grr

Where has using a patient’s history and symptoms to provide a diagnosis gone?

As most of you know I am a bit sick right now and I feel like I’m getting the run-around in the medical establishment. Although I have tried several times, I don’t seem to have succeeded in actually having a regular family doctor since moving here (lots of complicated reasons for this). I’ve started attending a new clinic that is not at all close to where we live in the hopes that it will be better there.

Since I started attending university I had always visited the University clinic on campus since it was convenient and I didn’t have to make appointments. Unfortunately I have a rather long medical history there, but I do not have the right to that information despite the fact that it is my health on record. They also didn’t want to receive my previous medical records and instead asked me to fill out a questionnaire, which is something, at least. The most recent clinic I have been attending hasn’t asked for either, so these doctors know nothing about my medical history, chronic conditions, nor whether I have any allergies to medication (I do). Scary, right? Well it gets worse – these doctors (for the most part) don’t even know how to ask questions and interact with a patient to determine symptoms and develop potential diagnoses. The result is that as a patient, one ends up having to argue one’s point with the doctor (i.e. prove you are really sick and not wasting his or her time), volunteer any symptoms you think are relevant and asking him or her questions. This is even acceptable if you know a bit about physiology and infectious diseases and if you have a recurring symptom, but when it comes to something new and undiagnosed, it tends to be a problem.

I’ve developed a complication and had to go see a doctor today. Because it was relatively urgent and I didn’t have an appointment, the round trip was 3 hours (1 hour for the commute each way plus 50 minutes waiting time and 10 with the doctor). This is the third doctor I’ve seen at this particular clinic, which isn’t good but unfortunately was unavoidable. So anyway I told today’s doctor that I was going in for some radiology tests tomorrow and that I was worried about the potential complication and its treatment on this (good news is that it isn’t a problem). But then he said to me “Why are you going in for X, when you should be having Y”? That’s the same question I’ve had. The second doctor I saw 3 weeks ago insisted that procedure X was necessary before anything else, which has meant a 3 week delay in a proper diagnosis and thus a 3 week delay in being able to make an appointment for procedure Y, which is the necessary next step. So I’m quite angry about this, as I am certain about the diagnosis based on the the symptoms I have and have just wasted 3 weeks waiting and feeling not so great in the meantime. Well anway the appointment for X is tomorrow, and although I’m not looking forward to it, I really do hope some useful information comes from it. Wish me luck, it’s going to be an unpleasant 18 hours.