As I reported in January in this blog, I have been denied my Employment Support Allowance (ESA) by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), leaving me with no income, except my housing benefit which only covers part of my rent anyway.
I've no income at all now for food, gas, electric, telephone and broadband bills, with my savings fast dwindling. 😟
I need to appeal the DWP decision to an independent tribunal for which I have been advised I need to present fresh evidence of my fragile mental health, stress and behavioural problems, such as a new sick note from my GP.
So naturally enough I made an appointment and saw one of the doctors at my registered GPs - Carden Medical Practice / Centre - a Dr Adrian Crofton and here he is - quite a mountaineer by all accounts too.
Dr Adrian Crofton - denied me help
Crofton refused me a sick/fit note. I consider his refusal to be wrong, unhelpful and unprofessional for any health care professional and I do not wish to have any future appointments with him because I do not believe he has my best interests as a patient at heart.
On the contrary, Crofton seems entirely indifferent to my need to have my social security benefits restored. He is clearly a very heartless and a very cruel man - not what the public have come to expect from our doctors and tending to bring his employment as a doctor with the NHS in Scotland into question I might suggest.
However, Crofton got the full backing of the practice manager, Shona Alexander, who has refused to allow me to make an appointment to consult any of the other doctors in the practice to ask for a second opinion, sadly.
I wrote to Shona Alexander as follows -
"Shona,
Can I ask the practice to review your decision and make me another appointment?
I have no income. I am desperately in need of a sick/fit note for my appeal.
I have been registered as a patient with Carden Medical Practice for many years and never before have I experienced such difficulties with the practice. I cannot imagine that Dr Clarke would have denied me the help that I urgently need.
Why won't Carden Medical Practice help me, one of your patients who is in desperate need?
Is the practice content to see me with no income, no money, no ability to pay my bills, struggling to pay my rent? Do you want me driven to food banks, begging on the streets and homeless? That would certainly ruin my health and likely drive to me to an early grave.
Is hard to believe that the practice is so indifferent to my needs for social security.
Please have mercy on your patient who is in desperate need."
But reply came there none. 😡
And it is not as if I wouldn't do anything 😉 for the fine ladies at the Carden Medical Practice if only they would get me the sick note I need to win my benefits appeal.
I'm always very happy to please the ladies for a little consideration that keeps the wolf from my door.
THE FIT NOTE I NEED
I was with Carden Medical Practice and at their previous premises as the "Queen's Road Medical Group" since I registered with Dr Geoffrey Clarke, now retired, who was a compassionate and helpful doctor, a lovely man, for more than 20+ years.
So sad that the practice's new broom have thrown me to the wolves like that. 😞
I got registered with another GP Practice in Aberdeen and the second of the doctors I asked there did agree to write me a sick-note, thankfully. What a relief! 😌
I'm not naming the new practice or the helpful doctor until I have a reason to do so.
The moral of the story is that with doctors, as with any other service, it pays to shop around.
THE FIT NOTE I NEED
REMOVED FROM CARDEN MEDICAL'S PATIENT LIST
On the morning of the 17th March 2017, I received a letter from NHS Practioner Services informing me"Removal from General Practitioner Lists
We have been asked by Carden Medical Centre to remove you from their patient list because of a breakdown in the patient-doctor relationship.
This means that you will no longer be registered with your current GP Practice after 23rd March.
You are advised to register with another GP practice as soon as possible before the above date"
Letter from Practitioner Services
I was with Carden Medical Practice and at their previous premises as the "Queen's Road Medical Group" since I registered with Dr Geoffrey Clarke, now retired, who was a compassionate and helpful doctor, a lovely man, for more than 20+ years.
So sad that the practice's new broom have thrown me to the wolves like that. 😞
Got a sick-note, finally
Update - Monday, 27th March 2017I got registered with another GP Practice in Aberdeen and the second of the doctors I asked there did agree to write me a sick-note, thankfully. What a relief! 😌
I'm not naming the new practice or the helpful doctor until I have a reason to do so.
The moral of the story is that with doctors, as with any other service, it pays to shop around.
