Old Fire Station Surgery

Great surgery, disgraceful doctor

A fantastic nursing and reception team let down by one doctor’s appalling attitude. First, I want to say that the nurses and reception team were absolutely fantastic. They were lovely, helpful, welcoming and compassionate. I genuinely cannot fault them, which makes this all the more disappointing. Unfortunately, my experience with Dr was the complete opposite. His behaviour towards me was repeatedly demeaning, disrespectful, judgemental and, quite frankly, disgraceful. I regularly left appointments feeling belittled, humiliated and as though I was being treated like a liar. I never felt listened to, believed or taken seriously. Instead, I felt constantly judged, particularly because of my mental health history. During a cervical scan, I was in absolute agony, crying throughout the procedure, with my mother-in-law present to witness just how much pain I was in. Yet I was made to feel as though my pain wasn’t believed or taken seriously. The outcome was effectively no further action. Another particularly upsetting experience was being refused pain relief when suffering with agonising pain following seizures. I have severe epilepsy and am prescribed some very strong medication, including benzodiazepines. My seizures regularly leave me in considerable physical pain, yet when I requested dihydrocodeine, Dr refused. His reasoning? Because I had previously attempted suicide, he couldn’t trust me with it. I cannot begin to explain how demeaning and humiliating that felt. I was already vulnerable, already struggling and simply asking for help with genuine physical pain. Instead, my mental health history was thrown back at me as though it defined who I was and made me undeserving of treatment. I fully appreciate that combining medications requires careful consideration, particularly with epilepsy medication. But there is a world of difference between assessing medication risks and making a patient feel untrustworthy because of their mental health. If he felt dihydrocodeine was unsafe, where was the compassion? Where was the discussion about alternatives? I was simply left in pain. A previous suicide attempt should not become a permanent label that follows someone into every medical appointment. I deserved to be treated as a person, not judged by the worst moments of my life. His behaviour made me so distressed on one occasion that I actually left through the fire escape in his office. That should tell you everything about how uncomfortable, upset and unwelcome I felt. A year later, I have now been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Looking back at how much pain I was experiencing and how readily my concerns were dismissed makes me incredibly angry. I cannot help but wonder whether things might have been different had my symptoms been taken more seriously. I sincerely hope he reflects on that. I reached a point where I genuinely felt that if I collapsed in his office, he would step over me and carry on with his day. That is how little compassion and trust his behaviour left me with. Ultimately, I had enough. I left the surgery and moved to St Peter’s, not because of the nurses, receptionists or the practice as a whole, but because I could no longer tolerate being treated this way by one particular doctor. It’s an absolute shame that an otherwise fantastic surgery lost a patient because of one doctor’s attitude. Patients are human beings, not inconveniences. We deserve to be listened to, believed and treated with dignity, regardless of our medical or mental health history. Having struggled with mental health does not mean we lose the right to compassionate medical care. The nurses and reception team deserve every bit of praise. Unfortunately, my experience with Dr deserves the complete opposite.