"Concerns over GP"

It took a while to convince my 17 year old son to go to the doctor!

He has had a dreadful cough for almost 4 weeks - it is particularly bad at night and he coughs so violently that he throws up. His nighttime sleep is badly disturbed and he is lethargic and tired in the daytime. His sinuses have been really bad during this period. He has also complained about rapid heartbeat and sweats profusely and is severly embarrased by this. He had asthma when he was younger but seemed to be free of it for quite some time. However, given most of the above, I was concerned that it was back and managed to coax him into going to the doctor - particularly as he is sitting his AS exams this month.

We have two doctors in our surgery; one of them it is impossible to get an appointment with and the other you can easily get an appointment with - which speaks volumes for what I am about to say!

From what my son told me, it seems that my son was hardly in the door as the doctor was starting to write the script! (which I have experienced a number of times.) My son mentioned that he thought his asthma was back and was starting to describe his symptoms. The doctor was speaking over him saying yes these are all related to asthma. He asked him what inhalers he had and wrote a script increasing the dosage. My son felt so rushed that he didn't get time to explain the sweating (the doctor had stood up when he wrote the script and my son took this as apparently intended - the appointment is over!) There was no peakflow test and anything my son said was met with - yes that would be the asthma! All in all he waited over 45 minutes to see the doctor and says he spent about 2 minutes max in with the doctor. I have to say that the other doctor in the surgery is much more caring and takes time to listen to his patients - but, as I mentioned earlier, it is very difficult to get an appointment with him!

It is difficult enough to get a 17 year old male to go to the doctor and it will be even more difficult next time! This is really frustrating! I often hear that GPs are trying to encourage men to take more care of their health and visit their doctor when needs be. However, my son got the feeling that the doctor couldn't spare the time of day.

I don't want to make life difficult for the doctor and I don't want this to rebound on me or my son's future care, but I really feel this is unsatisfactory! Does anyone have any similar experiences?