"Podiatry here are not the most reassuring."

The receptionists are lovely, it's a clean and attractive building and all the staff were pleasant enough. The blood clinic seems rather overburdened though. Unfortunately there is no communication between staff and there's such little respect between some of them that it makes you lose faith in all of them.

I was attending the podiatry clinic with an ulcer on my ankle - the doctor looked at my feet and recommended I have compression bandages.

I had the doppler tests done to confirm that this treatment would be suitable, and I have had compression bandages for ulcers before so I knew what it entailed.

So when I went back to the clinic after this, I kept bringing up the fact I was supposed to be in compression, and each time I was either ignored, or just shrugged at generally.

I lost confidence and gave up.

Six weeks later I saw the doctor again, they asked "How is compression going?"

I said "what compression? It hasn't started." The doctor was quiet for a bit and left the room. That was one of the longer consultations.

I began asking podiatrists again, "when will I be put in compression?" Again, very little response, one podiatrist outright said "No, you definitely don't need compression" while another said it's odd that I wasn't in compression as they thought it would definitely respond to it.

In the end it was more than three months (of weekly visits) before I met a podiatrist who considered the doctor worthy of listening to, and they checked my notes and arranged for me to be put in compression. I saw an awful lot of podiatrists before I met this one, so thank god they works there at least.

Now I must say, for a doctor who's supposed to be a diabetic specialist I got absolutely nothing from them, no information, no support, and all the podiatrists obviously don't have faith in the doctor. They told me to stop smoking, so I did, and then they had nothing more to say to me after that. The final consultation I had was me waiting 2 hours for the appointment and then we barely spoke to each other, I didn't bother making another appointment. On occasion the doctor would arranged blood tests, but didn't deign to discuss them with me. I guess everything's fine? Sometimes a person would follow them around and apologise for the doctor's behaviour, which I found rather offputting, but they left that job for some reason.

Since I moved from the Minerva the nurses here immediately put me in compression and my ulcer healed in seven weeks, which is what prompted me to come back here and record my experiences. The podiatrists here also have been treating me for an ingrown toenail - one said "Yeah this happens when the nails are cut like this - I take it you did this yourself?" "Gosh no," I laughed "That was the podiatrists at the Minerva." Their expression nearly made it worthwhile.