"Amazing doctor!"

After suffering for ten years with chronic pain from the age of 12, I was finally sorted when I just turned 22, this was down to one particular doctor. 

At 13 I was shoved on anti-inflammatories and by 15, I was out on max dose of codeine by a different practice. As a child I thought doctors know best and this is what I took. Looking back now I’m a nurse I realise that this was a bad move from the doctor. 

I moved away from my hometown at 19 to start university to do my nurse training and had to move GP’s. These problems really stated to affect me during the end of my first year. I saw one amazing GP who decided to do blood tests, it showed I was vit d deficient, after treatment these symptoms didn’t resolve and in fact got worse. We discussed what we throught this was between us. As he knew I was working in healthcare he gave me a choice in my treatment which was amazing, he delivered a real person centred approach each appointment. He decided to treat me for what we both thought was the issue. This issue is chronic and causes pain on a daily basis. I was able to tell him which medications were helpful and which weren’t so much. This GP advised me to come back regularly to discuss how things were going. This restored my faith in GPs after them not caring in several other practices. 

Eventually in my final year I’d been recommended to ask for physio from a lecturer in university. When I was at my next GP appointment he decided to skip physio for the time being and refer me to rheumatology. The rheumatologist was also excellent and diagnosed me with what both the GP and I thought plus several other things. I was then discharge with a physio referral, occupational therapy referral and back to my GP. My GP continues to provide amazing, compassionate care to me for these conditions and regularly assesses whether the medication is working.

When going for a review on a Saturday morning, I mentioned to the same GP I had found a lump the week before, he sent me for an X-ray. I waited until the Monday when the department was open and went for it. The results were back within a week and I received a telephone appointment the following day with my usual GP who referred me for a scan as soon as the telephone appointment ended. 

I won’t go to another GP in the practice of I can help it as I have a lot of trust in the GP and that’s taken 8 years to find a GP to trust. 

I also love the online access as it makes it easier to book appointments around my shifts and quickly request medication and check any test results.

Overall, I am thoroughly impressed with this practice, especially this doctor. You are a credit to the medical profession!