Wren, it is so important to get a competent doctor that spending some time doing a Google search is well worth while. If you enter the doctor's name in the window at the top of the screen, you should bring up any number of Websites where the doctor is listed. Many of them will be the doctor's own Websites--usually in connection with hospitals or clinics he/she is affiliated with.

If you look at those, you can be fairly sure that they've been scrubbed of any negative information but at least you can probably find out a few facts such as the doctor's training and board certification.

Some of the links will be for sites like doximity.com and healthgrades.com. Those are sites where you can often find more information, including patients' ratings and comments.

I read through the comments and pay attention to the ratings. Some of the ratings may be undependable--coming from people with a grudge or from the doctor's personal friends, for instance--but they're a way of getting a general idea of what the doctor is like.

Klebk, I didn't realize that you weren't in the US. I'm not informed on how to find information about doctors where you are but my guess is that there are ways. You just have to remember that not everything on the Internet is true or valid.

I've sometimes called a doctor's office for the basic information--where a doctor was trained and when, whether board-certified. The doctors' offices were always quite willing to provide the information.