To Complain About my GP

[DazedandConcerned]

I'm going to try and keep this as short and sweet as possible because I'm trying to decide if I'm being unreasonable in wanting to complain about a GP at my practice.

Last week I came down with a horrible upper back spasm. Pain easily an 8/10, couldn't straighten my head, paracetamol and ibuprofen plus gels and deep heat/cold doing nothing to help. Went to the walk-in and was examined and diagnosed with a severe back spasm. Sadly, they could not prescribe what I needed - diazepam. I have a small history of these type of spasms which I need to take diazepam for. Especially as I am allergic to all opiates and nothing can even take the edge off the pain. So walk in recommends I speak to my doctor's when they open the next day for a prescription, and that he'd send my notes over.

After a sleepless night I ring the surgery and ask for a note to be passed though to the GPs. I confirmed the notes regarding my physical examination and diagnosis had arrived.

The GP refused to prescribe anything and told me to live with it. I rang back and complained that it was unacceptable and I couldn't manage to live in this kind of pain. They passed another note through to the GP. In the meantime I rang 101 who contacted my surgery and the doctor finally prescribed but at a lower dosage than recommended. I am now on the mend after 4 days of the stuff.

Would I be unreasonable to complain about this GP? She has form for not prescribing medications which are then prescribed by other doctors and specialists. Other patients may not be as forceful and clued into their care as I am and I worry for them.

Thanks for any perspective, I'm obviously very close to this.

Why could the walk in service not prescribe diazepam? Is it because that is not actually what they recommended, but just what you were asking for?
I think the most reasonable thing would be to make a phone appointment and discuss their decision before you make a complaint.

Diazepam for muscle spasm isn't a big line to cross at all.

Painkillers don't work that well to control the pain of the spasm. Diazepam acts to reduce the spasm. It works very well for me alongside anti-inflammatories to recuse the after-effects of the spasm.

2-4mg can work really well for me if taken early on. You don't need large doses.

There are other muscle relaxants - baclofen is one! It’s only mild, but better than nothing; and it’s potentiated by alcohol - so I just have a drink or two in the evening, as and when I need it!

I find it bizarre diazepam is a big no no, when it’s easy to get addicted to alcohol!

(I should say I have about 2 drinks a month, so I am not an alcoholic; but it is an easy road to go down)

Just be aware OP that the practice can ask you to go elsewhere if you make a complaint. It happened to my DD. I had diazepam for upper back pain but it was many years ago. I currently have diazepam for panic attacks. I rarely take one but I am grateful for being prescribed them.

I certainly wouldn’t prescribe diazepam for a patient I hadn’t seen myself.

If I prescribe it, then I will be held accountable if something goes wrong. The fact that an out-of-hours doctor ‘recommended’ it will make no difference to that.

And I’m afraid that at this point in my career, any patient making a direct request for diazepam does set off alarm bells for me. I will look to see how often you’ve had it in the past, to see if there’s evidence of a pattern of dependency emerging.

It’s because I know what can happen when someone does become dependent. More than one of my colleagues has had a patient threaten to kill them if they don’t give them diazepam (fortunately this hasn’t happened to me yet). And we’ve had people try to fraudulently register at more than one GP surgery in order to obtain multiple prescriptions.

find it bizarre diazepam is a big no no, when it’s easy to get addicted to alcohol!

Accountability. The landlord isn't held accountable or lose their job if you get addicted to beer. Prescribers are.

I find it bizarre diazepam is a big no no, when it’s easy to get addicted to alcohol!

As above - it's not my fault if you drink yourself to death. It is my fault if you become addicted to a drug I have repeatedly prescribed for you.

DH might hold doctors guilty of clinical negligence though, saying he saw his DP in agony with muscle spasms and she begged for effective relief from the pain, but doctors refused to prescribe diazepam, the only drug that worked!

DD tells me loads of people in our town are addicted to codeine - yet it is still given out as a painkiller all the time? Isn’t that a bigger problem now than diazepam?