When you go to a medical appointment, you should leave feeling reassured and ready to tackle your health concerns. However, whether it stems from a bad experience or negligent care, there are plenty of reasons why you might feel dissatisfied after seeing your doctor.
In severe cases, some patients experience pain or suffering after visiting their doctor. If this resonates with your experiences or you’re concerned about quality of care, we’ve explained your next steps below.
Table of Contents
Bad experience with your doctor? Here’s how to move forwards
1. Reach out to someone you trust
Your first call should be to reflect on the specific nature of your concerns, whether that’s professionalism, treatment plans, or prescriptions. Studies have proven that sharing our negative feelings with someone we trust can be deeply healing.
Opening up to someone you trust, whether that’s your therapist, a close friend or a family member, could help you to reach a more informed stance and opinion. Once you feel emotionally ready to do so, it could be worth visiting your doctor again to try for a better outcome.
2. Speak to your practice
Next, you should contact staff at the local surgery and explain the situation.
You always have the right to complain about any aspect of NHS care. If you’re unhappy with your GP specifically, it could be possible to assign you to a different doctor. That way, you can try again with the peace of mind that you won’t have the same experience.
While this might only be a practical fix to get you the care you need, it might not be an appropriate long-term solution or an answer to chronic pain. If you’re not feeling confident about the surgery itself, it could be time to register elsewhere.
3. Seek an expert opinion
Speaking to an industry professional could point you to definitive answers.
If you’ve experienced suffering of any kind because of your bad experience, you could claim for the compensation you rightly deserve. Sometimes, the pain you’ve experienced is too profound to overlook. When you can’t move on by simply changing your doctor or trying again with another appointment, it’s time to consider legal support.
4. Don’t rush the process
Lastly, you should remember to give yourself some grace on the road to recovery. Be kind to yourself and don’t set high expectations during this time, either.
It might take you longer than you expected to move on form the experience you’ve had, both physically and emotionally, so try not to feel disheartened if you think you’re making slow progress. With time and self-care, you should hopefully start to feel more positive about your future healthcare experiences.
Overview
With patience and support, it’s possible for you to move on from the bad experience you’ve had with your doctor. Just remember that if a medical professional fails in their duty of care to you, it’s never your fault. You deserve time, treatment and care to feel better, no matter your condition.
