"Lack of professional behaviour and general…"

I attended the practice at the request of the GP as they wished to review me after an initial consultation a week earlier.

On entering the room not only does the young male GP not have the manners to look at me he does even greet me either - this may seem trivial but being respectful costs nothing and builds trust and confidence between the professional and their patient on a human level.

I greet him anyway and he asks why am I there - if he had reviewed my notes in preparation for the consultation he would surely have seen he had requested me to attend a week ago and no other attendances in between had occurred so one would assume that the last note in my records was that appointment so it would not have taken time to scroll through and locate the last entry and understand why I was there.

This does not fill you with confidence nor reassure you that the GP is attentive to his patients needs nor thorough in their review of the notes before they see the patient.

I found his whole manner quite condescending and dismissive and his only concern seemed to be to make the consultation as short as possible and to downplay or undermine any query or concern I raised as he stated “I was worried” and that is why I had attended that day which was completely incorrect- he was concerned in the initial appt and wanted to review me again in a week.

When asked how long a certain recently prescribed medication may take to have any impact he did not answer my question but merely said that it is not just the medication that is going to have an impact but lifestyle changes as well. I am well aware that this is the case but I have asked a professional a clinical question and expected an answer - if you don’t know the answer then say so, my thoughts were that perhaps a blood test done too soon after starting a medication would be pointless as it may take a certain length of time for the drug to be effective.

If he was so concerned about lifestyle changes being such a key element to improving my health then perhaps offering a link to lifestyle advice or a leaflet would have be more beneficial that the somewhat condescending response he gave?

Overall I left having felt gaslit and unheard.

Perhaps some more training on positive communication skills and patient interaction wouldn’t go amiss.