Our surgery is a complete waste of time, all the good doctors have retired and the replacements are useless, there's an Indian woman, served her time in a clap clinic in Bangladesh, no matter what you go in with you come out with a course of antibiotics! There's another one, looks like a character from spitting image, he used to be a dentist but was hopeless, so he became a doctor and he's useless at that.
They have no interest whatsoever in you as a patient, only in meeting targets, which incidentally they get bonuses for! I'm sick to death of getting letters or texts from them, "Dear sir, as you are over 50, you should have a full health check, please call in to make an appointment"
"Dear Sir, you are overdue on your blood pressure check, please call in and have it done"
"Dear Sir, we would like you to call in for a prostate examination, please call us"
"Dear Sir, please call in for a medicine review"
I feel like writing back to them, "Dear Doctor, I would be very happy to come in and discuss what I want and what I actually need"
The last time I went in I was feeling really unwell with depression, I asked Mr Spitting image for some Diazepam, he declined as they are addictive, he then offered me a prescription for sertraline, the last time I was prescribed these was many years ago, after a week on them I attempted suicide! I asked if he'd read my records, he replied he didn't have to as he knew what was best! I went freaking mental, had a stand up row and reported him to the GMC, Following a telephone conversation with him the man doing the investigation concluded that he was correct to offer Sertraline, and that as well as having Clinical Depression, and PTSD, I also had an undiagnosed personality disorder! WOW, how good is that, a bloke I've never met speaks to a doctor I've only ever seen for 5 minutes and diagnoses a personality disorder.
The receptionists are no better, not only do they want to know your life history, but they also openly discuss patients between themselves, they had an open office up until I went in one day for an appointment. The phone rang and one of the dragons was speaking to a patient who wanted to see a Doctor, when she had finished she began to discuss the patient with one of the other staff, well within the earshot of anyone in the surgery, it went something like this, "I've just had Mrs Smith on the phone again, you know, the one from 16 Acacia avenue" other woman replied, "oh yes, what did she want?" First receptionist, "oh, she's moaning on about how she's got a funny rash on her fanny, I felt like telling her, if she didn't spread her legs so much she probably wouldn't have a rash". other woman, "yeah well, you know what people like her are like don't you, dirty cow". And so the conversation continued, I went in to see the GP, who just happened to be a senior partner, I gave her chapter and verse on what I'd heard in the waiting room and she wasn't happy, shortly afterwards they built a new office to keep them out of public earshot.
