Dear Adrienne,
You came to us in 2021, not July 2023. You were dissatisfied then - for reasons that were out of our control (e.g. our emails to you going to your spam) and other reasons like not completely understanding our service as listed on our website (keeping in mind that the hundreds of other patients have access to the same information but we don't get the same complaint). You then wrote a google review to which we responded in great detail, as your timelines/recollection were not accurately reflecting ours - as documented in our booking system. I'm not sure why you feel the need to once again bring this up. We did invite you then to reach out to us for a chance to resolve things further if you still felt that it wasn't addressed. I've copied our response from the Google review as a reminder below:
"Just to clarify, your initial appointment was undertaken 2 weeks after the date it was originally booked for. A written report from the doctor was sent to you 1 week later. We understand that it was unfortunately in your spam folder so you did not see it until much later. The delay in the initial consultation resulted from rescheduling twice; on our end the first time and your end the second time as per the correspondence you had with the clinic.
We are not a service where the patient sees us as a means to solely get access to medications. The first step, which is an extremely detailed assessment, brings back the high value of specialist doctors actually practising what we're meant to practice - the art of listening, and then putting the pieces of the puzzle together. This process informs the doctors about what a patient requires in terms of testing, in order to recommend the most relevant tests for the individual patient. Keeping in mind that niche functional testing is expensive, they are not available for the cost that you suggest.
Good quality intolerance testing alone ranges from a couple hundred to over a thousand pounds, depending on what you're looking for and the lab used. Gut testing is reserved for patients where it’s indicated and we believe that the results will change how we treat the patient.
In terms of medications, it is important to distinguish between compounded bioidentical hormones and generic body identical hormones. There are very few compounding pharmacies in the UK and the £65 (not £80) you're suggesting cannot cover 4 hormones for 3 months. When we discuss costs upfront, it's based on what's typically required and will be different for everyone depending on what the doctor decides is necessary after consultation and testing. The cost is also based on generic body identical hormones which suits many patients. Compounding always costs more.
Our practice is a combination of functional medicine plus bioidentical hormones at the same sitting. Our doctors are highly trained and experienced in combining these two separate but complementary treatment modalities. Total doctor time for the consultation that you had with us is 2.5 hours; with 2 hours being doctor facing time. We charge extremely reasonably compared to other clinics that offer a similar service. Clinics such as ours are not comparable to hormone only clinics where the typical consultation rarely goes beyond 30 mins.
Overall, it seems like ours wasn't a service you were looking for, which it appears from your comment, was a more basic service simply for a doctor to prescribe for you. Signature on a prescription isn't only a signature. It carries responsibility with it which affects medical indemnity, and the practitioner is ultimately responsible for the medication that they have prescribed. We work proactively with patients to assess their overall health and concerns, use labs to confirm our findings, and create a holistic bespoke treatment plan which incorporates many components and isn't only medication heavy.
Kindly contact us if you feel like you would like any further clarifications. Otherwise we wish you all the best in health."
