Dr Bijan Nejad 2020-12-02 Person 5 5 0

I have been being treated by Dr Nejad for some time for a chronic pain syndrome condition at Shirley Oaks Hospital, Shirley,, Croydon under the NHS.I was fortunate to come under Dr Nejad’s care, and have found him to be most empathic to my situation. He listens carefully and allows you, as the patient, to ask questions. I am particularly impressed by his follow up letter to the GP, copied to the patient. In these letters he exactly encapsulates the proceedings of the consultation, giving a very clear and precise account. This suggests to me that Dr Nejad’s listening skills are finely honed. His approach is an holistic one, wherein he assesses the whole body, taking account of how mentally and emotionally the pain is affecting you. This differs immensely from other medics to whom I have been referred over many years, such as rheumatologists, orthopaedic and spinal doctors. Their approach is to address what appears to be the presenting cause of the pain, eg low back, hip, knee, and if this cannot be resolved by surgery or widely used analgesia or physiotherapy, then they simply discharge you to that revolving door of GP visits, drug prescriptions, which have little or no efficacy, until you are once again referred to a specialist! It is my own opinion that more funding should be made available to pain management, thereby addressing a problem before it gets too bad and the above scenario applies. Pain is subjective, there is not always an obvious presenting cause. Pain wears you down and leads to other problems like depression. My experience of Dr Nejad has resulted in me, at 68, whilst not being entirely painfree, being in a far better position than I have been for a long time. And for that I am grateful to him and the NHS.