"Lack of service and compassion to patient"

About: General practices in Lanarkshire Mental Health Services / Adult Mental Health Services

(as the patient),

Twice in the past 2 years I have had to beg my GP surgery for supporting letters for my College and University and twice I have been refused. Twice I've had to ask Social Work for support and they have been absolutely appalled that my doctor would no assist.

I have autism and extreme anxiety with my autism. At no point has the GP surgery tried to help me. When I asked for the letter the first time I was told I hadn't seen the Dr about a specific thing, I questioned why I need to see the GP constantly, particularly when it is hard to get an appointment.

The second time I asked I was told Dr's no longer write letters and they cannot accept emails at the surgery either. Apparently they only did that kind of thing through covid and it has now stopped. I needed the support letter for my autism so that University to support me and without the letter University could not help.

This has caused me extreme anxiety and it takes me a long time to trust anyone and I should be able to trust my Dr's and people I am working with. An example of this is I had been seeing a mental health nurse and I even asked them to help and they said no but we could talk about it? This was no help to me at all. I was also made to feel like I was being judged because I was functioning as the MH Nurse would make reference to what I said or what I had done or what I was wearing, basically because I was well dressed and attending University then they assumed I didn't have problems.

This is awful and made me feel awful because I was not being understood or listened to. They then gave me an appointment and changed this last minute and thought it acceptable to send a text that I did not get till 2 mins before the appointment. As a neurodiverse person this unsettled me and threw me of my routine. There was not even any apology.

Due to the way I have been made to feel I am now seeking private counselling and CBT and psychiatry treatments/ appointments because I feel like the NHS has let me down for a good few years now and I cannot take it anymore.

My parents will now have to help me fund private care and this is not how things should be. I don't believe that a GP surgery in this day and age where the world is full of technology cannot accept an email, but they can send texts? Or that  doctor can no longer write/type a letter?

My University find this unbelievable as they get letters no problem for other people. I had to ask Social Work and my support worker ended up writing a letter for me and luckily the University has accepted this due to the circumstances but this should not have happened. 

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Responses

Response from Christine Da Cruz, Improvement Advisor, Quality Directorate, NHS Lanarkshire 2 months ago
Christine Da Cruz
Improvement Advisor, Quality Directorate,
NHS Lanarkshire
Submitted on 27/12/2024 at 16:14
Published on Care Opinion at 16:14


Dear Over the rainbow,

I am sorry to hear that you have been having such a difficult time with accessing the service you need through your GP.

GP surgeries are independent contractors and as such, are not registered to respond on Care Opinion but are responsible for investigating any feedback or concerns about their service. Please could I ask that you contact the practice manager so they can investigate your concerns regarding getting through to the surgery on the phone.

Kind regards,

Christine

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