The environment of the waiting area was very stressful. The room was hot and airless, with bright white lights, and a blaring hospital promotion video. These are the type of environmental stressors likely to bring on migraine in susceptible people, so particularly inappropriate for a neurological hospital. ________________________________________________________________________ I have a complex multi-symptom condition, so I went to the trouble of typing the relevant information in clearly-spaced, easy-to-read style. The doctor wasn't happy about this and wanted me to tell him orally. (They seem to forget that it can be quite difficult for brain-damaged people to focus their thoughts in conversation.) But I stuck to my guns and said I would prefer him to read what I had written, as I felt this would be quicker and easier for both of us and ensure that all the points were communicated. So he told me to go back to the waiting room and he would call me in again when he had had a chance to read it. As I was leaving, I heard him calling another patient to his room. So I was very surprised when he called me back just five minutes later. He must be a brilliant speed-reader and multi-tasker, if he managed to study my complex history in under five minutes, at the same time as seeing another patient! Or maybe he was just skim-reading? Because when I returned to his room, he had already decided on a probable diagnosis which is totally bananas and bears no resemblance to the symptoms I experience or the MRI evidence from other hospitals. He then subjected me to a 90mph rabbit about all the tests he was going to give me for this supposed condition that I haven't got. He was talking so fast that I could hardly follow him, let alone get a word in edgeways. He clearly doesn't agree with the maxim: "Listen to your patient: she is telling you the diagnosis."
"stressful waiting room and doctor barking up the..."
About: National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery - Queen Square National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery - Queen Square London WC1N 3BG
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