[Arch-TK]

Just a side note but in a place like the UK you don't get to "see another doctor" for a second opinion (unless you go private) without moving to a different surgery altogether. Usually if you even so much as question the opinion of your GP you will get ostracized and mocked. Asking to see a different one in the same surgery will leave you getting questioned by the receptionist as to why you would ever want to do that and if you do somehow manage to get an appointment with a different GP they will likely have been informed that you've moved to them from another GP in the practice and will treat you like a nagging hypochondriac.

I have an endless number of terrible experiences with UK GPs and few good experiences.

When I was 8 I started getting headaches. These headaches got worse and worse until I was hitting my head against the wall and the metal bedposts of my bed to give me pain to distract from the headache. My mother took me from GP to GP getting a record at the local surgery for being quite a pest trying to get a GP who would do something about it instead of claiming that it's normal for an 8 year old kid to get debilitating headaches and that I was just acting or that I just needed to get given paracetamol.

A year or two later I had flat feet which caused me immense pain while walking long distances. Going to the GP it took my mother's begging and another GP change before they decided to give me a referral to a specialist (previously one GP said that I just needed to take paracetamol and if that didn't work take ibuprofene as well, which my mother tried until I started getting pains in my abdomen which I assume must have been my liver or stomach complaining). The specialist immediately noticed that I did in fact have flat feet and needed inserts in my shoes to correct this. The inserts immediately stopped the pain from happening and a few months later I could walk without inserts.

When a lot of front-line doctors (at least in my experience) avoid taking on the responsibility of making any kind of diagnosis or even getting you to a specialist I can totally see why people who privately go directly to someone who has at least a little bit of specialization find the results to be a lot better.