Beaufort Road Surgery

Beaufort Road Surgery 2024-04-11 Person 1 5 0

I was with this surgery for around 15 years, from a young age up and into adulthood. I had Dr Thurston as my GP as a child, and later I had Dr Timothy Mitchell. Thurston was great, though I should have known what this surgery's unofficial policies were like when she once told me "You can't really be depressed, because depressed people can't express their feelings like you". Well, it turns out I was, and continued to be, for many years. The support in that moment would have meant a world of difference. However my decision to leave this surgery and go elsewhere after so many years is due to what I felt was repeated dismissiveness from the otherwise very talented Dr Mitchell. I complained that I was having immense trouble sleeping due to MEM-form tinnitus, not your typical ringing in the ear (Mitchell once responded with "I have ringing in the ears too", MEM tinnitus is not even close to that), and I asked Mitchell whether he could prescribe me a sleep aid or some sort of relaxant to stop the muscle in my ear twitching incessantly. He said no, repeatedly, that they simply don't prescribe those things to people my age (mid 20s!). I could have lived with that had he tried to offer me any other alternative, knowing I was in a state of desperation, but he simply shrugged and implied I would have to put up with it until my next ENT specialist appointment in one year's time! For curiosity's sake, I had one last appointment with Dr Davis, who was extremely direct and to the point and with no questions asked prescribed me a very strong antidepressant sedative. Odd that one doctor would insist time and again that I was too young for any sort of sleep aid or muscle relaxant but another at the same surgery would prescribe me a very potent antidepressant without batting an eye. I liked Dr Davis' approach but a good middle of the road would be ideal. Ultimately, although this surgery has taken good care of my parents, I simply felt dismissed and treated like my issues were not issues - in fact told to just deal with them - despite telling doctors like Mitchell that I was desperate and lacking sleep for months. Let me pose you this question: I have intense MEM tinnitus which wakes me up, keeps me awake, and I cannot sleep or listen to music or watch TV, what happens to me in those 12 months that I was told to just put up with it? Certainly, nothing good.

I believe that myself and others have written enough to show that Dr Mitchell needs to reassess his approach to care. He is extremely dismsissive, and according to other reviewers this has actually led them to discovering much more severe illnesses in hospital or in private care. No doctor should be dismissing their patients to a degree that their legitimate pains and illnesses are not even investigated. He told me I was too young to be prescribed anything that would have helped me and then would not offer me any legitimate alternatives. Phenergan for sleep? Well, great for my nonexistent hay-fever allergies! Not so great for my crippling lack of sleep due to tinnitus! I would have been happy with ANY experimental treatment, and the excuse that I was too young was absurd; I'm 24. I have been an adult long enough to make sensible decisions about what I take, and to be properly informed. In fact, Dr Davis then prescribed me with Amitriptyline without batting an eye when she heard that I was having trouble sleeping. One doctor wrings his wrists and shrugs and says I'm just too young for any of these medications and one doctor says okay, here's an incredibly potent sedating antidepressant, off you pop! I'd have liked a less extreme approach, and ultimately chose not to take the Amitriptyline, but I did appreciate that Dr Davis TRIED. She actually gave me an option! Mitchell treated me like a risk to myself and completely diminished any care I should have received.