"The impact your words have"

I want to share this experience in the hope that others - who may not be well supported at home - don’t end up tipping over the edge because of a GP’s callousness and poor clinical judgement. 

As a person in the Scottish government’s shielding group, I recently asked a GP to phone me about how to manage worsening chronic pain and other deeply unpleasant symptoms. These are causing me to despair. 

We can’t choose which doctor we get to speak to - it’s pot luck with this practice unfortunately. So when a GP phoned me I tried to explain how bad things were physically and emotionally. This didn’t come easily - it’s the first time I’ve tried to broach the issue of my mental health with a GP in this practice. 

I was advised by her to take paracetamol and wait more patiently for non pharmaceutical (CBT pain management) to finally materialise. It’s been over 19 months since I was referred for psychological help with pain management. I haven’t tolerated the standard fare at all and my area pain clinic have refused me the infusions requested by my consultant. Local psychology services for people like me with chronic health conditions were redeployed for the pandemic - as were most of my specialists. 

As an aside - I don’t know why the psychology team were redeployed - given the need to protect the mental and physical wellbeing of those who’ve shielded or are living with serious degenerative diseases. But the fact is that it’s happened and actually the quality of my secondary care has been second to none despite the pandemic. In this respect I’ve been very fortunate compared to many. 

But still my partner and I are now unwaged due to the pandemic. Times are very hard financially for many, including nurses, care workers and junior doctors. But not for GPs. 

Yet I’ve not seen a GP face to face for over a year and nor has anyone from the practice phoned to ask how I’m coping as one of their shielding patients. 

I was told by this GP that everyone on the psychology waiting list is in the same boat and I had no reason to assume I was more of a priority than others. I certainly wasn’t suggesting that I was more important - I would never do that no matter how desperate? 

In vain did I try to explain to her that I really  needed some help because I was becoming seriously depressed due to disease progression . She just said everyone is in same boat and there was nothing she could offer me for my pain other than paracetamol (inappropriate for nerve pain??). 

There was a total absence of kindness or compassion in every word she uttered. In fact was made to feel like a doctor botherer and a nuisance.  Maybe I am but I don’t think so? I have been placed in the shielding group for 12 months for a reason. 

When I asked for results from recent tests - relating to my worst symptoms - this GP said they were normal.  She had no views on whether I should continue a new prescription medication or not. 

Then that was it - just a clipped “goodbye”. 

I’m fortunate to have a loving partner who has quit his job to shield with me and has become my unpaid carer. He was there to pick up the pieces she left behind when she abruptly ended this call. 

But if I lived alone or had an unsupportive partner I don’t like to think of what impact this GP’s total lack of concern and clinical ineptitude might have have caused. 

I hope any GP reading this takes a good hard look at the way they speak to patients who are trying to  report very low mood - especially those who have been shielding for the best part of a year. Some will have been brilliant and hopefully you are in the majority. But consider how you’d feel if you later learnt that a patient had taken their life after your lack of compassion? 

However this GP practice has partners who need to seriously reflect on their professional practice and consider hard the impact their words might have on a patient reporting depression or chronic pain or both  - especially someone who has been classed as clinically extremely vulnerable to Covid19 and has barely left home for 12 months.