Kyle

Brief Outline:

Over the last two years Kyle went to see the GP because of sports injuries. He feels that a good doctor should be professional and knowledgeable, and try to make patients feel comfortable.

Background:

Kyle is at school. He lives with his dad, grandmother, brother and sister. Ethnic background / nationality: Black Caribbean.

More about me...

Over the last two years Kyle went to see the GP (local doctor) because of sports injuries. More recently, he went because he tore his hip flexor during hurdles training. The hip flexor is located deep in the front of the hip and connects the leg, pelvis and abdomen (stomach). The hip flexors are muscles that flex the hip. The doctor, who Kyle felt was a bit ‘cocky’ and ‘full of himself’, and referred him to physiotherapy. It was the physiotherapist who told Kyle that the problem was his hip flexor muscle and gave him more information. 
Kyle feels that the doctor’s appointment could have been better if the GP had asked him where he felt pain. He recalled that, while the doctor rushed through the appointment and diagnosed him in five minutes, the physiotherapist spent an hour with him examining the injury and showing him exercises to alleviate the pain. Kyle said he’d seen the same doctor before for an infection on his toenail. He remembered the doctor commenting on how ‘nasty’ Kyle’s toenail looked, which made him feel self-conscious and worried. 
Kyle feels that a good doctor should be professional and knowledgeable but also try to make patients, who are often nervous, feel comfortable. For Kyle, a good appointment is one where the doctor makes an accurate diagnosis, prescribes the appropriate medication, and takes time to explain how the treatment works so that patients don’t need to come back. Kyle feels that local surgeries should employ more experienced doctors who are able to give more than five minutes to each patient.
The local surgery that Kyle goes to is walking distance to his house. It is rarely busy so he usually gets seen fairly quickly. Normally he goes with a family member but wouldn’t mind if he had to go on his own. The receptionists at the local surgery sometimes give Kyle the impression that ‘they just want to go home’ because they look disinterested and pay little attention to people waiting for appointments. Overall Kyle is satisfied with his local surgery but would like to see more posters in the waiting room that are relevant to young people.

If Kyle was worried about his emotional health, he wouldn’t see the GP. He’d prefer looking online for support or talking to friends going through the same thing.

Do you think people like around your age, teenagers, do you think they feel maybe a bit nervous going to the doctor, or self-conscious or anything like that?

Well, for things like injuries, no. But if it's like about maybe stress or they're depressed or something, then they might feel a bit…also it depends on them really.

So sometimes people go to the doctors about physical problems, injuries and things like that.

Mm hm

Sometimes people go for more kind of emotional or mental health reasons like you’ve just mentioned.

Mm hm

Do you know that you can go to the doctor for these things or is it something you haven’t got a lot of information about?

Well I've never really gone for emotional reasons, it's more physical. But if I were to have emotional reasons, I probably wouldn’t go to the doctors, I'd probably go to like a psychiatrist or something.

Would you talk to friends at all about it, or family?

Well, I'd try to find someone like in my year that’s going through a similar thing, and like I'd confide in them, yeah.  Probably not my family.

So someone in your year with the same… would you find that more, easier or better than talking to family?

Yeah, yeah it's just…it's like talking to someone with a common interest as you; you sort of…you can trust, you can trust them.

And would you use the internet at all?

Yeah that’s probably what I'd do first, yeah. 

Kyle had pain after training. The GP thought it was groin strain. The local physio called it a torn hip flexor.

A couple of years ago I had…I tore my hip flexor, so yeah.

Oh playing football?

No, hurdles.

Hurdles.

Yeah, I was in training.

Right.

Yeah, and there was an ingrowing toenail and stuff that’s…yeah

So when you had that first injury, when you were doing hurdles, what happened, were you at school or you were training outside school?

I was training outside school, and then I didn’t really feel it, but then it just started getting worse. So I went to the doctors. They didn’t really help much, though. They just said I had groin strain – I didn’t. Yeah.

Oh, well that’s actually quite interesting. So, first of all you were training. You went back home?

Yeah.

Yeah. And did you feel any pain?

Only when I moved it in certain positions. I could walk fine. I couldn’t really run that well though. And then I sort of left it and then it started getting a bit worse, so I just went to the doctors.

So while you were having a bit of pain and it was getting worse sometimes, who did you tell about that?

My dad, yeah, cos he takes me to sports and everything. And then I told my coach and then he recommended me to a physio, yeah, in my local area.

So is that the time then that you went to see the doctor?

Yeah, I went to the doctors before the physio.

Kyle’s doctor’s surgery is very convenient. It’s walking distance and the chemist is close by.

You mentioned that you're quite happy with your doctor and the surgery. So if someone was moving to your area and they were looking for a new doctor to join, would you recommend that one?

Yeah, because there's a pharmacy right next to it, so it's convenient.

How do you usually get there – do you walk there or can you take a bus or car or....

It's like a road away. Well, you come out and you just turn right, it's right there.

So easy walking distance?

Yeah, and the doctors, it's adequate you know, no problems really.

How do you usually go to the doctors?

I walk, yeah, I'm pretty close to it.

Kyle saw the GP with his grandmother but talked to the doctor himself. It’s not ‘daunting’ making appointments and he could easily do it again next time.

So most of your appointments, are they during school time or after or before? 

No. I've only had one before school. Mostly I'm always after school or in the holidays or something. 

So after school would be four o'clock or evening time? 

Yeah, whenever someone can take me. 

Yeah. And then another time you went with your grandmother did you? 

Yeah. 

So who made the appointment? 

My grandma made the appointment, yeah. 

And then she took you there. Did she speak to the doctor or did you speak to the doctor or a bit of both? 

Well, my grandma didn’t really understand like what was wrong with me. I didn’t really explain it, I just told her where it hurt. So I just told the doctor where it hurt because it was my back from high jump right. So, yeah, the doctor just like felt around and then told me to breathe in and out and then he's like, "You don’t have any broken ribs," which I knew already. 

And when you’ve been to the doctors you said, once your dad told you what to say and then you made the appointment yourself. 

Mm 

Have you made appointments before as well or was that the first time? 

That was the first time. 

Would you feel comfortable to make it again? 

Yeah, yeah, because it's not as daunting talking to them over the phone, you know, you don’t really care how they look at you…well they can't look at you. 

So when you make an appointment, you don’t mind, you say you don’t mind making it in. Would you prefer to make it or would you prefer it if someone else made it? 

It doesn’t really make a difference to me as long as the job's done, yeah. 

The good GP made Kyle feel comfortable and was professional. Another, though, made him feel self-conscious about his ingrown toenail and how it looked.

What was his [GP] attitude like?

He was quite full of himself, you know, he thought he knew what he was talking about, but he didn’t yeah, but I didn’t really like him.

But who's your usual doctor?

Well, I used to go to one that was my friend's mum, well it was just a coincidence that it was my friend's mum, and yeah she was pretty good. And then yeah, then there's one other, so there's usually two usual ones but they're…they’ve been doing it a long time.

And you said that this other doctor that you saw, she was quite good. What was she like, what was good about her?

The physio or the doctor?

The doctor, you know the one…your friend's mum.

Oh yeah, yeah sorry. Yeah, well she sort of understood…I can't remember what I was in for, but then she understood where I’m coming from and she didn’t like make me uncomfortable. Well the other one didn’t because they're professional, but I sort of felt more comfortable around her.

So what would you say are the qualities that make a good GP, a good doctor?

Well…

Have a think – what kind of…how would you describe a good doctor? What kind of words, like caring or approachable or welcoming – what kind of things do you think make a really good doctor?

They have to be welcoming and also have to be professional because that makes you more comfortable. Cos sometimes I used to get a bit nervous going because I didn’t want to like, like show them what's wrong with me. So if it was my toe for example, but when they're…when they just like take no notice of it…well they do take notice of it but they don’t go, "Eurgh disgusting," you know. They just, because they’ve seen it before and that sort of makes it easier to talk to them.

Yeah. That’s a good answer. And you mentioned the other one who you did see when you had the ingrowing toenail. What was his attitude like when you went to the appointment that maybe made you not so comfortable?

Well he did say, "Oh that’s nasty." So I didn’t really like that, yeah. Made you feel a bit self-conscious. And then…then he started…he's the same one that said I had the groin strain so yeah, he's pretty cocky.

Kyle waited a while before the school nurse could see him. He felt that pupils should be treated in turn unless it’s something serious.

Have you ever used the sick-bay?

Yeah I have, but I don’t really like it because [siren] someone fell on my foot and I had like a big bruise coming out of it. And I thought it was a bone so I was like worried about that. Yeah, but I went there and they just sat me there to put an ice bag on it for an hour. I just left.

Did you feel comfortable there, or could it have been better? Could it have been easier or better in any way?

Well it could have been a lot better. Well, they didn’t really tell me what was wrong with it. Because I thought it was a bone, and I believed that, and then they're telling me, "Oh relax, I've seen it before, it's a bruise." Which it was a bruise but…sorry, I don’t really trust their medical experience. They said they’ve been in like the job thirty years or something, but that doesn’t really mean anything to me. I prefer, I much prefer doctors.

So they told you it was a bruise but you were worried that it was a bone and you didn’t feel reassured?

No, they didn’t really pay any attention to me. They just sat me there, and then they…and someone came in with a headache and they're like, "Oh have a paracetamol or have this…"

So if you were going to give some advice to school nurses or, you know staff like that all over the country in different schools, what would you say…what would you advise them? What message would you give to them?

Well they need to make sure that they're not prioritising the people that come in. Like one person might have a little cut and the other person might have like something serious, but you have to treat them the same. Well obviously if someone's like bleeding out then you’ve got to treat them first, but you can't ignore one person.

So they…whoever comes in, they should treat everybody the same as they come in?

Yeah, yeah, unless of course someone's like obviously in a lot more pain, then you can treat them first, yeah.

Did you feel that you were sitting around before they actually came and spoke to you?

Well I had to call them over to actually pay attention to me, but they just said the same thing, yeah.