"Talked at, not to and poorly treated"

Basically, the doctor who saw me recently at The General was focused on himself and his activities, but not on me, the patient. The outcome was that he didn't treat me or relieve my symptoms, but only satisfied the procedures that he thought were appropriate.

The original appointment was to be with an excellent consultant who saw me twice last year. This time, however, I was hurriedly introduced to a doctor who was 'on rotation' and was told that he would see me instead of the consultant.

I gave this doctor 'help me' prompts: 'This is affecting my life ... damaging my general health ... causing me distress' and so on. To my surprise, he ignored these cues and focused only on the medical situation as he saw it. He also assumed that I had no 'medical literacy' and didn't ask if I'd been given other medical opinions outside The General.

Even more remarkably, he told me his POLITICAL position. When I said that I was prepared to 'go private' to avoid the long waiting list for an MRI scan he wanted me to have, he said that he "believed in the NHS". (In fact, so do I, but what I want is not more diagnosis, which my GP has already confirmed is unnecessary, but treatment.)

He then divulged that the reason for the scan, despite the waiting list, was to protect the NHS from litigation - to prevent patients suing the NHS for malpractice.

Now, even if I have the unnecessary scan, on the NHS or privately, I find myself consigned to several months of continuing pain until I can see the original consultant again and before treatment can begin.