"Doctor had no social skills"

I have just come from an appointment at the colo rectal clinic at the Royal London.

I had to wait but that was fine but the doctor I saw, while not overtly rude, left me feeling frustrated, humiliated and low. For example he did not introduce himself or look at me throughout our interview. I tried to show him my weight loss chart and he would not look at it but kept looking at the computer screen.

I explained I had come because one is advised to seek causes for sudden and unexplained weight loss as it could stem from cancer (advised even by the NHS website) and he said 'oh so it's cancer now is it? Not 'maybe' it's cancer? You know it is cancer, do you?!' . This was sarcastic. I stumbled on saying no that was not what I was saying but he was not listening. It felt like a fight to get anything through to him. I tried to tell him my father had died of bowel cancer which I had read was significant and should be mentioned. He did not listen. Finally I did get that point across but to do so I had to kind of insist, by my tone, which seemed inappropriate. I felt as if I was interrupting him an his work on the computer. At one stage I said 'it hurts just here' pointing to a part of my abdomen and he said 'I know where it hurts' without even turning his head! Later I asked a question about something he said as I had not understood it and the answer was provided in a kind of scoffing manner as if I was a bit dim but in fact I had never heard of the thing he was mentioning and he had not explained it at all. My (few) questions either went unheard or got an answer in the slight tone of 'that's obvious!'

The appointment was significant to me because I have lost a lot of weight suddenly and because I have bowel symptoms. I think anyone would be worried. (I had been referred as by my GP on the 'fast track'.) But I was left feeling as if I was being a bit hysterical and a bit of a hypochondriac. In fact I said very little in the session and it was brief (and I rarely go to the doctor's).

I think the actions prescribed by this man were correct (a CT bowel scan and a blood test) and I am happy with those actions, although I am not a doctor of course. But the manner of delivery was both distracted and dismissive, which one can live with in a normal situation but you do feel more vulnerable when you are anxious about health and when I left, unusually for me, I felt a bit tearful. I soon picked myself up but I have been thinking - if it was a shop or any other form of service where you were spoken to like that, you would never go back!

I appreciate doctors are under terrible pressure and I don't expect to be chatty or best friends or to use up a lot of their time but would just request a form of communication that is at least participative and during which one can express (briefly!) ones thoughts, history and symptoms.