Nope. My dad had a calcified nerve in his spine and instead of sending him for a scan they continued to try with increasingly strong painkillers and fucking acupuncture until eventually he realised he had a bit of private health insurance and managed to get a scan within a week and an operation within two weeks.

My grandad had prostate cancer, and a while after he began to have pain in his shoulder. Instead of getting it checked out, they just gave him pills for it and ignored it as normal old people pain. Turns out his whole body was just riddled with cancer and they didn’t notice until he was basically on his deathbed.

Doctors may know more about medicine than the average person, but they don’t know your body and your situation nearly as well as you do. Obviously self referral isn’t appropriate for all situations, but it should be implemented where it’s reasonable.