"Subjected to the most hideous experience of my..."

Despite having had the privilege of working with some excellent doctors, in all 3 of the local Teaching Hospitals, my experience as a patient at Harrogate Hospital has left me with a profound mistrust of the medical profession. The saddest fact is that what happened was entirely predictable and preventable. The treating consultant had clear longevity in their role however in my opinion this did not bring the expected knowledge and experience. Suffering from an acute movement disorder, most likely due to the use of or reduction in dose of a medication prescribed for pain relief, an early opportunity was missed to bring my condition under control. Even though the neurologist had no experience of my specific response to this medication, they thought it would resolve spontaneously and discharged me. It did not. Over the following three weeks my condition deteriorated further, and regrettably I ended up under the care of the same neurologist again. They then commenced a treatment regime without offering any meaningful explanation of my condition or of all the treatment options available and the risks and benefits of each. After commencing this regime, which included two new medications, I was supposed to be reviewed after 3 weeks. At this point however, there was no clinic capacity and I was unable to bring my appointment forward. Suffering terribly with side effects and finally after 6 weeks I was reviewed and inappropriately told to reduce the dose of one of the medications too fast. Unsurprisingly, by the time I attended for my next review, I was experiencing uncomfortable symptoms. I reported these symptoms to the neurologist but in their ignorance, they chose to make grossly inaccurate assumptions about the cause of them and consequently when they decided I could stop this medication completely, again with a reduction in dose far too fast, I suffered the most hideous experience of my life. In fact, throughout my whole illness they were patronising in their dealings with me. They severely undermined my intelligence and in doing so exposed them self and their speciality of medicine as outdated and old fashioned in its approach to patient care and the management of their treatment plans. In my opinion there was no adherence to the ethics of obtaining valid informed consent to treatment or the concept of patient centred care, shared decision making or patient choice. I will never again have confidence that any symptoms I may report to a doctor will be taken seriously. Regrettably I can feel nothing but utter disdain for this Neurology Department and Hospital Trust for their shameful failure to safeguard my health. In attempting to treat me for a terrible reaction to one medication they subjected me to protracted withdrawal symptoms from a further medication.