History repeats itself - shockingly!

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Greetings Membas!

A month ago I posted the below

Today, I wish to share with you what I consider to be quite a remarkable, unbelievable event and which reminds me why I am so sceptical about what doctors tell me.

Put simply, I went to discuss the results of my blood test which came up with some “abnormalities”.
I sat down and the GP rather enthusiastically said let’s go through these together as he turned the monitor so I could see what was on it.

  • Firstly, your Hba1c has crept up, you were prediabetic and you are still prediabetic but heading towards becoming a diabetic. Don’t worry there are things we can do.
  • Next bla bla bla, these are OK
  • Now here’s the thing that concerns me the most. You cholesterol is extremely high and has gone up a little since the last check-up. It seems you have tried statins a while back but not taking them now. Clearly your efforts to manage this through non-medicinal methods is not working You should consider statins …I am not going to continue this as this is not why I am posting this. I can talk about that statins thing in another post. For now, I just leave it by saying I said I will not take statins and we can review again. There was a long conversation but I’ll leave it for now
  • Here’s the killer bit.
    To finish with, the subject somehow came back to blood pressure. GP says, shall we check it? I said why not?

Remember what happened last time?
Well the very same thing happened again. Different doctor, same story.

Bring yourself forward, armband on. Let’s wait a minute to allow you to settle.
Machine turned on, returns HIGH BP
GP instantly says, oh we have a problem. You have high BP !!!

I said, how’s that? I had the same conversation a month ago with Dr. P and we agreed my BP was normal.

Dr. - let’s have a look. It’s showing high here.

I said, no that’s the reading from the consultation session which was done exactly as we’ve just done and I was asked to keep a BP diary which clearly showed my BP is normal. Please check the record. I said the diary will have been scanned in.

Sure enough he pulls up my BP diary, has a look and says oh yes, this is normal.

Let’s update the record to say your BP is normal.

Two doctors
Two different consultations
Exact same mistake

Now, if I had listened to the doctors I would be on BP management medication despite the fact I don’t need it because my BP is perfectly fine.

Why would you blindly follow what a doctor tells you?
This is why I personally do not trust doctors or experts in any field.
Call me cocky, call me arrogant, call me what you will, but you can’t say I don’t have my interests at heart.

Lightening does strike twice.

Just as well I refuse to take statins.

Sorry for anyone who might disagree with my assessment/analysis and conclusions.

Thank you for reading.

Namaste|
:pray:

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I’m not convinced by on the spot BP tests, they can mean different things at different times. GPs, generally, have many people to see each day, I suspect most assessments are not thorough. My only bugbear about general practice is “symptom satisfaction”, this has been highlighted with Jess’s Rule, and I think it is pertinent to any patient seeing a GP. On the whole, a GP knows nothing about our individual cases apart from what they gather from test results, scans, personal examinations and our confessions. Muddle that in with their own minds and personal life, it’s a real engagement of the human condition. The best doctor I ever had was one who was struck off the medical board, she actually listened to me and engaged without noting the clock. Unfortunately, she had her own issues and I was left looking for another GP.

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You are absolutely right Rupert.

For me the scary thing about this is that on two separate occasions, had I not been prepared to challenge the doctor I would have been taking medication that I do not need. My body would have to deal with something that will disturb its balance and potentially cause a “real” condition that would then need treatment possibly with more [different] medication.

My reason for sharing this is that I suspect I am not alone to experience this and so I hope to raise awareness. I can accept that one GP can make a rookie mistake or be careless in their approach, but two doing exactly the same thing? Do they not learn basics in medical school?

They seem trigger happy to prescribe medication based on an incorrectly executed test.

My GPs have been trying to put me on Statins to lower my cholesterol for longer than I can remember and this sort of confidence makes me more reluctant.

I was not familiar with Jess’s Rule - thank you for bringing it up. I shall remember that and quote it to them the next time they take my BP and tell me I need to go on medication to manage it :slight_smile:

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It seems your GP surgery work differently to my experience as we are always asked to monitor at home for a while if we have a high reading and even, sometimes, get given a monitor to wear for 24/48 hours.

I had a very high reading once but it was a one off so they recorded it & that was it.

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I agree with @Mrs5K on this, they sound too quick to push pills on you in an NHS system that can’t afford to waste money. Makes me wonder their true agenda for the surgery is.

Lorraine

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I really cannot comment and don’t understand it myself.
Just to be clear, it is not only my GP surgery but it seems to be the norm for the part of town we live in. We have changed GPs twice and things did not change.

One thing I notice which may or may not be a factor and that is the GPs I have been seeing have tended to by young and possibly recent entrants to the market and they have been locums. I am not suggesting locums operate differently, but when I was working (in a different profession) contractors (cf locums) were seen as mercenaries, though of course not all of them were. Just an observation.

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Then you must keep on questioning any medications you are prescribed.

I think you should at least write to your GP surgery’s practice manager to voice your concerns. Because this is really not right to prescribe blood pressure medication based only on one reading. That has the potential to kill someone!

And if you are not satisfied with how they deal with it you can then report them to the General Medical Council (GMC). Additionally, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) is a good place to report quality of care concerns.

Lorraine

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Hi, having read this do wonder if the surgery regularly maintains their equipment adequately and has machines calibrated. How go the GP’’s know the machines are accurate before advising patients.

My recent hospital experience of two machines giving entirely different readings as one had a damaged cuff which hadn’t been spotted. Also sparked a memory as to why I don’t like or trust my local GP : only one in the village which has expanded to almost a small town now. I have asthma and was struggling due to a bad chest infection made an appointment but struggling to breathe, as is normal appointments are running late so at 15 minutes late approached reception and told the doctor is busy please take a seat. I didn’t make it back as collapsed over and next thing I know I’m in an ambulance as the surgery had a nebuliser (broken) and an empty oxygen tank. Seemed the medics ripped them a new one so do wonder again if their equipment sound.

I would agree and question them and if not satisfied get a second/ third opinion on it.

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Hi Lorraine - You are right and I should contact the practice manager to let them know they need to address their ways of working. Everyone knows that you always take a second BP reading and especially of the first is high just to confirm it.

I am not convinced about the CQC due to my personal beliefs about how effective these types of organisations are in achieving what they are supposed to or what they have been set up to do. I am pretty sure I may have mentioned in one of my updates about Mum’s visits to hospital when on one occasion, the hospital staff were so distracted by the CQC inspection that was going on that they were unable to focus on their job. Essentially they were aware of the inspection as it was an “announced” inspection and so all staff were playing by the book which of course ends up in a false picture of how the organisation being assessed operates.

Recently there was an example of a school head mistress who killed herself due to an Ofsted inspection’s rating of her school (Oftsed being the education sector equivalent of CQC for the medical sector as an example).

Also, I did once contact the CQC to report a potentially dangerous care agency whose staff were falling foul of health and safety requirements and responsible for safeguarding (as alleged by me) and this never followed up - they didn’t even bother to contact me. Needless to say when I raised the issue with the care agency management and owner, they pulled out of caring for Mum.

I shall think about what action if any I might take. I am satisfied that I myself do not take what doctors say at face value and do my own research to make sure I am happy with what I am signing up for.

@Jbob - wrt faulty equipment, I guess this can happen but don’t know what requirements exist to make sure proper calibration etc. I know electrical equipment has to be PAT (portable electrical appliances) tested periodically as a legal requirement. That said, in this case I suspect it was not the same equipment that was used twice, though I may never know :frowning:

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