Gregor Brown, Prahran, VIC

A dehumanising and deeply wounding experience On October 12th 2022, I had an appointment with Dr. Gregor Brown to discuss the results of my gastroscopy and blood tests. Dr. Brown responded to questions about my health in an abrasive manner, before calling me rude and saying he was the expert and dismissing my enquiries. When you have the expectation of being treated with empathy and respect in a private consultation with a doctor who assumes a caretaking responsibility for your health, you expect to feel safe, you expect your medical anxieties to be met with the gravity, care and patience it deserves (instead of dismissal and criticism of my person), and being treated in such a hurtful, dehumanising way is as shocking as it is deeply wounding. I was reduced to tears, and Dr. Brown was unconcerned and simply continued on with the rest of appointment as if I hadn't been been crying. I completely broke down sobbing in the reception when I had to pay my specialist's fee, and continued to cry throughout the 50 min tram ride home. It triggered me into an episode that lasted throughout the next week. I have had negative experiences with medical practitioners before, but never to this extent. When the backbone of your recovery is the trust instilled in the care your doctor provides, and this happens, I can't even describe how this appointment had completely derailed my wellbeing as a patient. I feel horrible, hurt and traumatised. To think I paid to have this done to me. Whether Dr. Brown was having a bad day and could not treat me kindly, or whether it was due to my identity as a woman of colour I'll never know, but I wish he hadn't treated me the way he did because this experience scarred me. I don't think I can ever go to a doctor again without feeling deeply anxious and unsettled.