Dr. Marco A Banda, MD

Clearly doesn't have a clue. Misdiagnosed a tooth/dental infection as an ear infection and prescribed inappropriate medications for treatment. Has a habit of taking long vacations without warning. My girlfriend has chronic back pain problems and needs his written prescription to refill every month - every month is like pulling teeth because he's either on vacation again or just not on top of it. She's gone to both the ER and urgent care for morphine withdrawal because of this. He recently switched her to fentanyl patches, which was swell until the other day he refused to fill the prescription one day early. That is insane, since the patches last three days each, and she got ten. That's 30 days, which is how long they were supposed to last. However, one of them kept coming unstuck so she replaced it one day early. So he wouldn't refill on day 30, and while she didn't go into full withdrawal, she was feeling pretty bad that day (she was able to knock herself out with sleeping… pills because being awake was uncomfortable). This news was delivered by his incompetent assistant, Maria, and when we argued with her she basically said "oh well". I had unkind words for her.This is independent of the time when I noticed we missed a call from his office, I called the number on the caller ID and when I started talking he said "No no! Wrong number!", even though it was obviously him - he has a very distinct and recognizable accent. While I understand if it's a policy that they don't take direct calls, he could have told me that instead of acting so childish.Every single person I've talked to about him who recognized his name had a very negative opinion of him.The best thing he has ever done for us is give my girlfriend a referral to pain management, AFTER a nurse suggested to ask him because of poor upkeep on her case, and once she's able to have a couple of appointments within that system, she's switching doctors. I wouldn't recommend this guy if he was the last physician on the planet and he was pointing a gun to my head. You'll have better luck getting an accurate diagnosis from a mechanic or librarian.