Dr Paul Reading

Dr Paul Reading 2020-10-30 Person 5 5 0

Dr Paul Reading, has been instrumental in helping with my long term severe Narcolepsy. No other Specialist in his field is as proactive and knowledgeable. His dedication and investment to his patients and their lives is paramount. He is internationally respected and has pioneered help groups and care, whilst research and being at the cutting edge of treatment is as diligent as his professional and genuine easy manner with his patients. No other Specialist I have been in contact with is as thorough and makes the patient feel at ease but is able to garner trust and loyalty from his patients. His staff are amazing and his record and respect he has earned is not misplaced. I have been a patient for 20 years and can safely say he is a professional whom I trust implicitly and believe is a credit to the NHS. I don't think there is any better than this man in his field who will do his best to help his patients.

Dr Paul Reading 2020-03-09 Person 5 5 0

Amazing consultant who has done everything possible to solve my ailments, listens and responds with impeccable timing and listens.

Dr Paul Reading 2018-07-02 Person 5 5 0

Finally a diagnosis after 10yrs approx only due to moving from Scotland to north east England did I get the fortune of being referred to dr reading at James cook approximately 4 yrs ago and been seeing him semi regularly since for my complex combo of conditions that most doctors ignore and don’t even accept exist at times but yet he did not contradict any previous diagnosis or exclude that I did have narcolepsy &blame issues on other conditions. Though mine was a difficult diagnosis due to the other conditions I have & some of the testing not being completely conclusive or even having the most obvious symptom of cataplexy but yet a family history of my dad & aunt both having narcolepsy ( dad also had cataplexy & sleep apnoea also) was why he was the only sleep specialist I had seen that agreed with me & mum that I had a form of narcolepsy that he calls not classic without cataplexy and familial . No one else I saw previously agreed I had this yet the first consultat I saw did say I may develop it later due to family history as it’s the same as developing diabetes it can happen at any time unfortunately for me as most of my conditions are ones where no to patients are the same so what treatments∨ meds work for one don’t work for all so my symptoms have been very hard to control on meds or not but we keep trying & hopefully find the right ones eventually &dr reading always open & helpful & even takes all my conditions into account whenever he is discussing narcolepsy & never gives unrealistic expectations of my conditions unlike most doctors which I prefer as the you will recover and can do what you want if you want to scenario is very much what most try to phob me off with which I feel is very unrealistic for the patient and unhelpful to them as there is no magic cure all to change me back to a healthy person whose life is normal again.

Dr Paul Reading 2008-07-29 Person 5 5 0

Dr Reading has treated our son for narcolepsy with cataplexy, a condition which often remains undiagnosed for 10 or more years and which remains little understood both by the general public and much of the medical profession. Dr Reading already knows how highly - more highly than I could ever describe - we value him. This review is, therefore, not for him. It is for others who may have narcolpesy but feel that they are not perhaps getting the best treatment or for those, who like us, have discovered through research what is wrong but cannot get anyone - even neurologists - to listen. Five years ago our son was too prostrate to seek help and he has told us that for a long time he would ask himself, "Is this all there's going to be for the rest of my life? Is this the best I can hope for?" Worried where the feeling that life was already over by the age of 20 might eventually lead, on the way up to Middlesbrough for the first consultation with Dr Reading, we told our son that he must not worry if this consultant turned out to be like the other neurologists we had seen: whatever the cost we would continue to look for someone who would come the same conclusion we had already reached and make the diagnosis we knew must eventually be made. Indeed, after three and a half years of being pushed from pillar to post we travelled with no hope. However, Damian came out of Dr Reading's consulting room and said, "I can talk to this man. He listened to what I had to say." We were indescribably relieved, energised, thrilled that at last we were going to get help and that indeed is what we have always got from Dr Reading. This, however, was just the first hurdle to be overcome in what turned out to be a series. Dr Reading can make life almost normal for his patients with narcolepsy: he can virtually eliminate the cataplexy, hallucinations, automatic behaviours and excessive daytime sleepiness. He can vastly improve the horrendously debilitating disturbed night time sleep. In short he can enable his patients to live, not just drag out a miserable existence but ONLY if the relevant PCTs allow him to prescribe the best medicine. We had, together, to fight a protracted battle with a PCT whose lack of information and understanding of both the condition and the treatment were epic. It is seriously disturbing that decisions are made by beaurocrats with so little knowledge of medicine that they made several errors of fact in every refusal letter. Dr Reading never flinched from the task of getting optimal treatment for our son though the time spent and the frustration must often have been disheartening. Indeed at one crucial time for us Dr Reading was away from his consultation room on holiday. Yet when he heard that our son knew his application for Xyrem had been refused, he rang him to ensure that he was not too depresssed and to assure him of continued support. We think from our experience of other neurologists that few would take time out from their holiday to do this: most would wait till they were back at work. We have not forgotten this courtesy. We have also been greatly impressed that Dr Reading has always seemed to consider treatment a partnership between patient and doctor: his trust in our son to manage his medication sensibly and his willingness to listen to suggestions and to give a considered response have added to our son's confidence that his condition can be controlled. There was a time when we feared that our once clever, humorous, energetic son would never dare to laugh again let alone play sports or get a job. Dr Reading has given our son his life back and we are as glad to have him back as he is to be back. We believe that, even if he will never fly as high as he had once hoped, our son will be able to get a job and be independent. We think he will now live a life useful to others and enjoyable to himself. We accept that neurology is a wide and difficult field of medicine and should like to think that in future neurologists, whose speciality is something other than narcolepsy and who really know relatively little about the condition, will have the humility to refer their patients on to a sleep centre where specialists such as Dr Reading can care for them. For those lucky enough to be referred to Middlesbrough, we should like them to know that there is hope for a bright future with Dr Reading's help. We could never recommend him too highly.