West Ventura Medical Clinic

By far the worst clinic/doctor experiences I have ever had. This review has a focus on their worst DR? On staff, Carlos M Leal, but It doesn't help that he practices at West Ventura Medical Clinic, which (*spoilers) is a mass cattle herding facility that could care less about patients of their needs. Sadly this was defaulted to be my facility after Obamacare made it so my Primary Physician was no longer covered on my insurance. Carlos M Leal is actually the third doctor I have had there. Both of the other two were below average at best, but not so upsetting that I would take the time to review them online. Carlos M Leal is purely incompetent. I had a serious situation where he completely failed to communicate a major side effect of a new medication that had a clear negative interaction with my situation (without being specific, a side effect that occurred 50%+ of the time). When lab work identified a problem he failed to bring up the medication as a possible source of the problem. Through independent research I identified the problem, took myself off of the medication and when I brought it up to Carlos M Leal he said "I'm sorry, I did not know that could happen"..... I was left shocked. He admitted he was too busy to look into all the meds he prescribed ed in-depth. NOT wa you want to hear from s Doctor. I should not be teaching my doctor about the meds he prescribes. Are you having an important issue related to medication and you need to get in touch with your PCP? Well don't pick Dr Leal, he's impossible to reach. He has an army of front desk people that range widely in competence. My overall feedback for the 3 doctors I have had here leads me to believe that they hire people with little to no experience so they can "learn" or people not good enough or have their own practice or get hired at a serious facility. I am sure that there are exceptions, but my hopes are not high. If you want a completely impersonal experience, don't mind waiting months for an appointment, and have very low expectations, then choose this doctor and location. If you are looking for quality health care..... run..... and find any place other than this place or this doctor. Edit: I also want to comment on other reviews where the doctors refused to prescribe pain medications beyond ibuprofen after major procedures. I had the same experience not only with pain meds, but also other important medications. They make you feel like a criminal or drug addict for even mentioning it. They demanded I take a drug test before even discussing it (which I took), but they still denied me as my previous doctor was "not a fan" of prescribing the medication. I understand that some people abuse medications, but that doesn't mean that you begin with a "guilty until proven otherwise" mentality. Especially when an individual has no indications/red flags of it being a concern. Leaving your patients to suffer and go through the painfully slow referral program.