To ask why people think it’s okay to abuse NHS staff?

It isn't OK and I see the signs in hospitals. However, in my interractions, I have witnessed hospital staff being far ruder to patients, and sometimes me, than vice versa.

Whilst waiting for 6 hours in A&E a few years ago, I heard a sister and admin rip into an ambulance crew for not registering a patient quickly enough, the crew were waiting for their attention and standing in front of them, a member of the public politely i quired about the remaining wait and was shouted at by reception, two nurses laid into a family for touching something and the F2 I eventually saw was rude and dismissive. It was ugly.

When my son was born 31 years ago I was shouted at twice post natally, once for getting blood on the sheets.

At an ortho/fracture clinic op apt for my dd who was in a wheelchair, I was yelled out by a clinic nurse for not stepping to it quickly enough when dd was called. The wheelchair was caught on vinyl carpet edges. I wasn't rude back but when I asked who she was speaking to I got a barrage. When I asked if she'd like to help me get the chair moving her response was "It's not my job".

Countless registrar apppintments where any other professional adviser would not have been paid due to manner and tone.

To me there seems to be a significant cultural issue whereby all patients are treated the same, like sh1t.

Nowadays I am old and when I encounter it, I call it out but politely.

I would venture that if NHS staff want the public to be unfailingly polite, they deal with issues closer to home.

They’re the same people who are abusive to retail staff and who march down to school to ‘sort that teacher out’.

They probably grew up watching their parents do it. There have always been gobby and abusive people around. I knew kids at school whose mums were like that, whereas mine would have smacked me if I’d been rude to someone.

Actually I think ( nhs worker here ) that being abused for trying to deliver an underfunded public service is not acceptable, speak to the politicians not the staff who have little or no power about waiting lists and times .

i asked a patient recently to remove her jewellery ( safety issue for a scan ) and she said ‘I can but I don’t want to ‘
What do you do with someone like that?

I agree, what is about lockdown that made everyone so shitty? It's far worse now.

Though it’s partly frustration - my experience of the nhs is 50:50 - some excellent some shit - not good enough imv and it’s been like this for years and years and the public are furious that the Gov won’t sort it in case they lose votes - people are angry

But you’re not factoring in that the person you’re talking to has probably phoned 100+ times getting the ‘user busy’ tone, eventually got through, waited for an age on hold listening to awful music repeatedly interrupted by a recorded message thanking them for holding, had their call answered finally only to be told that they’ve been given the wrong number and they have to call a different department. And then had to go through the whole rigmarole again.

By the time their call is answered by the correct person a hour later their blood pressure is stratospheric and they’re not at their calm best. The telephonists should have some understanding of this. Don’t take it personally if someone is rude.

This. NHS doesn’t give you immunity to the general publics shitty behaviour - most people
in a public facing job get it.

I do believe it’s for worse post covid - people seem to want the moon on a stick laid on for them.

Yes -crap behaviour on their part but they are going on into their day angry, bitter, negative - it will possibly shorten their life so try to forget it.
I have a friend who is furious at any,as she sees it, bad driving- I mean who cares if someone speeds and overtakes you - life’s too short to fret over these things

It's getting worse for sure because (partly) the NHS is getting worse, but abuse of NHS staff isn't new. My brother, big chap and takes no nonsense would often be asked for help in his dept in A&E when the drunks and entitled came in started kicking off. This is over a 30+ year career.

I think the behaviour is disgusting, as I do when I hear about ambulance folk and police being attacked more and more. WTF.

It happens because you are accessible to them.

If you are a receptionist then you'll cop for the lot.

If you were a AHP who had their own room to hide in, like I did, it's not so bad. However, I still had to emerge at lunchtimes to go to the canteen. At that time anyone wearing scrubs or any kind of uniform is fair game for some member of Jo Public to vent their spleen on.

A friend of mine used to work on the Council switchboard and she regularly got GBH of the 'earole because callers thought she, personally, was somehow responsible for their bins not being emptied !

It's absolutely not ok under any circumstances to abuse anyone like that - NHS or any poor sod in a public facing role. It doesn't matter how frustrated they are in the system, it's not the person on the phone's fault. There are signs up in NHS premises about no tolerance of abuse and that goes for online or on the phone as well as in person. I'd have just hung up on them.

For some reason the social contract has fallen apart. See also the way people drop litter now, which didn't happen a decade or two ago.

Perhaps it has something to do with late-stage capitalism.
When all the public services are privatised (like electricity and water that people depend on), and the "customer service" from these big corporations is just about non-existent if you have a problem, when the cost of living is insane, when everything is subject to shrinkflation and crapification, when you have to subscribe and pay forever instead of just buying once, when landlords are raking it in because there is no social housing and young people are stuck with parents well into their twenties, when profit is the be-all and end-all of everything, then people feel that 'the system' is abusing them and ripping them off every which way, they no longer feel any social responsibility or duty.

If you are in a customer service role, you are the face of 'the system' that is abusing people.

Some people are just like this- even working in retail I’ve experienced this sort of thing. Angry, aggressive members of the public who love being rude or abusive.

I am guessing they had already been going round in circles - it's what happens with the NHS. They should not have sounded off but I am very aware that the system can be utterly expasperating.

Sadly people get frustrated if they cannot get what they want instantly and you being in the front line so to speak get the anger. It is wrong but hanging on the phone then not getting your query answered came be so annoying does not make it right as abuse is never right

I’ve had the misfortune to be in A and E a few times recently and to be honest everyone waiting was extremely docile and quiet and polite for the many hours we spent sat on a plastic chair in the waiting room.
Obviously there was the odd drunk, but I don’t think their behaviour should be lumped in with that of the general population

No, like knowing you need an appointment because you have been told you need to
be seen now but the next one available is February 2027.

or they are just rude and have the mentality of i want this and i want it now ?

that is the strange thing, its like no paitentance anymore either that or they just want to click fingers and sorted etc

Because people feel forgotten, ignored and not respected by the NHS.

Because they have to beg further appointments and that makes them upset and frustrated.

They shouldn’t be treating staff like you like this, but they also should not be treated by the NHS like something thr cat brought in.

thats what puzzles me, its like people just react how they would around people they know at a guess and then forget about talking with professional people and its like all manners

I don’t condone the patient’s language at all, but your lack of comprehension here suggests that maybe OP, you WERE getting the wrong end of the stick and he got very frustrated