"excellent service from senior doctor at practice"

I recently suffered from polymyalgia and giant cell arteritis but did not realise what the problem was or its seriousness and did not contact a doctor as early as I should have done, largely because it can be so difficult to get an appointment quickly.

I saw a new (to me) doctor finally on 26.10.18 who agreed to my having a blood test, and I was very fortunate to have this the same morning (Friday) due to a cancellation instead of having to wait several days.

At 8.15 am on the following Monday the senior doctor telephoned me at home, having seen the blood test result, and alerted me to the fact that it indicated an emergency and I needed to go to

A & E immediately.

This I did, had numerous tests there and was given immediate medication - which, as it turned out, saved my sight from risk of sudden and permanent loss as a result of the arteritis - a condition I had never heard of before.

I saw the senior doctor in the surgery for follow-up on 4.12.18 because of rising blood pressure, as earlier requested by the hospital and as a result of the new medication, and learnt more about my illness and its onward implications.

I feel so lucky to have been saved from this serious and real risk of totally unexpected blindness by the alertness of the senior doctor in reviewing my blood result so quickly and contacting me immediately, and I owe him a great debt of gratitude.

He is so approachable, informative and caring and I feel complete trust in his judgment.

There are other problems with the surgery, partly due to constant staff turnover and part-time hours and, I feel, overall inadequacy of doctors' time available for the number of patients registered, but these are administrative matters which I know are common to many GP practices.

Because of this I cannot rate the whole practice as highly as I would wish, but I do want to put on record how excellent in my opinion the senior doctor is, although clearly under considerable stress himself from ever increasing patient demands.

I have been with this practice since 1983 and there have been many changes and issues over the years and though the care I have received has been generally good, this has not always been the case and I have considered changing practices over the last couple of years, but now will not do so as long as the senior doctor remains in post and I can continue to see him when required.

Since he joined he has given me very helpful advice on several past problems, which I have followed and these problems have always improved.

I am very grateful indeed.