Terrible experience — poor communication, customer service, and ultimately no real help
Terrible experience — poor communication, customer service, and ultimately no real help
I had a really frustrating experience with Dr Makris and the reception staff. I feel like I was basically mucked around the whole time, and considering how much the appointments cost, I expected a lot better.
I went to my GP because I had pain in my testicles and they told me to get an ultrasound. When that came back clear, I was told to follow up with a specialist. I then went to Dr Makris, who told me to get an ultrasound of the testes... literally the exact same thing my GP had already told me to do.
I was then told to give reception the time of my ultrasound appointment because Dr Makris would call me afterwards to discuss the results. I was specifically told this was a free follow-up after the scan. He didn't call when I expected, so I rang reception. They told me he wasn't calling that day but would call at a later time. When I asked when, they refused to give me a specific time.
After several missed calls from Dr Makris (including times where I tried calling back shortly after seeing the missed call), I rang reception again. Only then did they explain that he apparently calls patients between his appointments or at the end of the day. Why couldn't they just explain this from the start?
I asked if I could just book a specific time for him to call me because I obviously can't sit around all day waiting for a random phone call. I was then told that I would have to pay for a separate phone consultation to do that. I explained that I didn't want to pay for another consultation just to speak to the doctor when I had been told this was a free follow-up after the scan. The receptionist then said she'd tell him to call me that night. I said I wasn't available that night, so she said she'd tell him to call me the following night.
So basically, after my ultrasound, I was expected to just wait around and hope I happened to be available when he decided to call. If I missed the call, apparently I couldn't just call back and speak to him, and booking an actual time would cost me more money. How is that a reasonable system?
Eventually, after all this back and forth, I managed to speak with him, only to be told that it's "not a problem, don't worry about it." That's it.
I went to a specialist because I had pain in my testicles, and I'm a young guy. Being told "don't worry about it" without much explanation was pretty disappointing. I was expecting a specialist to actually help me understand what was going on and what I should do next, not just tell me not to worry after essentially ordering the same test my GP had already ordered.
The reception staff were also really rude and unhelpful throughout the whole process. The customer service was honestly terrible.
Overall, I spent a lot of money to basically be told the same thing my GP had already told me, then got mucked around trying to actually speak to the doctor afterwards. Very disappointing experience and definitely not one I'd recommend.