"Wonderful office staff: poor treatment from GP"

Having visited the Walk In centre as a new resident in Leeds, I was really surprisingly welcomed by the office staff who were friendly, professional and efficient. I say surprised because the aesthetics of the surgery from the outside are less than inviting. It really made me see for the frst time, just how little money the NHS has.

I was only waiting around 15-20 minutes before the GP called me in. Unfortunately this is where all positive feedback stops.

A staff member asked me what was wrong and I explained very briefly that I had been unwell for some time and I now had pain in my chest and back and a persistant cough.

Without any spoken language, nothing, no narrative of their steps, they pushed a monitior for me to put my finger into and stuck a temp measure into my ear. They did neither explain to me they were going to, or tell me the results of either. They then said "i will check your chest, lift up your top and breathe in". I did and waited for the diagnosis. They said that my chest was clear and that there's nothing they could give me (not even empathy or human interaction apparently) and that I was sore because of the coughing. They said take pain killers and and take vitamins to build up my immune system (which I am pretty sure is not how it works).

In silence, I packed away my bag and as I left asked the question I would expect them to have self suggested, "if it gets worse shall i come back? How long might i have it?" Their genuine response was that if i still had it in three months, come back.

My concerns:

Absolutley no bedside manner, no empathy, not even an attempt at kindness, not a smile, not put at ease, I was made to feel like I had wasted their time.

They asked me no questions. Not only will this make anyone feel like the other person doesn't care, I felt they missed a number of medical concerns that I had. Nothing was asked of my lifestyle, the green mucus I am coughing up, the sinus pain I have, the night sweats I am having. My medical history. My current well being or life situation. Not even a flicker of a thought about mental health.

Time. I was in the room for 3 and a half minutes.

I totally unserstand that for this GP, I may well be the 100th person to come in complaining of Classic Winter virus symptoms. And it may well be that I should keep self medicating and drinking fluids. But having been ill for two weeks, with last four days off work, most people see the GP as a place of reassurance and help. We arw not to know if we are fine or not, that's why we take time off work to try and get better and then visit the doctor when things aren't changing.

I am a secondary school teacher and I appreciate the difficulties of working with large numbers of people. But kindness, empathy and a genuine interest in wanting to help patients is surely a non-negotiable in this profession.

Really disappointed and not convinced of a thorough diagnosis, will be attending another GP practice next week.