Dr Ralph Salmon 2023-11-19 Person 1 5 0

My experience with Dr Salmon was not positive at all. Upon joining the surgery as a student, I needed support for a chronic illness that I was diagnosed with around 4 years prior and had been taking medication for. As Dr Salmon looked at my medical record, it was down as a "past problem". I don't know how that works and that isn't his fault. The problem is how he treated me from then. He would say that there is no evidience of diagnosis and make me feel as if I were making up my symptoms. I felt patronised. This carried on for over a year, when I needed written letters for university, he would only write that I told him I was experiencing this and that and not say that I was experiencing anything. I feel so rubbish about the situation that I asked for my medical records only to find the things he had written about me, "lots of psychological issues", or typing that I am having issues with my condition but writing it with quotation marks. Saying no evidence of diagnosis. I told the receptionist that not all of my records were given to me. I want the rest. They magically found it and I found my own diagnosis letter and I was soo mad that I had wasted maybe 2 years with this doctor. Yet I felt so validated that I found it. A weight was lifted. I even tried to go through the process of getting diagnosed again because apparently my diagnosis letter was non-existent. The wait to see a rheumatologist is soo long. One time I was having a flare up of muscle spasms all over my body and it was painful and uncomfortable to the point of tears. He told me it's normal and it happens to him "all the time". Honestly I am glad that other people have wonderful experiences of him and how he has saved lives. That he isn't like this with everyone. But this man dismissed me and made me feel so gaslighted. I struggled through uni. My mental health did deteriorate. Anyway, I hope that he continues to treat other people well and save lives. If Dr Salmon reads this, I know being a GP is hard, overwhelming and GP's are overworked. I understand that but also, it's the career chosen and I hope that you're more careful in how you treat and talk to people. You could have found my diagnosis letter. It wasn't hard. If you did find it, I wonder if you would have treated me differently?