Share review of Dr Thomas Yapp
I would like to share a difficult and upsetting visit that I experienced at Bridgend Princess of Wales hospital on the 6th January 2023. I was having an endoscopy for an ongoing ailment that has been causing a lot of pain and distress for the past year. The individual completing the procedure was Dr Yapp. Upon entering the room, Mr Yapp’s opening words were along the lines of ‘why have you been referred, i don’t understand what we are expected to find as you obviously have anal fissures’. I explained that I had been referred by my consultant and, as I am not a doctor, I do not know why I have been referred. As a 25 year old girl, lying on my side about to have a very personal/embarrassing assing procedure, this attitude affected me deeply. If it wasn’t for the lovely nurses who were with me, I would of left the room. He then began to suggest that taking the intense and time consuming laxatives I had taken in preparation for the endoscopy as a future treatment plan. However, this involved drinking 2 litres of laxatives and sitting on the toilet for a whole evening. As someone who works, this seemed like a bizarre and lack of thought attempt to try and help me. After the procedure, thankfully nothing was found apart from a chronic anal fissure, Mr Yapp continued to express his annoyance of having to do a procedure he clearly felt a waste of his time on my paperwork. Mr Yapp wrote on my diagnosis paperwork ‘I do not understand what was expected from this procedure’. I left feeling deflated, embarrassed and still not receiving any help for the pain that I was still in. I felt my diagnosis was downplayed and as though I had wasted NHS time. Since this experience, my mental health has been deteriorated considerably. I wanted to disclose this experience as I do not wish Dr Yapp to make anyone feel how he made me feel that day and ongoing effect it has left on me.