I'm hoping this is a Newcastle phenomenon only and not the case in Australia in general.

I've been in Newcastle in New South Whales for 1 1/2 years now and unfortunately spent way too much time in doctor's rooms during that time. What I have discovered is that finding a good doctor here is a very difficult task!!

Yesterday I went to see the seventh doctor since I arrived here and honestly she's the first one that's left me feeling that she knows what she's doing! Seven doctors in 17 months??? I don't think I've ONCE been to a doctor in South Africa that left me feeling like I'm not in good hands here!! I'm sure there are many such doctors in South Africa, but I've just been fortunate that I've never encountered one of them before.

The highlight to me was the 3rd doctor that I saw here in Newcastle. Keep in mind that I'd prefer to stick to one doctor for the rest of my life. If I change doctors, it's because I feel that this person might not be able to take care of me.

Anyhow, so the third doctor...
This bugger sat and read a bunch of questions to me from a computer program. This might be okay in some cases where it's a weird situation and he wanted to get some ideas, I don't know. Problem is, he started with the first question - something like "Where is the pain?" and started reading body parts to me!!! WTF??? I'd just finished explaining to him that I had stomach cramps and chest pains, so why does he ask me "Where is the pain? head, shoulders..."???
Probably could have dealt with all that (probably not), but when I said I don't understand the one question, he laughed and said "yeah, they ARE a little difficult, aren't they"!!!
When he asked me to "strip down" to investigate my stomach pains, I started looking around for the camera and waiting for the babe from Australia's funniest home videos to jump out of the cupboard, but no such luck!! I'm not joking BTW.

The fourth doctor seemed quite nice and very friendly and I went back to her a few times. However, at one point I had had headaches every single day for a couple of weeks by the time I went to see her. Unfortunately I am on a work visa, so I have to pay for consultations in advance and claim it back from my medical aid. I was having a bit of financial difficulty at the time, so I had to wait till pay day and I also had the chest pains which I mentioned during doc #3. She sent me for a exercise stress test and echocardiogram for the chest pains, but said I shouldn't worry about the headaches??? Weeks of daily headaches and a doctor tells you not to worry? I think she decided that I must be making this up as I had two (actually 3, as I still had the stomach pains then as well) complaints at the same time. Never did find out why I had the stomach or chest pains, but fortunately they have now stopped on their own.

Fifth doc made me feel comfortable and I was pretty sure I had finally found one I could stick with. But, I went to see her about my skin turning red and feeling dizzy and overall jittery. These are/were hot flashes that came on for a couple of minutes up to an hour every few days. I was actually at the doctor's rooms when it happened and she saw the red skin and that my blood pressure had shot up and bla, bla, bla. Did an ECG (which said my heart was okay) and asked some of her colleagues to have a look at my red skin. Sent me for a whole bunch of tests, including a CT scan of the abdomen because she feared that it might be a carcinoid tumour. We've all seen it on TV or in a movie where some guy's waiting for feedback to find out whether he has cancer... It's a lot more scary in real life when it's you doing the waiting... trust me!!!
None of these tests found anything and bla, bla, bla... In my final visit to doc #5 I asked her how do we proceed from here, what is causing these episodes and she said “Well I can tell you what it’s not”. Said we’d tested for everything dangerous and I shouldn’t worry about it. Hmm, what kind of an answer is that?
One day during doc #5’s term of duty I felt really bad during one of these episodes and phone for an appointment. As they had no openings for that day, I went to another medical centre where you don’t need an appointment, but sit and wait for a long time... Saw doc #6 there and he requested a CT scan of my head, which also showed nothing. I don’t know whether it was good having another CT scan 2 days after the abdomen one, but won’t worry about that now. So can’t really comment on doc #6, but I went back to doc #5 cause at that stage I was still hopeful that I could settle with her as my permanent GP.
In the meantime one of my colleague’s wife is a psychologist and he asked her for some recommendations of GP’s for me (their own doc’s books are closed). Gave me 3 GP’s names. First two I phoned I was told that their “books are closed”, which I discovered means that they’re not taking on new patients - seems to be the norm for any doctor worth seeing.
The 3rd recommendation, thank goodness, works at that same medical centre where I saw doc #6, where you can’t make an appointment, but just wait till the doc’s available. Went there yesterday and said I’ll wait for this specific doctor. Well, I walked in and told her about my turning red. She asked me a couple of questions and when I told her I take blood pressure medication, she stopped me and asked “That wouldn’t be Adalat, would it?”. Turns out that two of the more common side effects (at least more common compared to other possible side effects) is hot flashes and dizziness...
So, after who knows how many tests, poking and prodding and about two weeks of waiting to find out whether I have cancer, it turns out that I may just have a reaction to my blood pressure medication. She prescribed a different tablet for me and said I should give it two months to see. Could still be something else, but she seems quite confident that this was it. This doc was also recommended by one of my other colleagues who goes there herself.
Hohum... wish I’d found this doctor while I had the stomach and chest pains earlier last year!! Anyway, it’s a bit strange for me. Seems that there is a serious shortage of good doctors here – or a serious abundance of bad doctors, I don’t know :)

Hi and welcome to the forums.

Yeah, I guess the problem is knowing when to stick to your current doctor and when to try someone else. Is is now more than two weeks and I haven't had any more of those hot flushes, so I think it's pretty safe to say that it was the BP medication.
The question then, is why did the previous doctor and her colleagues send me for so many tests without making any progress and this doctor asked me 2 questions (from never having seen me before) and knew what the problem was.

Anyhow, I'll be sticking to this doc for as long as I can.