Get your tits out?

[Motorina]

First time posting in AIBU, so please be gentle...

I have a rash. It's mostly on my breasts, and is getting worse, inspite of OTC remedies. I've had it for a couple of weeks now.

I figured it was probably fine to get a professional to look at it, so phoned my GP. "It's a pharmacy problem. You need to come and see our pharmacist".

No problem at all. But... since covid, the pharmacy in the practice has been dispensing drugs through the window into the car park. So I query if there's a private place I can see the pharmacist. "No - just come up to the window and pull your top up."

AIBU in thinking that examining a woman's chest in a car park, on a busy high street, is really really not okay?

I think I'm going to stick to OTC remedies for a bit.

Go to a Boots Pharmacy and speak to the pharmacist their private rooms are still open so you can have privacy.

Disgraceful that they have asked you to do that, I would definitely complain. Very unprofessional and a complete disregard to privacy.

Ridiculous for them to expect you to do that. Shocked that pp have also experienced this. I would complain.

Most pharmacies, certainly where I live, have a methadone room. I took a service user to the go, the druggies certainly weren’t being given their special green medicine in the car park

Oh, FFS, I took her to the GP

I would try some canesten in the meantime, you might find it sorts the problem out quite quickly.

Complain to the practice manager. That your GP practice offers nowhere for someone to talk or present issues discreetly is appalling.

They must be breaching something.

Absolutely utterly ridiculous. Although it's embarrassing and a waste of your time I would put in a formal complaint. Sadly it is the only way some people will learn that their service isn't good enough. I had a patient last year who ended up admitted for a simple skin condition on her groin..she was bedbound and unable to use a phone camera. GP asked her brother to take the photo. As if it was in anyway appropriate for a photograph of her groin to be sent via email, never mind via a third party and absolutely never mind her BROTHER! Obviously this was an individual dimwit rather than a representation of all GPs but it did take a full report and subsequent investigation for anything to be done.

that’s a very enlightened mainland European attitude to nudity the pharmacy has!

I would be horrified.

@Mydogisagentleman

Most pharmacies, certainly where I live, have a methadone room. I took a service user to the go, the druggies certainly weren’t being given their special green medicine in the car park

It's a treatment room, they also use them for medication reviews and a number of other things, not everyone who goes in there is a drug user.

You say 'service user' so you're obviously some kind of drug worker/ support worker. Bizarre for a supposed professional to call their service users 'druggies'.

Just wop em out on the counter, if you keep your mask on the pharmacist won't know it was you next time you go in

Thankyou, everyone, for your comments. It was suggested so matter of factly that I was really second guessing myself, so it's helpful to get the group feedback that it's not okay.

A couple of people have asked who said it: it's a small, rural GP practice with a pharmacy in the building. I'm not quite sure if they're the same business or just share a building. I phoned the GP practice and it was the practice receptionist.

I have no issue at all with being directed to a pharmacist if they're the right route (or if they can bounce me back if it turns out they aren't).

I don't want to go down the formal complaint route, basically cos they're normally very good and they have enough on their plates. So I'm going to drop them a line saying "I thought this would be useful feedback... this made me feel quite uncomfortable and like I didn't want to be seen, and I thought you should know that so you can improve."

Much as I like the 'wop them out and slap them on the counter' suggestion, I'm actually going to take my blotchy boobs elsewhere next week. I genuinely don't think it's urgent - just that, after 10 days and no improvement, it needs someone who knows what they're looking at to check it.

Thanks, all - your feedback was helpful and appreciated.

@Motorina I hope you get better soon

I feel your embarrassment op.
I have had to send a few photos to drs, and one of the ( insert your own word) dragons from reception let me know that she had seen what I would call a very embarrassing photo, and made it clear a few of them had . Why do they not respect patients privacy.
Hope that you got sorted .

Feels like any excuse for crap service right now

@Cryalot2

I feel your embarrassment op. I have had to send a few photos to drs, and one of the ( insert your own word) dragons from reception let me know that she had seen what I would call a very embarrassing photo, and made it clear a few of them had . Why do they not respect patients privacy. Hope that you got sorted .

That and OP's situation are absolutely not okay.

Are we now at the point where women are not only routinely recipients of severe medical gaslighting but are now commanded to not expect the common decency of privacy where our most private body parts are concerned.

I think we are and we need to be getting angry about it.

@Cryalot2 I’d contact your NHS board, that is despicable.

Totally unacceptable.
Since the pandemic I have been unable to see my GP.
After complaining the closest I got was a telephone consultation with (I assume) my doctor. I say assume as I have never seen a doctor since I moved practices 4 years ago. The first time I needed to see the doctor the best they could do was for the receptionist to ring me back and relay a diagnosis over the phone to me and then for the receptionist of a specialist to then call me and book another telephone appointment for the specialist to try and give a diagnosus, again without actually seeing me!!!
Completely ridiculous. Covid is no excuse.

GP receptionist here. I am very mindful that taking photos is not always an easy thing for patients to do. It may be stressful. They might not have a phone that can do this. And they might not want to. Ever since covid I feel like we are reinventing the wheel in how a patient sees a GP. It's immensely stressful and puts more pressure on the service. Asking someone to lift their top up when they are not in a treatment room is utterly disgraceful.

That’a really disgusting Op, I would absolutely complain to the practice manager. No way would a man be expected to get his dick out in a car park!

For DD rash over lockdown, I was able to deal with it via GP and phone consultation. They’d ask for photos, but also a short 5 second video clip, to Monday the camera a little to give for context. I hard to be care with lighting and focus.

Could you ask someone else to take the photo?

Yeah that's weird. Most pharmacies are open and are a good port of call for skin ailments, so hopefully you can find one with a consultation room and they can help.

I would complain
But also, get a GP appt.
Sadly a rash can be a more serious symptom of Breast Cancer.
Dont wont to worry you but I would serioualy consider seeing a GP

I really think it’s time for a formal complaint.

Covid is now becoming an excuse for so many things not being done properly.

You should email them and ask them to confirm in writing that they require you to indecently expose yourself in a public car park in order to receive medical advice.

I'm betting they'd back down pretty bloody quickly.