"The patient centred care is 0"

In my experience, the worst care you can receive through the NHS.

Firstly, I am a parent to two children. I have several health conditions which affect my day to day life, severely. I need to be well and have medical care to be able to look after my children. Not only that, it’s our right as UK tax paying citizens to have the NHS. Up until being very unwell this year, I have worked and paid tax since I was 18 years old, and this is what I get….

This surgery have made my life and my symptoms hell.

Firstly the medication I need to be out of chronic, crippling pain, was discontinued.

I was currently bed ridden with the pain so my Father (who is an OAP cancer care patient) was having to go to the surgery to find out what help they could offer as my pain medication (prescription) was discontinued.

After my Dad spending his entire day going back and fourth, whilst I was at home in agony, they eventually gave me an alternative, but not on repeat.

So I was given 4 pain medication, when I use up to 6 a day.

This of course didn’t last a day and what followed was only what I can describe as a living nightmare.

I was calling the surgery, desperate for help and in agony and the staff  were not only disregarding me but also being extremely rude… an example was being told I need to do things properly and get a diagnosis from a doctor.

This is a condition I’ve struggled with since 2021 and been diagnosed twice by two different doctors. Why would you make someone who is in crippling pain wait for an appointment to be diagnosed again?

I ended up in such a bad situation I was on the bathroom floor being violently sick in crippling pain and my daughter, who was extremely scared called for help. An ambulance came and quickly took me away on oxygen to St Mary’s hospital.

The consultants at the hospital said how shocked and disappointed they were at my surgery for letting it get so bad that I was taken away in screaming pain by ambulance.

In my opinion this is both a massive waste of resources, ambulance and a hospital bed.

These services are specifically for emergencies and I wouldn’t have been in an emergency had the surgery offered me a proper appointment and the medication I needed.

To make matters worse, whilst all this is going on they have also refused to provide me with a fit note, but again won’t give me any proper reason why. A member of staff filled out an e-consult form on my behalf way before my fit note was due to end and I heard nothing, so I wrote directly to the fit note provider and politely asked for a fit note, nothing. I then sent another email polite requesting a fit note, still to no avail.

If there is a reason they can’t provide a fit note for someone struggling with chronic pain, with 3 diagnosed illnesses, they should have the decency to reply and explain, but it seems their way of doing things is to ignore.

This adds serious unnecessary pressure to a struggling person and makes you feel hopeless, isolated and very frightened. Because what will happen now is on top of struggling with my pain, I now won’t get my sick pay which is all I have to support myself and my 2 children. So we won’t be able to eat as well as me being bed ridden.

Honestly, it’s shameful. You call reception and all they do is try to hurry you off the phone and fob you off.

The patient centred care is 0. The healthcare is 0.

They don’t even have a duty doctor on site, which in most surgeries is unheard of.