age and experience or youth and enthusiasm?

[ethandron]

who would you trust/prefer - an elderly, 10 year retired gp with a wealth of experience or a newly qualified, switched-on, up-to-the-minute gp?

[sara3]

my worst ever GP experience was with an old boy who literally pulled my bra off me (unnecessarily) whilst listening to my chest, when I asking about contraceptives. as I left, quite distressed, he said, "tell me.. is the sex good?" in a leering voice.

I made a complaint. he's very lucky I didn't go to the police.

[ttfn]

That is terrible sarah

[sara3]

I think he was put out to pasture after my complaint. I've never seen him there again, anyway.

shame really, he was quite a nice old boy up until then!

[craft1948]

I'll get my doctor nephew (he's 29) to join AB and then you can compare his and sqad's responses (not about sex)

[ttfn]

Last year I had to persuade Big Sis to see her GP after a 20+ years absence. I told her how nice and gentlemanly my GP always is to me. He takes my arm, leads me to the door and opens it after every appointment - she said 'he just wants you out of the surgery' :o(

[arwyn]

It depends who you see as to what is wrong with you.

[ethandron]

not at all surgeries, sometimes you don't get a choice and you have to see your own gp.

[DEN53]

We have only been with our GP's for arond 5 years since we moved. Our last GP was horrendous. We had him for 30 years. He only grunted at you when you walked in - the worst time was - after my hysterectomy, I went to see him as my stitches weren't falling out like they said.

He said lay on the couch, he then proceeded to pull them out with the largest tweezers you have ever seen - they wouldn't budge, but I nearly fell off the couch. This went on for 10 minutes - in the end I said for f...ks sake leave them. I was shaking from head to foot. He left me there , with no help in getting up. He then called Mr. Den in from the waiting room, to remove me from the couch.

[ttfn]

Luv a duck DEN. What on earth did Mr D say about it?

[sara3]

blimey DEN, that's horrible :o/

I saw a GP for a cortisone injection in my arm, he seemed to have no idea what he was doing, and had to do it twice as he missed the spot! there was loads of blood and he didn't seem to know what to do.. I nearly ran out at that point but needed some biopsy results. he gave me the results for another patient!

[cazzz1975]

I dont judge my doctors age, my current doctor is middle aged and seems fairly competant, he puts my mind at ease, is helpful and will explain things in detail.

[China Doll]

My GP's (I've seen a 2/3 of the named docs there, not locums) are lovely and I'm very sorry to be changing practice next week, they are between 35 - 45 I would say going on appearences. My consultant is probably in his 40's I would say. I think these are nice ages for people in general as you're not quite set in your ways but you do know what you're about as a person. However, as long as I have confidence in the person and the advice I'm being given then I'm not sure how relevant age is.

[Eve]

I've moved quite a bit so seen a load of different ones and at my current practice they have a lot of locums.

I got to see the new not locum Dr the other week though after 5/10 minutes of him looking things up on GP notebook and not really helping much at all he just said he could refer me to a specialist (only wanted to try going back on the pill to see if it helped with women's problems) before he saw I was a lawyer on my notes and was there for another 20 mins or so with him asking legal advice.

I saw a locum years ago after feeling what I thought was a lump in my breast. He didn't seem to understand, said I was too young for breast cancer, asked me if I had a "leaflet" (?). He finally said he supposed he should examine me and just sat looking at me. I just stared back at him as I was sat in front on a window with builders outside so he got up and swished the curtain across with a big huff, barely touched me and muttered something about my cycle. I was at a firend's after and her mum was there and was horrified and made me book another appointment.

The doctor I saw then was lovely, incredibly apologetic, especially as it turned out he hadn't even noted I'd been in, let alone what for. She found two lumps. They weren't sinister but that's not the point.

I think it depends on the Dr.

[Invictas]

Oddly enough ethandron,I have just experienced this in my GP pratice.
My Male GP has just retired after working in the surgery for over 35 years.Whilst he was a pleasant doctor he tended (in my case anyway) to not know what drugs went with what (unless you complained about side effects),and in the 5 years running up to his retirement seemed to loose all interest whatsoever.He was also not very au fait with new devlopments in drugs etc.
I am now under a 20 something Female GP,who is really on the ball and knows all the latest in her field.
I know who I would go to,given the choice between them.