"I'm afraid there is nothing ..."

What I liked

I'm afraid there is nothing I can think of to put in this column.

What could be improved

I saw three consultants at Stoke Mandeville Hospital and not one of them took my concerns seriously. I had to chase up my own investigations because forms were lost and when results were back I was told that the results were 'false positives'. I was told that one of my symptoms of throat clearing was, 'a habit'. I was so fed up with not being listened to that I asked to be referred to a different hospital. I was very fortunate because my GP knew me and took my concerns seriously. I have since found out by talking to medics who actually listened to me and interpreted test results correctly that I have an auto-immune problem (which is what I suggested to the Consultants at Stoke), I also have GERD a hiatus hernia and Barretts Oesophagus, it seems that the 'habit ' was me trying to clear my airway so that I could breathe. I am not impressed and I dread to think what state I would be in now if I hadn't saught a second opinion from a different Hospital. When I look back my symptoms were absolutely classic and I don't know how they were missed. Thank goodness I followed my instincts. The lesson from this is that doctors need to listen to their patients and stop treating them like idiots- patients know when they are being fobbed off. Also, doctors don't know everything and when they don't they should admit to it, my GP had the courage to tell me he didn't know what was going on and as a consequence I trusted him because I knew he was telling the truth. I hope I never have to go to Stoke Mandeville Hospital again.

Anything else?

The parking is dreadful.