@Mummybear3 - I've just caught up with your thread, and to be honest, you are just on a revolving door situation here; going round and round, getting nowhere.
Under the NHS charter, you are entitled to a second opinion, but at this stage, that second opinion would likely be seen as most fitting by another GP. Is there another Doctor in your Practise you could speak with?
It does cost your Practise to make a referral to secondary care, so I know some places are under the cosh to keep those costs down, but that still should not be a barrier to proper care.
If nothing else, your GP will have the support of the hospital/clinic system, with the potential for rapid response (rapid being within a couple of days, rather than weeks). My own GP used this a few times, relating to my wonky thyroid that just wouldn't get with the usual plan, in terms of diagnosis, or treatment.
In brief, the GP writes an email enquiry to the local specialist area, with a Consultant, or a member of their team responding - depending on the issue. In my case, the responses were usually within 24 hours, but I'm guessing that can vary from department/clinic to department/clinic.
For me, the result was to eventually get onto the correct care pathway for my condition, which continues to defy "the norm", but it got me there in the end. To be fair, I learned a load about how the NHS works (or can work) through those experiences, and largely via a very candid GP who openly said at times she just didn't understand what was going on with me. At least she was honest, and we went on a huge learning adventure together!
If you are still considering paying for blood tests privately, I might take a different tack on it, and suggest instead you pay for a private consultation with an Endocrinologist. That way, you will have at least a proper assessment. You could take your NHS blood results with you for him to review, and if he agrees you need additional tests, he can do one of the following:
- Instruct they be done, and you pay for them
- instruct your GP to order them up
- instruct your GP to make an NHS referral to him, in his usual NHS location
In my own case, the Endo instructed my GP to order over 40 (yes, 40) blood screens to get to the bottom of things (it didn't, but now I know that at that point I didn't have a lot of very unpleasant things). To be clear, most of these screenings were based on my own and family medical histories.
Whilst you would need a GP referral for a private consultation, I have never found a GP unwilling to allow me to spend my own money on trying to improve my health. If your own GP will not provide a private referral, there are private GPs around who would be quite happy to be your gateway to specialist care. You can just Google "private GP near me" or private GP near + your postcode. You might be surprised how many there are.
Those would be my tactics. I hope they give you some other options to ponder, but if I can help further, please let me know.
Something needs to happen for you.