How is your relationship with your doctor?

Shiminay

I guess this follows on from a lot of threads we have here in relation to our reluctance to visit our GP. Do you get on with your doc or think they're a muppet (if so, why's he still your doc)?

My original GP in Mayo (from when I was a child) just didn't really do anything for me when I grew up and realised that doctors are like everything else, if you get bad customer service, go elsewhere. This idea seemed abhorant to my mother (as he had in fairness, called out to the house on a Christmas Eve when my brother and I were awfully sick - Mam had no car) but when I said "he's giving me tablets for a sporting injury instead of referring me to a good physio or something to have a proper look at it" she couldn't really argue it.

Best doc I had was in Galway (Dr Colm O'Flaherty on The Crescent). I felt really reassured by him after an initial "WTF?" Funny story which I'll retell for lulz...

First time I went in was cause I'd done myself a neck injury head-banging at a heavy metal gig Really stupid thing to do to oneself I know, but the drink was flowing etc etc...

So I'm sitting in his office, first time ever seeing the guy and he saunters in saying "How are we darling, what appears to be the problem?" Now I thought "did he just say darling or am I still half cut from the gig?" and didn't think too much more of it. He gave me a quick exam on the neck and shoulders and said "Right, hop up on the scales for me please darling." Now, I was about ready to run if I heard "drop your pants darling", but it turns out this doctor was doing something no other doctor had ever done with me - he was taking an active interest in his patient.

I'm quite the fat bastard, was much more so back then and so we got talking about my fitness and diet etc. He said, according to the BMI, I was borderline Obese category 2, "but I don't place too much stock in that" he said. "You were quite active with one or 2 sports and got a bad injury, didn't you?" I had done bad damage to a knee at karate and by the time it recovered I had started college and never really got back into it. He spoke to me in a candid manner and didn't say "that's awful, don't do that" to my rather extended list of bad habbits, but instead made suggestions to cut down this and try a little less of that etc and said "sure I was an awful fat man myself, not much better now, but try your best to shift the weight now whilst you're still young cause it just gets harder." I told him I'd started swimming 2 or 3 times a week and was playing squash as often and he was very pleased to hear but said to make sure I warmed up properly for the squash cause of impact damage potential on the limbs and joints.

All in all, I left there still in pain with my neck, but really optimistic about taking charge of my health. I never once had a second thought about going in to see him for anything.

I live in Dublin now, and haven't really had need to see a doctor, so don't really have a GP. Once I made a visit to the Jervis Medical Centre for something and found the guy I saw in there (I think his name was Dr Cadden, but can't remember exactly) to be a good bloke who, despite being up the walls busy with a lot of traffic, took the time to go through what was worrying me.

So, feel free to share funny stories or good/bad points about your GP experiences.

c - 13

When I was young, under 12 say, the local doctor was a guy by the name of Ryan. He was an excellent man, he'd make house calls any time of the day or night regardless of if it was serious or not (I remember him making a house call when I got the chickenpox), he had an excellent way with the patients especially kids.

I vaguely remember one theory he had, he used keep a small freezer of ice lollies somewhere in the clinic, offer one to the sick child, if they were able to eat it was nothing serious

He moved away when I was still a kid, died when I was about 15, people around the town still talk about him, he used to go out of his way for all his patients even going so far as to drive them into the hospital himself if they had no way in.

His replacement was a guy called Finnegan, he was my usual doctor until I was about 18. Couldn't find his arse with both hands. His answer to everything was "Asthma". He nearly killed my grandmother by misdiagnosing something serious as nothing and sending her home.

I hate that clinic, I tried to ring one day to speak to the doctor about booking an STI check, something I didn't want to speak to the secretary about becasue I was pretty young and embarrassed. Cow wouldn't put me through to him and he wouldn't ring back, when I did tell her what it was about she hummed and hawwed and said she'd talk to him and call me back. Never heard back.

I dont really have a current doctor as such, I see my mothers doctor if i'm at home and sick. Another lad called Roche. He's not bad at all. He listens to what you say and is pretty spot on.

I ended up going into him one day after a really bad car crash. First thing he said was "Well you walked in so you're most likely alright", did the checks and said i was fine, as I was leaving he said "One thing though, be careful washing your hair", confused I asked why, he replied "You have glass in it" ...

Delirium

When I lived in Tullamore, my doctor was the one I had from childhood. Was ok, didn't feel worried about going to see.

Current doctor in Limerick, as in I get sick go to him, is quite pleasant. Don't know what his name is, not even his surname.:o

All the doctors I ever had, not one of them ever gave me a bad experience that would make me think twice about going to see a doctor.

Ruu_Old

Our family doctor in Ireland has been a friend of the family for years, nice chap. I've had the same doctor since moving to the US 3 years ago but she recently moved to a new clinic so I'll have to find a new one. Got on quite well with her the times I had to go in for annual checkups and so on, no nonsense.

AnonoBoy

Don't really have a regular doc as I'm not normally sick but I found the female doctor in the Grafton Medical Centre to be very friendly, candid and professional.

Although I opted to go elsewhere for the auld STI check up as I didn't want her being intimidated by my sheer size!*

(*above statement may contain untrue elements)

KnifeWRENCH

The clinic I go to has about 5 or 6 different doctors. There's one in particular I prefer going to, but I'll go to any of them apart from the head guy.

The head doctor is so damn cautious that you'd want to be at death's door before he'd write you a prescription. I went in there one time with a really sore throat. He took one look at it and basically accused me of lying "It's probably only a bit dry." :mad:
2 days later, I could barely swallow anything. Went in to another doctor there, he took one look at it and said "Oh, that's infected."

There is one other doctor I avoid if possible, and that surprisingly is the doctor the rest of my family always go to. They say she's the best doctor there. I went to her once and she was good, but the problem is there's always a huge queue waiting for her. There are few things more tedious than waiting ages for a doctor, and I find my usual doctor just as good.

If I'm sick enough though, I think I'd go to any doctor.

javaboy

My doctor growing up was dead nice. He took a great interest in us as kids and knew all his patients by name even the really healthy ones he only saw once a year or less.

Unfortunately he was attacked in his practice by some junkies posing as patients who were looking for drugs or prescription pads or something. After that he kind of lost heart and while he's still a GP AFAIK, he's very disorganised and a long way from the doctor he once was.

It's sad because our family had such a great relationship with him but we all switched to different GPs when we realised he had changed so much. I went in with chest pains and without really examining me, he wrote it off as growing pains. It's not like I was a hypochondriac or anything. I hadn't been to a doctor in about 4 or 5 years at that stage.

EDIT: One thing I should say in my old doctor's defence is that he was cautious about prescribing anti-biotics too readily long before it became big news.

Our current GP works in a clinic and while he hasn't got the same bedside manner our old doctor had, I've a lot more faith in him to do the job.