A tale of Mental Torture & Persecution

 

From May to July 2022, I have had a terrible time it started when I asked to see a doctor about my asthma, but he said he had lost the last discharge letters from the hospital. The GP would not listen and practically called me a liar about the asthma and the cellulitis.

 

You would think that whether the person is a locum or a standard GP that he would have my notes in front of him or at least up to date as he would have seen that I have Autism and PTSD with complex trauma and therefore of acted as within the guidelines of how to treat people with Autism and PTSD with complex trauma.

 

Instead, he was incredibly rude and started to shout at me, by this time I was a nervous wreck, I left that shouting well that was a waste a time. I complained about him in great length about his attitude, rudeness and the lack of preparation. The response I got was absolutely disgusting and no reasonable adjustments to be considered and I was satisfied with the level of service I could fuck off.

 

I have not fucked off either, because I have stood my ground and since this I referred this to the patients association, who asked me to ask them about the reasonable adjustments policy, but all I seem to be getting back from the doctors is that know all about PTSD, not good enough, so they don’t have any qualifications in autism and C/PTSD.

 

I had to keep telling them about it stating that I did not chose to be physically and sexually abuse and being born with autism.

 

Then I had to keep chasing them about my referral to the Maudsley and getting excuses, then it gone through without funding as I found out later both sides had been messing me about. I have now subsequently cancelled this and then this silly and pathetic practice manager referred me to the social prescriber. Right, I am going to take this back, she has gone too far!

 

This is what I said” I see you have referred me to Social Prescribing without telling me, this is wrong, let me tell you I am busy when not dealing with you running a charity for people with Hypermobility, dealing with Autism Buddies U.K., Coproducing with Curators of Change, including Mental Health ADASS EAST, Coproduction U.K. independent mental health network.

 

I suggest you stop the referral as I have already made a complaint about the mental trauma you are putting me through as you have no idea about reasonable adjustments, please just do what I ask you. You have no knowledge about autism and PTSD and the trauma you are causing, if you would just ask me what you can do to help, instead I get a hissy fit from you that you can't help and by referral to social prescribing is a way of making things better - how dare you! Any way the result of this what that I got the referral cancelled.

 

Still no reasonable adjustments, originally when this all started from the first initial complaint, I was asked about what the practice manager could do so the both of us me and my PA/ brother came up with this and approached the practice and asked then do consider these points.

 

You asked me to clarify which aspects of dealing with Caradoc Surgery are traumatic for me.  I have taken some time to reflect on this, as the whole patient experience is full of PTSD triggers for me.

 

1.      Phoning the surgery to request a triage appointment: I find telephone conversations stressful, even at the best of times.  With the added pressure of needing to communicate something important, and the tension of waiting in a telephone queue, I become tongue-tied and have difficulty in expressing what I need to say.

2.      Waiting for a call back, with no certainty as to when this will happen: this is another PTSD trigger, resulting in high levels of anxiety which prevent me from focusing my attention on other things that I need to be doing that day.

3.      Telephone consultation with a doctor: similar issues as with (1) above.

4.      Face-to-face consultations with a doctor: when these take place in a small room, they trigger my PTSD because of their similarity to the traumatic events which are the root cause of my PTSD.

 

In a previous email I asked about the possibility of reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act.  Having given this a great deal of thought, I think the following could be feasible:

 

·        Provide me with a non voice-based means of making contact to request a triage appointment (and a fall-back in case the primary non voice-based method is not functioning).

·        Give me a guaranteed call back time.

·        When I need to have a face-to-face consultation, allow me to see the room in advance so that I know what to expect (this could be via a pre-recorded video) and ensure the room is of sufficient size so that I can bring a relative or other person with me to the consultation without feeling cramped.

·        Use video rather than telephone calls for remote consultations.

·        Give me double appointments by default, so that I have sufficient time to express my concerns.

·        Ensure that I always see a female doctor (as already requested.)

·        Check with me how I wish to be described and not make assumptions.  (For instance, I find the word ‘homosexual’ offensive and prefer to be described as ‘gay’ if reference ever needs to be made to my sexuality.)

 

 

This was the response: -

 

I have taken some time to reflect on this, as the whole patient experience is full of PTSD triggers for me.

 

1   Phoning the surgery to request a triage appointment: I find telephone    conversations stressful, even at the best of times.  With the added pressure of needing to communicate something important, and the tension of waiting in a telephone queue, I become tongue-tied and have difficulty in expressing what I need to say. I notice you have access to online services – I believe we have previously confirmed that from 12pm – 10am daily, online triage appointments can be booked via the NHS App. If you were to do this, please note you may not get a call at the time you book, the call could be anytime during the day. However, please refer to  option 3.

2        Waiting for a call back, with no certainty as to when this will happen: this is another PTSD trigger, resulting in high levels of anxiety which prevent me from focusing my attention on other things that I need to be doing that day. Unfortunately, this is the practice system and we am unable to accommodate a specific time. This is due to the clinician dealing with telephone calls and face to face appointments which can sometimes run over.

3        Telephone consultation with a doctor: similar issues as with (1) above. As requested below, I am happy to confirm that in your circumstances we can arrange for your consultations to be conducted via video consultation.

4        Face-to-face consultations with a doctor: when these take place in a small room, they trigger my PTSD because of their similarity to the traumatic events which are the root cause of my PTSD. All consultations can be done via video call which should I would hope should alleviate and triggers for your PTSD.

 

 

In a previous email I asked about the possibility of reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act.  Having given this a great deal of thought, I think the following could be feasible:

 

·        Provide me with a non voice-based means of making contact to request a triage appointment (and a fall-back in case the primary non voice-based method is not functioning). Please see point 1

·        Give me a guaranteed call back time. Please see point 2.

·        When I need to have a face-to-face consultation, allow me to see the room in advance so that I know what to expect (this could be via a pre-recorded video) and ensure the room is of sufficient size so that I can bring a relative or other person with me to the consultation without feeling cramped. Im afraid this request is not possible but I can assure you that you will be seen in an appropriate consultation room which will have adequate space.

·        Use video rather than telephone calls for remote consultations. Yes, this is something that I can arrange as stated in point 3 and 4. Please can I suggest that when you make your appointment, please advise that I have authorised you for a video consultation.

·        Give me double appointments by default, so that I have sufficient time to express my concerns. Yes, I can authorise this, when you book, please ensure you tell us that you require a double video consultation to ensure that you are allocated the correct amount of time.

·        Ensure that I always see a female doctor (as already requested.) Yes – a note of this is on the main screen of your record, however there may be days when a female is not available, and it would be up to yourself if you are able to wait for another day.

·        Check with me how I wish to be described and not make assumptions.  (For instance, I find the word ‘homosexual’ offensive and prefer to be described as ‘gay’ if reference ever needs to be made to my sexuality.) Homosexual is the only term within the system that can be added to your record, however, I will remove that term and manually add on your home screen you would like to be referred to as gay.

 

 

I feel sort of vindicated but not really because these are only partial reasonable adjustments and I note that they recorded this on my notes as a psychological event what does this mean?

 

You can see that there has been a lot of going back and forth but I do not stand still, because is my mental health that is at the fore front, but this also show a GP’s practice who really does not care about patients with mental health issues.