Hello,
Do any of you have a consultant that you really really recommend in London or the South East?
I think I have the option of having either Prof. Gavin Giovannoni at The Royal London of Dr Leonora Fisniku at Hurstwood Park.
My MS Nurse (who is fantastic & whose opinion I respect) thinks Hurstwood Park because she knows it but Prof. Giovannoni seems to be a top expert and I hope that with him I might have access to new research, drugs, trials etc.
Any ideas? What would you do?
I have met Professor Giovannoni a few times and found him to be refreshingly open minded and his contributions on the Barts Blog do back this up. The team at the London Hospital are impressive too, but it is my local hospital. All the best with your choice. http://multiple-sclerosis-research.blogspot.com/p/about-group.html
I don’t know of any of them but I’d go with the MS nurse advice. If you don’t feel satisfied, you can ask your GP to change hospitals. The title Professor doesn’t always mean the best.
Dr Giovannoni is fabulous. A nice man as well as a major brain and well known MS expert. He was my neurologist when first diagnosed before I moved out of London.
The staff at Hurstwood Park in Hayward’s Heath are excellent though. So if it’s easier to get to, I’d feel utterly confident in seeing Dr Fisniku. The benefit of Hurstwood Park is partly the MS nurses, they are fabulous and go out of their way to help you. Being a smaller unit, you perhaps get a more personal service.
So, having experience of both, I’d say go for the hospital that’s easiest to reach. If you start with one and find that you’d have had access to more treatments at the other, it should be possible to change.
Sue