"Belittling and uneducated"

My partner attended an immunology outpatient appointment at Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital in response to a submission we made for an adverse reaction to the COVID-19 vaccination. After 6 months of waiting for an appointment we were incredibly disappointed and shocked with the service and seeming lack of expertise. I felt the specialist refused to acknowledge my partner’s experience, I believe they were incompetent and couldn’t provide any credible answers as to why my partner’s symptoms were occurring. I recall they didn’t refer for any further tests or offer symptom management advice. Instead they told my partner they have undiagnosed ADHD. In my opinion, this assumption is entirely irrelevant to the issues presented, it’s out of scope of their practice, it’s unhelpful and it’s damaging. It seemed to me that they jumped to this random conclusion based on my partner’s occupation, saying my partner likely has undiagnosed ADHD because they’re a personal trainer and that’s common. I am at a loss as to why an immunologist seemingly thinks it’s appropriate to diagnose a psychiatric condition based purely on a person’s profession.

I recall the only advice was to follow a guy on Tik Tok who has interesting stuff about ADHD and that my partner should see a psychiatrist but they won’t be able to take ADHD medication because of their heart.

It seemed every time my partner tried to bring the conversation back to being about the adverse reactions they continue to experience, the specialist would invalidate then and say that they don’t have studies on that but there’s a small study with 400 people that suggests symptoms may be common like this amongst people with undiagnosed ADHD. I’m baffled as to how such conclusions have been made based on studies that I feel are not generalisable or credible.

I felt the specialist then further disregarded my partner’s health concerns related to the adverse reaction and inconsiderately told my partner that they should just get another vaccine and they’d do it right then and there.

I understand the general ethos of the health system is to do no harm, so how can offering someone more of what I believe made them sick be a good solution?

I felt the absence of compassion and expertise was absolutely unacceptable.

I would appreciate the opportunity to meet and discuss this situation with a representative from SCGH. I will also be submitting formal complaints via other platforms including a ministerial.