Pet peeves -Hospital appointment

[Brcelona9]

Anyone else have pet peeves? This is mine.

Do people read their letters from the hospital? I work on main reception and everyone comes up to me and says 'hi I have an appointment today' (yeah so does half the people here) I ask 'ok which service are you seeing'.... 'I don't know?' (How can you not know what you have an appointment for) so I ask 'ok isit for a blood test? contraception? Podiatry? Fertility? Ultrasound? Health visitor"..... 'oh I don't know I have a letter' they hand me the letter and its written in bold! It drives me insane!!

Anyone else have a pet peeve?

People who don’t indicate. I walk home from work and the number of cars that turn in to roads I need to cross with no warning astonishes me.

[also - i think medical receptionists do a tough job and have interacted with some great ones. Someone helped me find my dad who had unexpectedly switched wards in a massive hospital and I was eternally grateful]

Wow - some pretty nasty/snarky replies to the OP. I have had to go to appointments at several different hospitals and departments either for myself, or my family, and have never had no idea which area to go to. It's always plainly written on the letter.

As for my own pet peeve, not an original one, but why on earth do people park right next to other cars when a car park is almost empty? Then the driver and passengers have to really carefully open the doors and struggle to get out without bumping the cars next to them. Makes no sense to me!

People who ask me if I have an earlier appointment time than the one I've given them. If I did I would have given it.

Have had quite a few blood tests in the last year. So take my ticket, sit down, take my coat/cardie off so I have my arms available for the phlebotomists.

But the amount of people who only take off their 10 layers when they are in the phlebotomists room astounds me. Hospitals are always hothouses anyway.

And they have the cheek to complain about how long they have to wait.

One of the PolyClinics I work in (quite new)

I would get people knocking on my door and walking in saying "Is this room 12"? when there's a sign on the top of the door (for Fire Regs) and on the wall at eye level stating Room 20 .

Oh the temptation t say "Is this room 12 ? Hmmmm. If only there was a way to find out" pointing at the sign (I don't BTW)

Other niggle is people seeing me ( in white tunic) and assuming I know where every dept is , when they open, are they open, if not why not .
That's what the Info Desk is for , though I'm getting good and can escort people to where they need to be.

And they are given a form to fill in, which they will deny ever having. So I ask "How did you make the appointment"?
"oh I phoned , I was sent a letter , here it is..." with the completely blank form attached .

Has anything changed with your tablets/medication or health?

Yes, but they don't remember the tablet . "I've never been asked this before "

They are asked every visit and it is documented .

Well my latest hospital appointment with ds says "paediatric team".
So I wouldn't actually know which of his team I was seeing except for the fact the other 2 are at different hospitals!

Maybe they're confused, ill, embarrassed, don't want to read the condition out loud, can't pronounce it, have bad literacy (lots of adults can't read!), worried etc. Have a bit of empathy or don't work in a hospital which is usually full of people who are sick or in pain.

the amount of people who only take off their 10 layers when they are in the phlebotomists room astounds me. Hospitals are always hothouses anyway.

Obviously not always be the case, but when I was having chemotherapy and had to have hundreds of blood tests, I really felt the cold as a result of the drugs was on and spent most of the year wrapped up like I was heading off to the Arctic!

We have just had 2 random dental appointments for ds with no information on them at all. Glad I phoned to find out as one of them he wasn't supposed to be at, (just dh and I) and the other was for an x-ray in a completely different building!

Snooty receptionists in hospitals and gp surgeries. I've overheard many in our surgery talking to patients like their stupid. It's not acceptable.

Sorry OP but you really shouldn't be working in a hospital if you feel this way. It may seem very straightforward to you but to a patient it can be overwhelming. Please have some empathy!

One hospital clinic's wonderful habit of sending you out an appointment for your child during the day - fair enough, arrange leave from work, childcare for other children, time out of school etc... and about 95% of the time you'll get a letter in the post the day before or morning of the appointment rearranging it for you... for the following bloody day!

It's got to the point now where I send messages to school with "she's down for X clinic on Y date - it'll never happen then - assume the day after as a starting point"

I hear you OP it can be annoying. For me well off people demanding paracetamol and foot creams on prescription because "I've paid my stamp".

Agree with the posters who say being a patient/being with a patient can be overwhelming. So sense and rational thinking leaves you.
Being in the system is scary, even being in a hospital building is. You are apprehensive about the appointment, what you might be told, what tests you might have to have. Once there you lose your autonomy and when undressed your identity.
For us, the general public, it is totally alien and I think that staff (because it is their day to day familiar environment) sometimes forget or don't appreciate this.
As an example, DM recently had outpatient clinic appointment. As part of this she had to have a test whilst there. I nipped to the loo, went to find her and found her weeping. Asked why, she showed me the test request card and across the top was written TCI. Mum had decided this meant Terminal Cancer Identified.
Bizarre I know, but cancer is her biggest fear and she is 90.
Asked HCP what TCI stood for, "oh, that" she said airily, that means To Come In (mum was being admitted as day case later in the month).

I've recently been referred to the MH team as I'm being assessed for ADHD ( at 41! ) and my appointment is for 8.30am tomorrow- yes that's right, 8.30 on a Sunday morning. Bloody good job I have insomnia and am up before the birds

Oh and when they approach the desk they might not want to announce what they are there for , if it is personal, so they push the letter at you.

Though in my case , I have people telling me in extreme detail why they are there (I'm thinking Whoah T.M.I. ) not my department and I do not need to know this .

Much develop a Bitchy Resting Face that says "Clear Off , "

I am a nurse, I am also a patient. Whilst I wish my cancer had never occurred it has, amongst other unexpected gifts, given me a valuable insight as to what it is like to be a patient. I always tried to remember and keep in mind, both when I was practicing clinically and in my current safety governance role, how vulnerable you are as a patient, how scary, confusing and intimidating it can be to be. I have taken the time to show lost patients the way to their appointments, explained things with patience that might seem obvious to me because what is everyday to me as a nurse is not everyday when you are the patient.

One of the most valuable reminders to me during my patient journey is that if I as a senior, experienced, healthcare professional find it hard to ask, challenge and advocate for myself how nearly impossible it can be for patients without my experience. It might be the thousandth time that week that you have been asked that seemingly obvious question but I pretty much guarantee it is the first time that patient or family member has asked you. As frustrating as it is, remember, for that patient you are the face and window of the emotional support they might expect from the health service. What window would you want to see?

Or get a job you are better suited to?

I work with the public and wonder how some actually manage to cope some days

I've got news for you. Some of them don't.

Thanks SisyphusDad, I know you mean well.
I would have to raise a call with IT to try to get something like that installed on my work computer. If IT gave approval, this could take weeks to get installed when the form probably should go back to HR within 2 days of receipt. I can't face it.

8 months later my desktop poota will get suddenly replaced & all my work software need reinstalling, never mind little odd job apps.

DH's company has helped develop a free pdf-form filler, I may use that in future, but it still requires logins, uploads, downloads & other faff.

2 more peeves.
People in town all waiting at same cash machine when there are 3 others within 5 minute walk. I was depositing cheque to my bank or I would have walked to any other.

People who crowd around the nearest train door & barely let ppl disembark (WTF?). Especially if it's the only door that cyclists can use & I have to wait for everyone to disembark, embark, and finally I get on. The other train doors will have zero Q for a good 60 seconds before I finally get on. I don't have a choice but to wait for all the people who could use any door but choose to crowd around the nearest one. I make a point, when I'm without bike, of using the least busy train door/turnstile etc.

Just screen grab the page of the pdf you need to sign. Open it in paint or word, insert a text box and write your name in it.

Hospitals who make their appt times very broad. The maternity outpatients unit I went to in both pgs had appointment times of 9am, 12 noon or 3pm. They give each time to about 20 women. You’d get seen at any time in that 3 hour window. I get that you can’t predict how long each patient will take, but that’s ridiculous, particularly if you’ve got a child with you, or have taken time away from work (I know your employer has to let you go to antenatal care...).

People who claim they have phobias when they don't. I have a friend with a needle phobia, a proper one.

I've been to many appointments where she says this and the phlebotomist has said, "it's OK i won't hurt you" not knowing that that's not the problem and not waning me i the room (I understand often there isn't much room).

Friend often faints, her blood pressure drops and she is brought round covered in a space blanket with a few NHS staff around her.

I do love my GP's reception staff, over the years I have taken them cake, prosecco and some of the vouchers I won on here.

Appointments where you’re kept waiting and no one gives you any updates. I went for my 20 week scan a month or so ago. Left work, appointment at 11. Got there on time to be told sonographer is running late. Fair enough.

But by 1230 I hadn’t been seen. The receptionists closed the department so they could have lunch. I asked whether I could go and they could call me? Nope. Couldn’t do this. You’ll just “have to” wait. I waited with no info when I asked until 330. Missed almost a whole day of work. I know I’m allowed to go to appointments etc but it felt like taking the piss a bit.

@AnnaMagnani yes, we do have a book to sign in patients own CD's. But we aren't allowed to use them on the ward. We have to then order more as ward stock. Our CD cupboard is full to bursting drugs that are going to go to waste.