To think that if you are paying to see a consultant privately......

[GrimpenMire]

.....and you sent him a timeline/summary of your condition a month before the consultation date. It's reasonable to expect him to have read it prior to the consultation or at least be prepared to read it in the consulation so he has all the background information he needs to be able to help you.
He had a summary of it in front of him but he hadn't even written that summary. It was clear as he was squinting at it and trying to understand. The upshot of this is that he didn't 'get' the problem at all. Had he read it, he would have got it. AIBU or cheeky to expect this of him. £240 that shitshow is going to cost me and I'm no further forward.
He wanted me to fill hi9m in on all the background but I wrote the summary because I'm off my tits on pain relief and didn't want to miss anything out.

If he read it some time before then he would struggle to remember you specifically surely? And he had a patient before you no doubt? So when would he read it? I think he could read it in the time you're paying for (i.e. the consultation) but if he was squinting at it I think maybe it was hard to read? Perhaps the pain killers affected how clearly you could write it?

Depends how long it was. One page of typed A4 - yes
15 pages handwritten - no

£250 is a normal cost for a private appointment - most won't have had to do any prep for that at all.

I'll be honest - if you came to see me, even if you had written a 4 page summary I'd have still wanted you to give me a verbal history as I would have had questions of my own.

Also if you last had a scan 2 years ago, he is going to want a new scan. No-one is going to work from data 2 years old.

That one appointment was a private one, doesn’t mean all of the others were though. Quite common to have one private patient tacked onto an NHS clinic

Seriously @Toomanyapplesinthefruitbowl ????

Who would pay £250 to sit in an NHS queue to see their consultant?
If you are paying, you expect to be seen more or less on time, have some better surroundings, comfy chairs, free coffee- and not sit in an NHS corrridor!

And in any case that doesn't 'excuse' a dr not doing their homework of reading notes.

I used to teach 240 kids in a week but I still had to mark their work before the lesson!

She only had ONE appt @Toomanyapplesinthefruitbowl

Maybe read the thread?

That one appointment was a private one, doesn’t mean all of the others were though. Quite common to have one private patient tacked onto an NHS clinic

Errr, every time I have had private consultations it's been at a private hospital, not the NHS hospital.

My OH is a consultant and saw >100 patients in clinics yesterday, and was out of the house for 15 hours to do it. I

So he spent less than 10 mins per patient, assuming the whole 15 hours was used for consulting?

People keep talking about private doctors and NHS doctors but they're the same doctors! With private healthcare you jump the queues that that's it.

@woodchuck99 spot on. The one I saw private I now see on the NHS.

Why do people keep making excuses. As with any occupation some doctors are not that good. He should have had a read of OP's notes before the consultation or at least read them while she was there. I see doctors all the time due to not very good health and it is always clear to me that they have read my notes. Obviously they still ask questions and they may have missed quite important detail but I would be seriously unimpressed if they hadn't bothered to read anything.

DH has seen his private consultant squeezed in all sorts of slots including an A+E cubicle.

However a first appointment you would expect to be in a private clinic room.

And it isn't just jumping the queue. He also selected someone with a lot more expertise in his condition than he was stuck with on the NHS.

Mate my worst experiences with the medical profession have been private. I've used private twice for things that aren't available on NHS (varicose vein treatment and fertility tests) and I've been treated awfully. Most recently the fertility tests specialist did the same thing. Didn't read my file and when I walked into the room demanded to know where my partner was because she thought I was there for IVF. Despite notes saying I wanted blood tests and a scan. She was also a bit angry at me for 'only' having had one miscarriage.
It was horrible. And cost me £1000!

So to answer a few points.

Part of my job is to create reports for other clinicians to read and seeing patients and creating clinical reports on those patients.

My up front documents were not wafflely and largely in medical speak because I am in that field. They were four pages and would take four minutes to read because I read them out loud before I posted on here.

He was the one that was rambling to a degree. He asked me if my condition had changed since the images and I went to speak but he spoke over me and went on to another subject, got it wrong so I had to correct him on that point and it all moved on. Nothing was satifactorily concluded. He got nothing out of it himself really I imagine.

I consult in a medical/surgical but different field. I know the importance of getting the vital facts and quickly at the beginning of a consultation so a conclusion can be drawn, a diagnosis made and the patient can be got well or a prognosis made. His pattern didn't fit this either. I repeat, there was no waffle from my side or in my documents.

My GP sent a referral but there is an aspect of my problem the GP does not believe I have. I suspect the referral letter is partly to blame as it may contain this scepticism. A senior Orthopaedic surgeon has said I do have this issue and it is in not addressing this issue that has brough me to where I am now. Luckily I have now managed to get this surgeon to refer me elsewhere.

I first went to my GP in 2015 with this. I lost my job in 2017 after I couldn't rehabilitate to go back to work post surgery. Work I have done since 1979 by the way. I have been sent to various agencies and have endured such unbelievable cock ups that I am now in despair, bedridden and have anxiety and depression.

I am deteriorating fast so self preservation has me trying to get seen urgently.

When I had the surgery, I was not told it was experimental. It has since been approved by NICE but only under certain parameters and I fall outside of those parameters I believe.

And it isn't just jumping the queue. He also selected someone with a lot more expertise in his condition than he was stuck with on the NHS.

Okay jumping the queue and choosing the consultant although my GP will always refer me to the hospital I want to be referred to so to some extent you get a choice on the NHS too.

Depends where you live and what your hospital offers. DH is getting offered numerous cancelled appointments and delays in the NHS, despite being in a supposed centre of excellence.

Privately he is getting continuity which is what his condition needs. We only wish we had the money before he lost so much sight.

I’ve sent you a pm.