Sacked my GP today !!!

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Adrienne

Adrienne

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Parent
Hi

I am sick and tired of my GP. Bear in mind that I don't have diabetes. My daughter however has a rare medical condition, she is the only one in our county with it. She had her pancreas removed at 4 weeks old and had her first insulin injection at 5 weeks old. I am a single parent and even my family won't look after Jessica, the responsibility is too great. She is in no way a 'normal' diabetic and I cannot compare her to her peers. She is treated as a type 1 diabetic at normal hospitals and Gt Ormond St as well however having no pancreas creates all sorts of extra problems.

So when we moved area and got a new GP I was worried. I am never ill, I can't be. I test Jessica on and off throughout the night, having a sensor pumps helps me out some nights so I just look at the pump instead of testing. She has one to one carers at school who are trained in her care.

I have to be really ill to see the GP and over the past year he has been pretty useles in all sort of ways.

I was ill recently and what I used to happen was our wonderful GP would prescribe me whatever I needed to clear up any illness as she knew the possible implications if I was too ill to look after my daughter.

Two weeks ago I saw the GP. I felt awful, he diagnosed Blephiritis in my eyes but told me to massage them !!! They were so painful. I had others things as well I needed to talk to him about. I asked him to do my blood pressure and he refused and he actually said he was too busy. The machine was on the desk next to me.

Now the straw that broke the camels back was when he said to me 'when you get diabetes.......'. He picked the wrong person to say that to. My daughter was sitting beside me for a start and with her condition he should not have said that anyway. I said what do you mean when I get diabetes. He said you are overweight. I said that does not mean I am guaranteed to get TYPE 2 diabetes. He said yes it was !!! I said no it doesn't. I told him that I agreed I was at more risk being overweight but unless I had the propensity in my body to trigger off the type 2 diabetes then I would not get it. He said yes I would.

At that point I stopped bothering talking about it. He made me think though and question myself. I came home, did my research and confirmed I'm right and he is wrong. How bloody dare he. He was saying that every single person who is overweight WILL BE diabetic. I also told him (just remembered) that I knew thin people who had type 2 diabetes for no reason, I said I also knew some fat people who didn't have type 2 diabetes.

I am soooooo cross with him, this on top of everything else.

Two weeks later I saw a locum doctor who asked how my eyes were. I told him they were worse than ever and they were and they were in such pain. He could not believe I had no cream and immediately prescribed some and within two days I am back to nearly normal again, the pain has gone. He also gave me three other lots of medication which sorted out all the same problems I had gone to see the stupid GP about. I am now much better but for two weeks I was pretty much laid up having to look after myself and my daughter and carry on testing her over night.

Sorry this has turned out to be a very long whinge. I don't whinge normally unless its necessary but I am very very p****d off with this GP.

If you got this far well done 🙂
 
Wow. He deserved to be sacked. That's terrible :(
 
I am so very to hear your story, no wonder you are so upset

Could you talk to your DSN?

I ask only because I get such great response from my DSN.

I can only send you good wishes and my prayers for a better outcome for you

Best wishes

Hazel
 
Hi Hazel

Yes the DSN will be fine but she knows what I'm like. I am a fighter if I need to be and am very strong. I have had to be since the day my daughter was born. I have fought for loads of things over the years, now not just for my daughter. I have a meeting with the PCT next week to put a rocket somewhere to get the care better for the children which is awful where I live.

This GP saga is just a fly in the ointment but it has made me very angry and I seem to have told everyone about it. I thought I would tell the people (you guys) who actually knew what I was talking about.

Thanks for your kind words.
 
Can't believe what an idiot your GP is. SWell done for sacking him.

Out of interest, what difference does it make that your daughter has had her pancreas removed? Why does she need to be tested throughout the night? I presumed someone with no pancreas would just be a 'normal' type 1, but obvoiusly not. I'm obviously 'no pancreas' iliterate!
 
Adrienne,
Sorry to hear you have been treated so badly by a gp. I hope you have told the practice that you were mis-diagnosed or indeed 'not diagnosed'? Its gp's like that - that give the medical world a bad name isnt it. Hopefully you will find yourself a better one soon. Glad your eye problems are getting better.🙂Bev xx
 
Hi

Your digestive enzymes are kept in the pancreas so she has none of those and is unable to digest her food. She takes enzyme supplements instead and if they are not right then the food is not digested properly and that has a knock on effect with blood levels.

Also the trigger to slow down or prevent a hypo is in the pancreas. This is the mechanism that triggers the liver into producing glycagon into the system. Others have mentioned it on here before and said if you are hypo then you will recover from the hypo ie in a coma or asleep at night. Jessica doesn't have this at all (and lots of people with diabetes, this stops working for them as well by the way).

The main problem with Jessica is that she has about 2 % of her rotten pancreas left which cannot be removed, it would be like taking ink from a page. Her condition is such that her pancreas was producing continuous insulin with no let up at all, the gates were wide open. She was on a glucose drip for weeks when she was born. Well normally in CHI (Congenital Hyperinsulinism) children those that have had their pancreas removed, any that is left burns out quite quickly. Not so with Jessica. Her bit 'wakes up' and throws insulin out whenever it feels like it and we never know when so she has unexplained bad hypos. However the worst bit is when dealing with a hypo if she has coke or something the 2 % of pancreas thinks 'Mmm lovely sugar' and chucks out constant insulin so the more sugar I put in to treat a hypo the more insulin gets produced. Sometimes it can take 1 1/2 hours to get her up from a hypo, it is awful.

Testing overnight - I may well get shot down in flames with this one but I would say the majority of parents should be testing their child overnight. On the other email group I'm on I think I can safely say that most of the kids are tested overnight. Bev do you agree with him on this one. One of my friends has said many times that their DSN says 'you don't have to test overnight, its perfectly ok not to'. The answer my friend gives which I think is fantastic 'if you (the DSN) can 100% guarantee that my son won't have a hypo overnight then I will stop testing.' To me that says it all.

Well I think I have rambled on again. Gonna go now and eat !
 
It's a good and brave, but right thing you did.

More people need to tell their healthcare 'professionals' they aren't fit to look after their health, more critically that of their child.

Well done and I am pleased you DSN is on side with you.
 
David

We are lucky. Our DSN is one of the, if not the, most respected paediatric DSN in England. She is the one they all want to do talks at things and she has written papers and protocols. She is so very child friendly. We saw her on Monday at clinic and this time it was a very much her and my daughter clinic for a long time before I got involved. If she moved hospitals (which I doubt) then I would follow. The consultant is Prof Hindmarsh also very well respected in the diabetes world and also written papers and stuff. We are very lucky.

Personally I think these GP's should be named and shamed. No sweeping statements should be made about anything quite frankly if they do not know the facts.
 
I am pleased you have that level of support. I am lucky in that I have a wonderful GP who knows I don't let things go. My consultant is first class and sorted me out years ago.

The DSNs I have are also first class, VERY fast at getting back to me, and nothing seems to be an issue.

There is a new licensing scheme coming in for GPs et-al later in the year, however, the renewal of this license seems to be very vague - there needs to be a points system where if 'x' number of complaints are raised to the GMC (who I think are governing this license) then a GP either needs to go on probation or be struck off.

At present they just get another patient from the pot and don't worry about it. So long as they don't kill anyone, they are safe!

It's wrong and way overdue in need of reform and accountability.
 
You have so much to deal with and with your daughter's pancreas throwing out insulin when you don't want it to must be an absolute nightmare for you. No wonder you test her through the night. It makes my worries seem totally irrelevant. Take care and luckily you have people on here who will listen to you.
Lorraine x
 
Dear Adrienne,

I'm sorry your GP is such a prat. I think if mine had said something like that i'd have either have stormed out of burst into tears (probably the latter) but i'd have wished i'd have shaken him/her! I'm really touched by your commitment and devotion to your daughter's welfare, people like you deserve a medal, and your little girl too, i'm always impressed by how brave kids can be in hospital.
I just want to wish you luck in getting the best of care for your daughter. And you obviously deserve better support than you've had. Thanks so much for telling us about the pair of you. Hope your eye (lid?) infection clears up.

Rachel
 
so sorry to hear of this adreinne seems you did good in sacking them off x
 
Just want to say I'm glad you sacked your GP, what an idiot! You should complain about how he treated you, it's terrible! I hope you have better luck with yoour next GP 🙂
 
Hi

Thanks for your messages everyone, how lovely. I'm so pleased I found this group. To be honest I only originally joined to make sure DUK didn't fob anyone off with any wrong advice or anything (whoops) but I have found friends where I didn't expect to as I wasn't looking so thanks.

I have posted a complaint in writing today about the GP. We shall see. I've told them I don't want a meeting about it as it will just waste my time and theirs.

I'll keep you posted.

For those who may be interested my daughter's story is on the web. It is under Jessica in children's stories at www.hi-fund.org Its needs updating, she is 9 now.
 
Jessica is a brave girl and you are a brilliant mum. Could you pop to Reading and sack my GP for me? Thanks 🙂
 
Ha, if only. Believe me there is a lot of sacking I would do and all to do with dia-bloody-betes 🙂
 
Wow you certainly have a lot on your plate. I thought my GP was bad. Of late I am finding I get more sense talking to the nurses. They only have prescribing rights if it is an emergency or a child, but I have found it worth talking to them first.

At least you can come here and we will give you moral support, and it is good to be able to get everything off you chest, share your worries and have a good moan.

I hope you and your little girl are both well and enjoying the summer.
 
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