General Chat

Today, I decided to phone the hospital in Glasgow to see about my Brain scan as its now 6 weeks since the consultant referred me urgently.

I managed to find online all the direct lines to the secretaries and there were about 20. I wrote down 5 and tried my luck.

This lady answered within 3 rings...great I thought! I tried to explain what I wanted and she just kept interrupting me very rudely. All I wanted to know was, has the referral been received, was I on the waiting list and approx how long til I get an appointment.

Well, when I told her my Consultants name who referred me, she said "how on earth would I know him"? Then she confirmed after 5 minutes, yes I was on the list and did I have any clue how big a city Glasgow was???

I said, indeed I do! I just wanted some confirmation so at least I know I was on the list.

Honestly, she was sooo rude and even if she was stressed and under pressure as Im sure many are, its still no reason to be rude and take out your problems on patients. If I had spoken to a bank customer like the way she spoke to me, I would have been given a verbal warning.

Is it just me or has society today lost its manners? Is it a generation thing?
It doesnt seem to matter who I have to phone these days, everyone seems offhanded and not very helpful.

I doubt now if I will get this appointment until the New Year. Considering I woke up with a numb leg in July, I haven't got very far with a proper diagnosis and have just been left.

Florence in the hebrides

Not good is it Florence, there is never an excuse for rudeness but sadly some just don't even seem to realise that they are. I have always found our near hospital staff really good but do know that a friend had problems with the secretary of her consultant at another hospital. I don't see things getting better any time soon either. Waiting list are longer than ever and work loads growing as well.

I don't think it is a generation thing as I know some amazing polite helpful people of all ages and also really unhelpful ones. Just the way they are.

Oh Florence I really feel your frustration, my gp allegedly referred me to a neurologist / rheumatologist, after waiting about a year I decided to go privately, in less than a week I have seen one and have an appointment in January for an MRI scan and i will see the private consultant that I saw that I will be seeing at the local NHS hospital. So all I paid for was the private consolation. (Ouch) £230.

ZZzzz ...........

that difference between NHS and private isn't new!

Back in 1966, I needed to have a D&C because I was having very bad monthly pains. I waited and waited, and finally got a call on a Friday to be in first thing Monday morning.

There were 11 or 12 of us in for the same thing, although for different problems (none was an abortion). It turned out the specialist had a sore throat, couldn't therefore operate, so they called in all the "simple" cases that his Resident could do.

We were in one of the very old wards, with 30 or 40 beds, so we were all commiserating with each other and saying what was wrong.

We were all "done" on the same day, and very ham-fisted the Resident had been, I was in agony for days. BUT the surgeon came in the next morning and gave us all our results.

It turned out I had a cystic ovary, but I was "too young" (mid-20s) to have it removed, and would just have to suffer

.......... what got me though was that he told the woman across from me in a normal voice so I could hear very plainly that she had cancer, and needed a hysterectomy.

If she wanted to stay on his NHS list it would take months, but if she was willing to go private, then he could do it in 3 days time.

I was horrified!

She really had no choice, did she??

The irony here is that the private hospital I went to is one I worked in many years before and some of the surgeons and anaesthetists considered it overtime. :-(

:-( :-(

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