Letting off steam!

[Tenson]

My girlfriend has hyperthyroidism and has been lead a merry dance by the health service about getting some blood test results and the medication she needs.

Finally after weeks of faffing around and having to do the test twice because they cocked up the first one, the results arrived with the GP. I phoned up on my GF's behalf to make an appointment for tomorrow, which I was a few minutes ago told I could do when I knew the results were in. The lady on the phone kept asking me 'does it say it's urgent on the results, or is it routine? I replied I didn't know, but her condition has been getting worse every day and she really needs an appointment.

The receptionist continued to ask me 'yes, but does it say it's urgent on the results'? So I said again that she felt it was urgent.

I was then informed that she can't have an urgent appointment unless it says it's urgent on the paper, despite what I had told her!

As it happens I had just got off the phone to my girlfriend who has had a really bad day and told me she was feeling suicidal earlier on. As you can imagine I got a bit pissed off at that point and said to the receptionist 'she's suicidal, so make a fucking appointment!' and all I got back was 'don't swear at me, I don't have to tolerate that'.

She did finally make an appointment, but I was so amazed at her attitude I went to the office and asked to talk to the manager. I apologized quite genuinely for getting heated and asked for an apology in return for continuing to ask me what a piece of paper says (which was revealed she already had in front of her!) when I already told her its urgent. After trying to blame it on my girlfriend for not telling me what the results said, all I got was 'I apologize if there were mixed purposes'. I asked what that means exactly and was told by the manager to stop acting like a 3 year old or my girlfriend will be removed from the practice list.

I can't believe the bloody obstruction in the way of just making an appointment, and how little they actually listen to what they are being told, except by a piece of paper! If you read all this you are probably sick of 'she said this', 'I said that... but ahhhhh!!! ':inferno:

 

[nando]

that is intolerence on the highiest degree, it happend to my wife and i, i went private as my spine fused from t3 to t6 and the gp and nhs said that is common, time will heal, it is not an urgent matter for us to deal with, needless to say what a piece of my awefull vocavoulary spoke out they showed me out the door, how ever others that could not speak english were given top treatment, mind you my spelling is bad,
nando.

 

[YNMOAN]

I've recently been forced to have some dealings with my GP - 'barely adequate' is the absolute best I could say about them.

 

[Dev]

We had similar experience with our previous family GP and finally decided to change about a couple of years ago. Don't have anything negative to say about our current GP.

Plenty to say about our local hospital though. Last year my wife went to A&E unit a hospital nearby suffering from abdominal pains and after being seen by a couple of consultants was told to take some Paracetemol and was sent home. Next day she collapsed at work and was taken to the same A&E and they found her blood pressure was very low and after leaving her on a drip for a couple of hours they said her blood pressure was normal(ish) and she can go home. Again ignoring her abdominal pain.

A couple of days later, we saw a consultant at a private hospital and he sent my wife to Whipps Cross hospital. Apparently her appendix was about to burst (because it had been left for so long) and the small private hospital wasn't equipped with ICU (in case it burst before/during the operation). She was operated on quickly at Whipps Cross and was able to go home a couple of days later. According to the consultants it was so obviously a case of appendicitis that any doctor should have known what to do within minutes of examination. We were advised to sue our local hospital but decided to be thankful for the fact that she was now OK.

BTW, this wasn't the first time my wife suffered in this way at our local hospital. Similar thing happened a couple of years earlier, I won't go into details, but you get the idea.

 

[la toilette]

Crikey, what awful stories, and although I haven't experienced such extreme situations my local GP surgery is similarly crap. One of the two GP's is a Steve Coogan character I swear, absolutely infuriating, cringeworthy. The booking of appointments seems to be almost impossible unless you're prepared to wait until the arse-end of the day after tomorrow, and suggesting you'd like something sooner makes little difference.

The problem is with swearing at someone though is that they then feel justified in being obstructive, so despite is seeming appropriate you just can't do it and to be fair most people don't react well to it. Frontline staff can have to deal with a lot of stressed out people and quite a bit of bad attitude as well, so maybe it's sometimes difficult for them to differentiate between anxious callers and plain rude or aggressive callers?

 

[Dick Bowman]

[... deleted ...] Frontline staff can have to deal with a lot of stressed out people and quite a bit of bad attitude as well, so maybe it's sometimes difficult for them to differentiate between anxious callers and plain rude or aggressive callers?

I feel that sometimes the frontline staff generate the bad attitude - that the "customers" are only reacting to the incompetence and intransigence that they see before them.

I have no problem whatsoever with the general principles of the NHS (indeed, I think private medicine is unrestrained greed exploiting the vulnerable) - but there does seem to be something wrong with the staffing on the administrative side. I don't think it's just a case of paying peanuts to get monkeys - there seems to be a very strong element of "like recruiting like" followed by training new recruits down to the level of the incumbents.

 

[Tenson]

I plan in future to always go to the one 'walk in centre' in town. I may need to wait over an hour sometimes, but at least the staff there seem pretty competent and you get seen the same day.

There was a very nice doctor at my local GPs, but he recently left without anyone willing to say why.

 

[nando]

simon my private treatment for me and my wife and they are good infact very good, but not chep , although money is not an issue where health is concerned, but she did tried to get my spinal chord get de-fused but due to have being too far gone she did say that there was no more she could do, my problem for let it liger for so long, the chiropractic clinic is in hammersmith, called " THE OCTAGON" ST. Peters road, w6 9db, rachel hodson is her m.c. d.c name,
regards, nando.

 

[hifinutt]

so sad to hear your bad experiences , i visit quite a few Gp practices and hear how the receptionists have to remain plaesant to abusive, impatient patients who often want everything NOW . funny how everything is urgent , they leave their tablets till they run out and then it is urgent !!!!!!!

i suspect the word urgent has lost its meaning due to extensive abuse ,
hope you get the thyroid problems sorted soon

 

[cooky1257]

Sorry to hear of your girlfriend woes.
Getting a quick appointment is always a real pain.
I have found though that the arse end of the day with the graveyard shift junior partners in the practice produces much better service.
Troubled for ages with a chest problem 'my' doctor was very dismissive of was sorted with the correct diagnosis from the off-seems the late shift mob are either eager to impress of too scared to make a mistake.

 

[nando]

well, i hope that somehow we will be treated as such we should," to be persued but i think never attained, unless...........
nando.