Winston

Brief Outline: Winston has seen the GP for various problems, all minor, including athlete’s foot, an eye infection, and a misaligned (crooked) toe. He felt satisfied with the care he’d been given over the years but would like to see more information in waiting rooms on sports injuries. Having lived in several different places, he’d also like to be able to register with a new surgery more easily.

Background: Winston is between jobs at the moment. He lives on his own. Ethnic background / nationality: Black African.

More about me...

Winston’s first memory of seeing the GP was when he had a flu jab. He was 7-years-old and living in Zimbabwe. He recalled having to travel quite far to get to the clinic, which was in an urban area, and remembered that the clinic was ‘very packed’. 

Around the age of 9 Winston moved to London and, for about 5 years, he said that his life was ‘pretty straightforward’ and he rarely saw the GP. Whenever he had a minor injury, he used to treat it himself – his mother was a nurse and had a small first aid box. Winston was allergic to fish and peanuts and had eczema when he was younger, so sometimes collected prescriptions for eczema from the doctor. 

When Winston moved into foster care around the age of 15, he started making his own appointments and going to the GP by himself. He found it easy to collect his prescriptions, even though he thought you had to be over 18 to get them. He said the GP always gave him what he needed. 

Winston had also seen the GP to discuss a ‘birth defect’ on his toe. He looked online and saw that a woman in America with the same problem had had surgery. When he asked about this, his doctor said they would send him a letter with a referral for surgery, but the letter never came. Although Winston wasn’t overly concerned about the toe, he sometimes felt self-conscious when he took his socks off during sports.

Winston used to play a lot of sport, so has seen the doctor for minor sports injuries, and also for athlete’s foot. He got a cream for the athlete’s foot and omega three for clicking joints. Winston also recalled seeing the GP for pain in his wisdom teeth and an eye infection. Both were straightforward to treat. He was referred to a specialist hospital for the eye infection and didn’t attend the follow-up eye appointment as the problem had gone away. 

Winston was satisfied with the care he’d been given by GPs over the years and felt that they were usually ‘on point’. He mentioned that he would like to see his medical records as he sometimes worried about pain he gets during sports, so seeing them could be reassuring. 

Winston felt that the posters in surgery waiting rooms were mainly for women, not young men, and would like to see more information on sports injuries. Having lived in several different places, he’d also like to be able to walk in and register with a new surgery without having to book an appointment first. 

Winston couldn’t remember if he’d registered with a GP in every area he’d lived. If medical records were linked electronically across practices, changing surgeries could be easier.

I think I did get signed up somewhere. In [place name], I can't remember if I went to the doctors round there but I think I did get assigned somewhere.

And then from being in [place name] can you remember going at all, you know to the doctors for any reasons or every now and then?

In [place name] not really no, no.

And then the next time you mainly remember is when you broke your wrist?

Yeah

Can you remember being registered with a doctor at that point?

Yeah, because after [place name A] I moved – where did I move to? I went to [place name B] and then the clinic there was, I forgot that clinic but can't really remember that clearly. And then after that – after [place name B] it was, it was in [place name C]. [Place name C] clinic I remember because, yeah it was like four years ago whatever, something like that roughly. And it was quite nice. The clinic was, you know normal, normally it wasn’t that busy, it was just yeah alright. The waiting time was short so it was good service I think.

I think that would be better if they're all linked. So, if you moved to different locations whatever, they would still have your information, yeah.

Have you had that situation because you’ve moved around, where – 

Where they lack the information that I had from previous GP yeah. But yeah, they, I just have to re- you know, I just have to tell them again about the whole issue and when it happened so. They don’t really seem to be linked that much anyway so yeah.

So, the reasons you went weren't that linked.

Mmm yeah

But they didn’t always have your records, so did that ever delay anything?

No, you know it's like, getting like, if I have an issue and my current GP is you know, is different locations and I have to change. And I have to do the whole registration, and sometimes it's like - the last time I done it, it wasn’t straightforward. It was - I had to book an appointment for it- and it seemed as if I needed like a piece of extra details for it. But afterwards they told me that it wasn’t relevant so, the only thing, yeah that was the only thing that kind of delayed anything.

Could anything be improved there? So if GPs are listening to your interview and they have quite a lot of young people who've moved around to different GPs, different areas, is there anything that could be done better there, anything that could be improved there in terms of the records?

The records. Well linking them, that’s the main thing but the only other thing would be to register. If that could be done straight away, so it isn't like you go to that new GP and they register you straight away instead of having to come, instead of having to book an appointment to do it and everything.

It seemed like the doctors didn’t care because Winston’s problem wasn’t serious. He would have liked more information about what was wrong with his toe.

When I did go for the – when I was in [place name] the doctor, he did look at my foot. And then they looked at it again when I was in [another place] again, and they just, they didn’t really say that much anyway. They just said, you know, that it had a defect or something like that and then that was it.

Did you feel they gave you the information that you were looking for?

No, not really because they didn’t, I didn’t get a letter or anything saying anything about it. So I wasn’t really sure if, because I think they were just, they didn’t really care about it simply because it was not like an injury or something that was an issue. It was just something that was slightly abnormal but it wasn’t going to cause an issue, so they just thought it was, you know, minor.

Can you remember anything about the doctor that you saw? So that, when you first went about your toe, can you remember the doctor that you saw, the appointment?

Yeah.

Were you happy with the appointment because at that point the doctor said – was it a he or a she?

It was a he.

He said that he would refer you and send a letter. Were you happy with that appointment?

Well not really. He didn’t, because I did ask him if they could do something, and then he said that “We'll let you know.” But nothing happened so it was, you know, it was a bit hazy but.... 

Winston went to A&E when he broke his wrist. He went again after a car accident. The wound was cleaned, which was painful.

When I broke my wrist first I didn’t, there wasn’t enough time obviously to try to go to clinic, and so I just went straight to A&E and they looked at it and they just told me to wait. Even the wait was quite long, and yeah they just, well I did get another injury though when I got hit with a car. And then there wasn’t, the only bad thing was, because the information, it wasn’t clear. Like I was hit by the car, it was my fault. 

I just came from school. It was dark and I sort of, I fell asleep in the bus and I saw the other opposite bus when I woke up. I tried to run for it and a car hit me. And then it hit me, I got up, then I walked to the pedestrian and then they, the random people, they just called the ambulance whatever, and then they came. They picked me up, put me in the, what’s it called? 

Stretcher

Yeah. And then they took me away and then, the only bad thing was the person who was doing it was a trainee. There was a doctor there and a doctor trainee nurse – she was the one who done it. And the only bad thing was because she was - she did - I don’t know whether it was meant or, I don’t know if that’s how they do it. But it was an open injury and she did try to clean it with something that was dry. It wasn’t wet so it was just like, it was like rubbing an injury that’s got, you know, it was quite sore here. 

When I hit the ground again I’d like sand – not sand, like gravel – in my, on my injury, so she was trying to clean it off with a dry bandage whatever and it wasn’t really working. So I did tell her to stop and just cos it was like, you know, rubbing stones onto your open flesh innit so, I did go to the sink whatever and just, you know, and did it myself, but she was a trainee so it was OK.