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Neurologist in London

M

marple

Messages
26
Location
UK
Hi

I have a request: is anyone able to suggest a good private neurologist in London? Preferably ME friendly, but if not, at least approachable and not dismissive. It's for someone with ME but with other symptoms as well, so they would be seeing the neurologist for other symptoms, but it would be helpful to have someone who would not be dismissive because of the ME diagnosis.

Many thanks
 
ukxmrv

ukxmrv

Senior Member
Messages
4,413
Location
London
Dr Russell Lane (Charing X and private practise)
Dr Abhijit Chaudhuri (Queens,Romford? and private practise)
 
vli

vli

Senior Member
Messages
653
Location
CA
marple,

I don't know whether Russell Lane has changed in the 10 years since I met him, but of the ten or so physicians I saw since falling sick in Dec 2000, he was THE absolute worst I can tell you. He basically diagnosed or failed to diagnose ME on the basis of whether you appeared depressed or not and he was most damaging to my case because I went in there with my parents (after waiting I think a year to see him on the NHS), and after having one of his students do most of the physical examination to rule out other neurological diseases and having me do a questionnaire that basically asked me "are you depressed?", he sat my parents down and said in a patronising tone of voice while I lay on the other side of the room separated by a curtain that "your daughter is very, very depressed and needs psychiatric help". I was so infuriated I got up and said to his face he was spewing rubbish and said "let's go". Unfortunately that meeting made a deep impression on my father (after all, he's this famous Charing Cross neurologist, right??) and I truly believe that meeting sowed the first seeds of my father's belief that my illness was psychiatric and yes, in that way, Russell Lane damaged the chances of a geniune ME patient from getting proper treatment more than he could realise or ever imagine. It may be no victory but to this day I am proud of having the brains at the age of 20 not to be scared by him and to walk out of the room right there and then because he did not deserve my attention or respect.

Having said all that, if you've already been diagnosed with ME elsewhere by someone Lane most probably won't argue against then of course it might be a different story, and I did see him ten years ago. But I felt it would be wrong if I did not tell you about my experience with him because in my opinion he is getting away with far too much (people thinking he's this great ME-friendly doc, giving opinions in the press to the impression that he was this great believer in ME when he completely dismissed MINE after only the most cursory of examinations, etc).
 
M

marple

Messages
26
Location
UK
vli: Thanks for your message. I am so sorry that you had such a bad experience. I will send you a PM.

ukxmr: Many thanks for the suggestions. It's hard for my friend to get to Romford unfortunately.

If anyone has any other suggestions for a Neurologist in London (preferably central, maybe at the National Hospital for Neurology in Queen's Sqaure), would be grateful. It's for someone with an ME diagnosis but with other symptoms as well, so they would be seeing the neurologist for other symptoms, but it would be helpful to have someone who would not be dismissive because of the ME diagnosis.

Thanks.
 
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