Randy Quinlan of Holyrood, N.L., collects the kidney stones that he passes in plastic containers to illustrate just how serious his condition is. (CBC)

A kidney-stone sufferer alleges he has been mistreated by doctors in St. John's who suggest he's exaggerating his problem to get pain-killing drugs.

Randy Quinlan says he passes kidney stones at least once a month but he says some hospital doctors think it's a scam, and leave him to suffer without pain medication.

"My treatment has gone to nothing and I don't think I can continue to do it on my own. Sometimes its just too much pain," Quinlan said.

Quinlan has saved over a years worth of kidney stones. Enough to fill a dozen small jars, some stones are the size of a grain of sand, but others are as large as an apple seed and jagged like broken glass.

He says he started the collection after some doctors began to doubt that he was in pain.

For years, Quinlan has been going to the Health Science Centre in St. John's for treatment. He never had a problem until the oxycodone epidemic hit the streets.

Quinlan says he noticed a shift after Dr. Sean Buckingham was convicted on drug trafficking and sexual assault charges in 2007. Buckingham traded pain-killing drugs, such as Oxycontin and Percocet, for sex.

"I noticed after Buckingham had his scandal, that it was like policy changed at the hospital," said Quinlan.

He says a doctor once told him his jars of kidney stones could be jars of driveway gravel.

"It's so hard when a nurse comes in who knows you, and she looks at you with her sad eyes and says, 'He's not going to come in and see you,'" Quinlan said.