"Absolutely horrified at doctor's decision making"

This is my mum's experience but it affected me deeply. My mum has had spinal surgery and developed complications including scoliosis and nerve trapping afterwards resulting in severe pain.

The doctor's response was to accuse my mum of having a psychiatric order - essentially the pain was all in her head - and they proceeded to take her off one of the medications she had been on for years for pain because they didn't think it was a painkiller. This is despite the medication being a known analgesic and the clinical evidence that my mum's pain increases when she isn't on it.

They then proceeded to say that all women in their sixties have to expect some pain, as if that was acceptable. They also said a number of other things that made me seriously question their knowledge, like that gabapentin didn't treat pain (it absolutely does treat neuropathic pain, clinically relevant in this case and as recognised by the NHS). An arrogant doctor who caused serious distress.

Unfortunately I couldn't go down the route of a formal complaint as the complaint handler was going to be the same doctor and the practice refused for my complaint to go to anyone else.

We have since moved practice and it is like night and day, the new GP is lovely and was absolutely horrified at this doctor's decision making, immediately reinstating the medication my mum had had taken away from her. Says it all really. Avoid avoid avoid. One thing I will say is that the nurses and reception staff were nice but I would not trust this doctor with a living thing.