I know that for instance down here with the [name removed] Health Authority ... all I had to do to get a new GP was to write to them saying that "I met this GP, I now wish to change" and they... 'cos I found that going to different GP surgeries, often I'd be turned away and they'd say, "Sorry, we've got too many patients", whereas somehow the Health Authority just force you into the books. So I wrote to them... So when I had my first sort of health check with the new GP I was just amazed, having had the previous experience of just being fobbed off by my GP.
I went in complaining, for instance, of really, really bad headaches. It was always on one side of the head and I had convinced myself I'd got a tumour. But it was just the way he... He might have been thinking, "Oh, you're a hypochondriac, you're worried about nothing," but he actually went through and he explained everything. He said, "I'm going to do this test, and this test and this is why I am doing this test" and he said, "It's unlikely but...". And then he checked and said, "No, you have no symptoms of it, so it's probably just stress", you know. There was another skin condition I had that he explained what it was. He even gave me a printout of what it was, what causes it, "This is the medication I'm giving you, that's why it works, that's how it works, and that's what's going to happen after the treatment is finished". And he said to me that, "Whenever you feel that, you know, your headaches are coming back or are too persistent, then don't hesitate to come back and see me, and... similarly, if the depression ever relapses, come back here: we can refer you to the on-site counsellor". |
