"An Exceptional and Excellent Practice! "

As I am an expat in the Uk., I was unsure how easy or difficult it would be to access services for health concerns. Having come from another country with a universal health care plan, I had no real expectations beyond the kind of care I received in Canada.

I have now been in the u.k. for 13 years and some months, and I have had some medical emergencies, needed specialist care, and it was the doctors here, in the u.k., who diagnosed me with my chronic condition after being treated terribly by my gp back in Canada (where one sticks with their gp, as it can take years to find a practice taking new patients, leaving you at the mercy of walk-in clinics who cannot prescribe repeat prescriptions, except for birth control, cannot refer you to specialists and leaves a lot of people with issues waiting for sometimes up to 8-10 hours in the emergency room for care to be referred when you have an issue. So one keeps their gp, even if you are unhappy with their care, there simply isn’t much recourse.

I have had physicians in this country who brushed me off too, and we lived on the other side of the country for 10 years. The last surgery we were registered at, had lovely receptionists and some fantastic doctors and some doctors who were not interested or committed to helping you get to the bottom of serious concerns and issues. So when I did not have a choice of which gp to see (before Covid, when appointments were always face to face), I would be left feeling frustrated.

So when we moved here, I was concerned. But I shouldn’t have been. Every single individual, every locum doctor, every doctor who is permanent at the practice and the receptionists and nurses have done nothing but take the time to hear my concerns, kept me in the loop and explained the care, medications and treatments I had to have in a concise and clear manner, taking into account, respecting and using my own knowledge of my complex condition and co-morbidities to help and support me the very best they could.

I have never felt so seen by my doctors and it doesn’t seem to matter which doctor I speak to…they have all been supportive, friendly and committed to giving me the best of care. They’ve contacted specialists when the wait has been exceptionally long, and if they couldn’t provide me with what I needed, they would do the best they could to support me until the specialist could see me.

So many people complain about the nhs and the service and the wait times, but I feel fortunate that there are practices out there, that despite the difficulties and wait times us patients have to endure when we need something more specialised, do their absolute best to make sure we know they are there for us and on our side. It is *so* refreshing that every time I speak to or see a doctor, I don’t have to give my whole medical history, because they take the time to know us, and understand our specific needs as patients.

Anyone who is a patient here is incredibly lucky!!