To walk out the hospital before seeing the consultant

i lost my grandson in december ,cot death busy friday night a and e ,lgi ,and staff were so busy usual friday night and everyone of staff were brill,i mean bloody brill,my parents in seventies went next day in their seventies and even they commented how brill they were looked after,one nurse walked over to where grandson was and carried him to my parents as mum bad on legs,fantastic care i will never forget

Not unreasonable. I work in the NHS too and have had enough of seeing patients treated badly, and your treatment is just downright unacceptable. I've been on the receiving end too, kept waiting 6 hours once for a doctor to sign my prescription so I could go home. Which is why I am on the point of leaving to go and work outside the NHS, because I will then have the time to actually care for people. Ok, so it'll be the ones that can pay for it, but that's another argument for another thread

The fact that there might have been an emergency in this case that required the nurse's attention is pure speculation. You could just as easily speculate that the nurse decided to go for a fag break couldn't you?

There are guidelines in breast care about maintaining patient's dignity. Anyone could have walked in on you.

I would have done exactly the same as you, only would have made a bit more fuss on my way out the door

GOOD FOR YOU. If more people started behaving like customers instead of patients, the NHS would buck it's ideas up a hell of a lot quicker

I think you are being a bit unreasonable its unlikely that the staff were sat about, they were likely to be dealing with emergencies or patients who are very upset and from experience that is not something you can just walk away from BUT there are a few things that I would like to say;
I think its a bit dehunamising to ask a patient to remove any of their clothes and then leave the room so wouldnt ask a patient to do it and as a patient I wouldnt do it.
Also it must have been really stressful for you anyway without the additional stress and tension of having to wait so long past your appointment time with no information as to what is happening until you asked

I hope when you go bck for your results everything goes well for you

One of our surgeons was off sick last week. 3 people on our ward has operations cancelled. One woman went ballistic about it, how it affected her life, how useless we were. Became verbally abusive and aggressive. Well, she got 'fitted in'. The other two had to come back 2 weeks later.

Haven't read the full thread but have to put my tuppence in.

When heavily PG i went to docs for the final MW check and waited over an hour to be seen, when i asked what the wait was it turned out that no-one had noticed that the MW hadn't turned up for work that day. A room full of PG women should have given it away

Also went to see doc for something else (draggin along ds (2) was told there was no wait and I was next one in, 1/2 an hour later i was still waiting only to be told that the doc was upstairs in a new consulting room. went updstairs with a now tired and hungry ds, waited 15 minutes more, my name was called and someone else went in instead and was allowed to be seen first.

So, no it's not always because of an emergency, though of course this does happen. Have also had to wait when a patient went into cardiac arrest too, and have no prob with this.

I don't think you're unreasonable to feel p*ssed off at finding yourself in this situation.

However I do think you need to understand that unexpected things happen in the NHS all the time meaning that sometimes unfortunately patients are left waiting without being able to give them an explanation.

I am a doctor working in a breast unit and I have to say I dislike the practice of getting patients to undress before seeing the doctor. It hardly takes anytime to take your top off after all and I think its courtesy to say hello while they're still dressed! It is quicker though so if they were running late it might be that they were trying to save time.

I would also always apologise to any patient that had waited longer than half an hour - they might well have done so if you had waited to be seen. However when I go for an appointment myself I always make sure that I am prepared to stay a couple of hours past my appointment time - its common for clinics to run late and also common to arrange tests to be done while you are there (esp in a breast clinic)

The important thing now though is that you get another appointment. The easiest way to do this is probably to call your consultants secretary first thing on Monday and explain why you left and ask for a new appointment. Hopefully they will be understanding and sort you out.

i agree on all fronts here, you should have been better informed about what was going on, but you shouldn't have left!

a complaint is much better dealt with at the time rather than being left for you to mull it over... now your letter of complaint will waste even more time while they investigate this. if you had spoken to someone their they could have resolved this easily.

i can't help but feel your the only one who has lost out in this situation really.

goodluck with your results.

I hope you don't think this is flippant (I do realise yours was a much different situation) but I had a similar experience at an antenatal clinic. After waiting ages in the waiting room finally called through to see consultant but waited and waited and no-one came. When the consultant finally arrived she found me curled up asleep on the examination couch!

Message withdrawn

I actually do think you are being a bit unreasonable

you had your DD collected, so no worries there

I do agree you should not have been asked to strip until after the doctor had arrived, but you should have stayed, now you have the stress of going back again, what if your appointment is delayed again?

i hope that your results are ok though

I do think walking out was unreasonable. They will have ended up wasting time looking for you, now they will have to squeeze you into another already fully booked clinic, making that one run late.

The nurse asked you to undress on the assumption the consultant would be there soon. If the consultant was held up it would more than likely be because of a difficult/traumatic/terminal case. So slip your top back on and gently remind someone you are there.

Imagine you were the one being given bad results. Would you want the consultant to say sorry but there is nothing we can do, have to go now there are other half dressed women waiting for me. No, you would want him to take time to talk to you / reassure you/ help you / answer your questions.

I have been through NHS breast clinics on 4 different occasions over the past 8 years - yes the waiting is a pain, but at the end of the day I put up with it because it is my health on the line.

I would have waited a) because I would have wanted the results that day, and b) because if I left I might have to go through all that waiting again.

As someone who has managed admin teams in the NHS could I just say that the receptionists are very often left in the dark about what is happenning and why doctors/clinical staff are running late. We've had situations where we've had patients waiting and we don't have a clue where the clinician is and can't get hold of them.

(it is the first time I have used the nhs for a long time other than gp, tbh I was rather shocked by how appalling it was)

omg

this was me yesterday

I waited an hour to be seen then asked and they said I was 10th!! So I told them I would have to re-book as I had to get back for dd

They bunked me up the list and saw me immediately though

A little unreasonable...

I saw a GP yesterday - he took me in late, and I was with him for probably half an hour, and when I went to pay, the receptionist told me that the guy who had booked in after me had stormed out because he had had to wait too long.

I was stunned, that was so not my problem, I didn't care, and I told her so too (what did she expect me to do? Pay for the "missed" appointment?).

I wouldn't have walked out, but I would have tried to find the consultant myself!

Hope you get CLEAR results soon,

I haven't done any time in outpatients but don't they give the patients a gown to wear while they are undressed and waiting? if not then why not?

I understand why the OP was distressed and I think what happened to her was shitty but there are far worse things that can happen.

Going to the doctors is intimidating and if you are waiting to hear about the results of a mammogram that just add to the intimidation factor (my opinion). I think many doctor's offices can do with a little better bedside manner. That being said, I probably wouldn't have left because then all that time was wasted.

Well I hope everything turns out okay with mamm.

YANBU.

Politeness costs nothing, treating fellow humans with dignity and respect is not too much to ask, no matter how busy you are.

YANBU, what happened at your appointment was out of order.
I am also a nurse by the way and there is no excuse for what happened you.

Please re-schedule your appointment, just say you had to leave as u got an urgent phonecall or something.

Regards

Lou

Yes, I agree - leaving Stripey undressed like that was unneccesary and humiliating.

Anoah, the point is that she was left humiliatingly undressed when this was totally unecessary.

I am sure it was that 'exposed' waiting that made her so much more nervous that she went; otherwise it would have been much like waiting in the waiting room!

Frontline staff sometimes have to take the flack, if they make the problem, to be honest.

The nurse shouldn't have made the patient undress and wait. And she should get a more professional tone - 'back in five minutes' should be replaced with 'I will bring the consultant as soon as she/he is free'.

Neither of those things cost money or are to do with the management!

Totally unreasonable although I do sympathise with your frustration. It is important that you are seen and these clinics often run late due to unforeseen circumstances. A consultants time is very valuable as they are over stretched I know of many that work 80+ hrs a week. Now you will have to be slotted in and another clinic will be running late.

Stripey - it sounds very anxiety-inducing, and a v stressful afternoon.
Unfortinately, though, you will now have to wait for another appt, and probably waste some more tme in the waitng rom.

Take a deep breath, and if that happens again, before you get really upset, go and ask how long they will be, and tell the receptionist if you need to leave to meet a responsibility.

Don't just stomp off - it's cutting off yur nose to spite yourself.

But heaven knows -i've done that myself under stress! And i agree - it's the communication that is so lacking.

People do expect too much of doctors and nurses, if only they knew about the shortage of personel all over! And about the never endin complaints of everyone towards something they are not responsible for!!!

Firstly I would like to say that I hope all is well with your results.
Secondly, I agree communication could have been better but totally disagree with your actions. That was completely selfish and shows no regard for all the people who wait around for hours on end in a very overstretched nhs hospitals.
Sometimes in life you have to wait!
All you had to do was slip your garment back on and go remind someone that you were there.
Someone else is waiting for the time you wasted.