Re: What should I expect from gastroenterologist app?

Yes, she is aware of self-medication and I found it important to tell her the truth. There was a period where she didn't believe me and wavered down the whole "psychiatric" route, but I was quite forceful and firm with her on this (perhaps even a bit too aggressive but you have to be -- you know your own body and mind, and when you know something is not right do not let any doctor give you this crap), and now she is quite helpful and has ordered many tests and been going through research material with me to try and pinpoint what it is exactly.


Yes, she is NHS, but it took me 6 months waiting before I could see a NHS infectious diseases doctor, and something similar for NHS gastroenterologist.


The trick to skipping these waiting lists for referrals is to pay the £100-£150 or whatever the specialists charge for initial private consultations, which you can usually get within a few days. You then jump the queue and will get on that doctor's patient list and then can transfer back to the NHS system for all the tests. Once you are on the doctor's list and in the system you will only then have to wait a few weeks for a follow-up NHS consultation with that same doctor that you would otherwise have been waiting months to see! I would have definitely done this but my problem was that there were no private infectious diseases doctors available near me at that time in my area. Yes it is ridiculous that you can do this, and private doctors are definitely milking the public system for cash, but that is the way the system works!