I find myself utterly exasperated by the surgery and struggle to stay polite. I have in my mind the sort of doctoring as practised by my late OH, who was a GP, and find what is now on offer utterly pitiful. It certainly isn't meeting my needs.
Example - after a long wait I saw a GP who went through my meds, which are causing seriously problematical side effects - numb tingling legs and arms, nausea, headache, weakness, shortness of breath etc. None trivial ones. He does not know which of the many meds are causing these problems. Went through stuff and asked me to try one tweak and return to see him in 2 weeks. Appointment with him duly made.
In the meantime I need to see GP about the incidental finding on a scan of a thyroid nodule, and surgery ask me to get in touch to make an appointment and I duly ring them. Firstly they tell me I am not allowed to discuss the nodule at the appointment I already have and must make another. In the course of the conversation it becomes clear that my existing appointment is no longer with the GP who asked me to make it, but with another as the first one will now not be there on that day.
When I suggest that it would be helpful if I could see one GP rather than a different one every time, the receptionist is puzzled. I point out that, as I have complex problems and a raft of different drugs, every time I go for an appointment 90% of the time is taken up with the GP gazing at the computer screen trying to catch up on it all in order to have an intelligent conversation. The result of this is that the problems never get sorted. For instance the cardiology department is very insistent that I must be on a statin, but at the moment the surgery are not dispensing one for me. I have had to drop one of my drugs as the side effects are intolerable, but I have no way of knowing what risk I am taking by doing that as I cannot get to speak to anyone.
I now have an appointment for several weeks away to discuss the nodule.
It is all a shambles. One appointment they offered me was at their sister surgery which is about 45+ minutes drive from here. It already takes 35 minutes to get to the nearest surgery.
The whole system seems to be crumbling. I am on my own trying to deal with failing health and cannot seem to get support from anywhere. Am I asking too much?
