My GP was extremely inept, is it worth doing anything?

Roller Toaster

A year and a quarter ago I went to my GP complaining of back pains. He thought it was skin related because I have very sensitive skin which is fair enough. He told me to come back in two months. Nothing changed, in fact it got infinitely worse so I went back again and he looked at my back for about five seconds and put me on another cream and told me to come back in a while. Rinse and repeat a few times.

By early December I was still in an intolerable amount of pain and my back looked pretty ****ed up and was starting to crack and bleed a lot. Even when I showed him this he just put me on a few pills and another cream despite me protesting that the creams just weren't working (hell one of them gave me an extreme alergic reaction that lasted two weeks...two of the ****tiest weeks of my life). I told him I really wanted to be better by the time Christmas came and definitely by January as I was going away. He just laughed and said "I doubt it". I asked if it was worth going a specialist and he just said "no"...I needed him to refer me so I could go to the one I wanted too.

Christmas rolled past as did January and still every waking hour was spent with this horrible condition and I was getting pretty scared as my leaving cert was coming up and the pain meant my ability to focus was shot to ****. In March I woke up one morning and I could barely stand or move cause it was so bad so he finally referred me. Two weeks later I went to the specialist.

Within 10 minutes the specialist was able to tell me what the problem was and what needed doing. He told me what I could take to ease the pain slightly before the operation and talked to me about the best time to have it. He said that it took a month or two to recover which mean unfortunately I'd have to wait until after my exams to have it done. I was relieved but as I left even then the anger was starting to build up. Why hadn't the GP done more? The specialist said it was a fairly common condition so why the **** didn't the GP know what it was? All the GP did was take my money every month and put me on some random medication and never once gave me anything to help with the pain.

Flash forward to now, 2 weeks after my operation and I'm starting to feel a lot better and the specialist said I could keep going back (without charge even) and that he wouldn't stop until I was completely cured. He gave me so much advice and support that I couldn't have asked for more and I can't fault the specialist. I was talking to my friend the other day and his dad went to the same gp a few years ago complaining of leg pains... turns out he had a clogged artery or so in his leg that could have led to amputation but the doctor told him everything was hunky dorey. Luckily the dad went to a different GP and that GP eventually lead to the corrective surgery.

What should I do about my old GP? I have no plans to ever go back to him so it's not like he'll affect me again...I even went to have my stitches taken out by a different doctor but I'm really angry at the guy. He took my money on a monthly basis and did nothing but drag things out. I could have had the operation last year while it wasn't as bad and wouldn't have been as affected by it as I have been. All the stuff over the last year that's been tainted by this boggles my mind, I was originally meant to be working abroad for the summer but that plan is obviously unviable now. I'm not saying I'm going to take him to court (although...) but would it be worth reporting him or something similar?

maxheadroom

Absolutely. Also take legal advice, you may be entitled to compensation for your suffering. The guy sounds dangerous.

A good few years ago our family GP managed to misdiagnose a stroke as a case of 'flu. After a week, we ended up visiting casualty where it was spotted immediately. We didn't do anything about it at the time, and now feel like we should have.

you might be able to get more information from http://www.medicalcouncil.ie/

Gillo

Complain to the medical counsel, they are the people who licence doctors to practice (kinda scary they call it pactice, when you think about it). The problem with doctors is people are afraid to change and will stick with the same one for quite awhile. My dad has been seeing the same doctor for nearly 3 years with the same problem and won't change.

Alot of GP's work is in fact trial and error so sometimes you have to be be prepared no to get an instant cure, but your story definetly suggest's your doctor is crap.

Roller Toaster

Yeah, thanks for the advice. I'll try to follow things up once I'm back on my feet. The thing is I would have changed doctors but I presumed at the time I would have gotten the same results from any of them. It wasn't until I saw the consultant that I realised how ****ty the first doctor had been.