Having been a bit unimpressed with various things in medical care recently and not being able to see anyone, in hospital and still no answers, and having the feeling no one understood DM, I have wondered if it’s worth seeing someone privately and sod the cost. I have an appointment with my previous endo (who I didn’t have much faith in) in a couple of months. Am I jumping the gun? My BG is still high and has been for a month now.
Anyone have any experience of private endo and managing they DM health? Thanks
Flora, I've seen both, and even seen the same Endo in both environments.
I had a private consultation after an NHS Consultant was just so laid back, and suggested we'd probably never get to the bottom of my miserable symptoms. Aside from wanting to kill him, my GP offered referral for a second opinion. At that time, that meant I chose the Endo, but chose to see him privately, initially, for speed. I felt I had already marked too much time to wait more.
When I saw this guy, he was very interested and very curious about my symptoms, and ordered up not just one, but several rafts of tests! He tested me for almost everything known to mankind.
Where he was very good was he asked my GP to have the tests run, to keep the bill down, as my medical insurance was adamant my issues were diabetes related (total twaddle).
The tests came back inconclusive, and my thyroid was still returning "in range" scores, so having had a very frank discussion with him, he agreed I should see him in his NHS clinic in several months, unless the puzzle was solved beforehand.
In the meantime, my GP thyroid tests finally breached the diagnostic threshold, I was started on medication, and shelved seeing the Endo immediately, as I had to give the Levothyroxine a chance to work, or in my case, not work that well.
When that was clear, I went back to the Endo I had seen privately, who picked up from there. He wasn't too different in NHS mode, except that he seemed reluctant to prescribe T3 for me. Unfortunately T3 is eye-wateringly expensive, but we eventually "talked it through" and I started on that in September. I had my next review last month, by phone.
To be honest, if nothing else, it is worthwhile using the private option to manage delays/timescales, but if you intend to d as I hoped would happen (and did), it is worthwhile doing your homework to ensure you could have continuity of care.
Whilst the guy I see isn't for diabetes, he also works with diabetes patients, teaches at the Uni and all that good stuff.
If you need any help finding a suitable bod, I'd be happy to share how I went about it. I don't think you're in my sort of area, but I'd go about it in the same way, no matter where I lived.
