for some other thread ;)
 
had accident in my yard, fell over dog, landed next terrace down, on a metal trailer. pretty big face and head damage, loads of blood, chipped teeth,fractured skull etc. A and E. Sat there for 6 hours with visible bone in face and big bleeding head wound .didnt even xray head. didnt see Dr.Told them over and over it wasnt what it looked like, 6''2 huge tattooed hubby with me, world cup day, we had been to the pub, him for footy, I cleaned it, so stunk of booze, fags and grease. Knew this, so told them, you could see Nurseys face 'yeah yeah,whatever'
They stitched me up like a jointed pork roll and sent me out and I had to plead for a paracetamol, meanwhile they are 'serving' druggies form the sally army with 'tummy ache' who were dancing around reception?

So I ring BUPA, told get Dr refferal, come and see plastics guy. So rings surgery, normal Dr would be 2 weeeks, but i can be seen that morning if I want, by the new guy.
So now i've got a fab new GP, he couldnt use the computer ( to be fair it was his very first day, thats why I got an appointment straight away) so sat and looked at me properly, went over meds and repeats, immed referred me to private hossy to have my face re-stitched, couldnt believe how badly treated i was at the hospital, and was then stunned to learn we went on holiday by plane later the same week of the accident, all stitched up,with various skull fractures!
Strangely its tomorrow when we see the Mister, not looking forward to having my face re-opened and I will probably sue, depending on plastics guys opinion.
so, domestic accident, awful A and E, but truely spiffing new GP!
mrs herble
should have seen the bruising, mega! looked like I had a beard!!!
 
On the other hand, I would suggest that there is an increasing number of highly stressed individuals who waste the time of GPs with their belief that a cure is being withheld by a GP who is trying to protect his or her income or who is simply incompetent.

There's a big difference between looking for a cure and being told you're depressed or a hypochondriac over and over without really being looked at. I have nothing against waiting to see if a condition improves or going through medications first, but I've had doctors who do this and don't follow through if it doesn't work.
 
I can't claim to have read all of your posts but I gather that in your time you have had undiagnosed extreme bilateral hydronephrosis which apparently left you within a week or two of dying; you are an asthmatic and have recently suffered a deep lung infection and now fear that you may now be suffering transient ischemic attacks. You certainly sound like a very unhealthy individual.

I never mentioned TIA, that was someone else. I certainly am very unhealthy, worst luck. A lot of it down to the fact my doctors left me so long for so much damage to occur internally. The fact is, and my surgeon agrees, no doctor in their right mind treats a child for repeated kidney infections for ten years, with increasing severity and pain with associated illness, and fails to do a single investigation. When you have a child presenting those symptoms (real, palpable symptoms) it doesn't make sense to (1) prescribe antibiotics for the repeated UTI and (2) then tell them they're a hypochondriac for complaining it hurts.

My surgeon said I should have been referred for tests ten years earlier, for example ultrasound, IVP, gamma camera, etc, after the second or third infection as they're very uncommon in boys. Such repeated issues should have clearly rung alarm bells. As it is, they didn't and so the condition developed to such an extreme my kidney was on the verge of not only failing but bursting. An eight hour pyeloplasty (and eight smaller surgeries) later, I'm left with life-long damage. If my GPs had sent me for the appropriate tests ten years earlier, I'd have needed a tiny op to correct the pelvic urinary junction obstruction and would have been none the worse for wear.

Instead, my GPs decided to simultaneously treat the UTIs AND tell me it was in my head (even though they agreed I had protein and blood in my urine from the dipstick tests). If I hadn't changed GP by chance due to a house move, I'd have been dead before I hit 13.

Medicine isn't binary I agree. But there's still the ability to recognise the blinding obvious. :p When I switched GPs I didn't even have time to fully explain my complaint before she (the new one) had read my notes and said she wanted me in hospital. My surgeon nearly had a fit when he saw my scans and heard how long I'd been complaining of renal issues to the original GPs. So no, it's not clear cut. But to say that's anything but negligence is silly.

EDIT: Having had a moment to re-read your post stockhausen, I think I'd be better to add a postscript here to clear this issue once and for all. You said that the whole 'anxiety/hypochondriac' label was a matter of judgement for the doctor involved. Unfortunately in my case that's a bit of a straw man. I had a real medical condition, as demonstrated by my later diagnosis and surgery. The original GPs said I didn't have a physical condition and that my ongoing severe pain and nausea was me being a hypochondriac. Since their "anxious, drug seeking hypochondriac" statements were based on their inability to diagnose bilateral hydronephrosis, and their refusal to do any investigations before deciding to label me a hypochondriac (when it turns out I really was literally dying), surely you see why I'm 'annoyed' that their actions still affect me today both in my health and in the way I'm treated by doctors?
 
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... Having had a moment to re-read your post stockhausen, I think I'd be better to add a postscript here to clear this issue once and for all. ...
To be honest, I was using your case as an example - quite probably a bad example - and for that I apologise.

My real concern is that GPs are regularly vilified for their failure to refer every depressed hypochondriac to an endless list of specialists and for expensive tests. GPs and Hospital Doctors sometimes get it wrong but if they always erred on the side of caution as they increasingly feel they have to do in order to avoid a complaint, the NHS would /will simply cease to function.

I know genuine, caring, conscientious GPs who have had unjustifiable and often malicious complaints made against them, often for their lack of patience and/or sympathy, sometime because they have failed to make the right diagnosis at the right time - I don't know of one GP who has been relaxed about such a complaint - they hurt!

Where someone has a genuine grievance or cause for concern about the service they get from their GP, it is often better all round if they move to a different practice and start with a clean(er) sheet.

It does sound as if you have had a very rough ride - from every quarter - and I hope most sincerely that the worst is behind you.


There's a big difference between looking for a cure and being told you're depressed or a hypochondriac over and over without really being looked at. ...
What if that is a valid diagnosis, although perhaps one that you don't want to hear?

... I have nothing against waiting to see if a condition improves or going through medications first, but I've had doctors who do this and don't follow through if it doesn't work.
Ask for a referral to a specialist . . . change your GP. If you aren't happy, do something about it, don't simply keep banging on at someone whose judgement you don't respect and with whom you are so unhappy - a good result all round :)
 
I had a pretty bad experience with a Doctor a week yesterday, however as it was exactly what I went in for I don't think it really counts for this thread. :)
 
Ask for a referral to a specialist . . . change your GP. If you aren't happy, do something about it, don't simply keep banging on at someone whose judgement you don't respect and with whom you are so unhappy - a good result all round :)


I did all of these things and had my septum operated on last year. That doesn't change the fact that I had the obstacle of a very difficult doctor to begin with.
 
Where someone has a genuine grievance or cause for concern about the service they get from their GP, it is often better all round if they move to a different practice and start with a clean(er) sheet.
Surely their first port of call should be the practice manager seems though that is what he/she is there for? The TIA's were my first thought concerning inexplicable and sudden loss of balance. This was checked out as a precaution. I previously had an embolism that nearly killed me and the symptons are some what similar. However, it transpires I have something akin to vestibular neuritis and so nothing imagined here either.
 
When I was 18 a very close school friend of mine went to the docs complaining of vomiting, dizzy spells and headaches. Got told stomach bug/flu. It went on for some time, kept being told the same thing, then got prescribed the odd thing, eventually his parents took him somewhere else. (This is months later now).

The doctor referred him to a specialist who then got him a brain scan same day, turned out he had a brain tumour the size of a hens egg. They operated and removed it quickly.

He dealt with radio therapy, losing all his hair ... only to sadly pass away about a year later. The surgeon told his parents that if the original doctors had done their job properly he would still be with us and now he'd be looking at his 30th birthday come end of November.

R.I.P. Alexander Jameson Fryer, you were a good friend.
 
Fortunately, I've never had a bad experience at the doctor (touches some wood...) but my wife, my mum, my dad and my brother have all had some pretty hellish experiences.

My mum is currently having trouble with the skin on her legs largely because her doctor kept prescribing her steroid cream for an undetermined rash - she was using it for 2 years, even though it wasn't making the slightest difference :eek: When the useless so-and-so finally referred her to a dermatologist they went absolutely mental when they found out how long he had kept her on this stuff. Should she have said something? Changed doctors? Maybe....but she's quite elderly, didn't know the dangers of steroid cream over-use, and frankly trusted that her doctor knew what he was doing.
 
Never had any problems but was miffed by the receptionists who's sole job is preventing you from seeing the doctor whilst talking to you in a condesending tone.

I own a care home and some of the doctors are right *****, I have had a few runins with doctors and complained to their practise with the way they speak to my staff.
 
Many problems seem to be the result of continuing experience with one doctor. Why do people not request to see another doctor? Change practice or go private for a second opinion?

I suffer from various forms of arthritis, and was treated very poorly by my GP and doctors at the hospital (including being told to walk to A&E after going to the doctors complaining of an inability to walk, which resulted in me collapsing, and putting me in plaster for a month for a broken wrist which didn't show up on any tests, but was surely broken, amongst others). Wasn't until I had to admit myself into hospital at 3am after not being able to move at all - was something done. And that was only because a rheumatologist happened to glance over my notes in the night.
After my initial diagnosis by a rheumatologist I went to a private hospital for a 2nd opinion due to a lack of faith with the staff at GRI (though my current rheumatologist is nothing but excellent). He had no problem giving me a second opinion (though did question my reasoning for doing so and suggested it was unnecessary especially as my doctor is one of the leading experts on my condition.

Whenever I go to my GPs practice, I purposely ask for a different GP if they offer me my actual GP as I have no faith in him whatsoever, and wouldn't trust him to diagnose a death.
They have no problem with this.

On the whole, I find people have issues with doctors because of their own views and ideas about what should be happening. If you speak truthfully and honestly with you doctor and actually take an active role in your treatment instead of just sitting there umh and ahhing and taking the prescription then I guarantee you'll get a much better experiencing.
Don't be afraid to question a doctor or ask him why they are doing this and that or not doing that and this.
 
I've always been happy with my GP practice but recently I heard that a young man attended complaining of acute abdominal pain.
No physical exam and was sent home with pain relief. Admitted to hospital that night as an acute abdomen and died the next day. Legal proceedings are expected.

What also worries me is that under the new plan for NHS it appears that GP's will be responsible for allocating funding to services.
Not only are they not trained for this role but GP practices have entirely different management systems to the NHS with little compatibility in processes.

Cue chaos.
 
... What also worries me is that under the new plan for NHS it appears that GP's will be responsible for allocating funding to services.
Not only are they not trained for this role but GP practices have entirely different management systems to the NHS with little compatibility in processes.

Cue chaos.
No need to worry about that. As David Furness, of the Social Market Foundation think tank, said: "Giving control of NHS funds to GPs is like asking your waiter to manage a restaurant". Fortuitously, there will be plenty of private sector organisations along the lines of Humana, United Health, McKinsey, BUPA and Carpita who will come along and offer to help out the GPs - undoubtedly getting a sizeable cut of the £80 billion en passant and probably employing ex-PCT staff to do the actual work :rolleyes:

Perhaps some of these public spirited private sector organisations who are so keen to rip-off The Big Society will have at some time made donations to the Tory party, but I'm quite sure that there is no connection there ;)
 
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