Aug 28, 2021 12:57 AM
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(Updated Aug 28, 2021 12:59 AM)
Horrible experience for anyone looking to meet a medical professional for the first time. If you care about your mental health and can afford to see a private medical mental health professional, please do that.
The process of meeting a mental health professional should be an experience that is not stressful. Mine was a high stress one with constant hammering from construction work the floor above, crowds following no social distancing, loud noise, etc.
I was told that the doctor I was hoping to meet, the consultant, would meet me after I had first been examined by his junior, a senior resident. After waiting three hours (I was there from 9.30 am to 11.45 am on August 21, 2021), when I finally met the junior, a senior resident, she tried to hand me like a baton to her junior, a junior resident, which is when I realised I had had enough.
This is probably the first time that the process of trying to meet a mental health professional ever gave me an anxiety attack. This is also the first time I have ever resented a doctor even before I met them with my issues.
I relayed all of this to the senior resident, who I was called in to meet after waiting for another fifteen minutes post the anxiety attack. She then wanted me to share my mental issues with the windows and doors wide open, and a junior resident sitting with her (like an experiment), and with people sitting right outside within earshot - no privacy.
Trust becomes a real problem if the very process that is supposed to make a person feel mentally better is the very cause of an anxiety attack.
I don't expect to be treated like I'm entitled or be coddled but IPHB seriously needs to sort themselves out. I'm sure they are excellent doctors, but I'll never know because of this egregious experience.
Either way, I request people reading this to please contemplate before choosing this place as a potential appointment for their mental health. If you have had a better experience here, I actually envy you and wish you luck on your journey to mental health.
