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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think staff should LOUDLY call out names in a waiting room?

56 replies

Anticyclone · 27/10/2014 13:30

AIBU to think that if you are the staff member calling out the name of the next person in a waiting room situation, you should call out loudly?

The number of times I've seen a staff member come into a busy waiting room environment with lots of people talking, and literally whisper the name of the next person. Then they start looking around the room accusingly as there is no response and they are forced to shout louder until eventually you hear your name. You then get a dirty look for not hearing the first time!

Please speak loudly and clearly the first time staff members!

OP posts:
Venticoffeecup · 27/10/2014 13:31

Yes it's frustrating. I find it hard to hear when there is a lot of noise around, so I don't like it when people do that.

I like those GP surgeries which have an electronic notice board that tells you when it's your turn, a bit like Argos but for people.

nemno · 27/10/2014 13:37

I hate watching this. Most recently in my dad's oncology clinic where there are 2 waiting sections and the nurse only called out softly in one of the rooms before giving up. It's not like the wait isn't long and there are loads of older folk who might have hearing difficulties or be in the loo. Like cancer isn't bad enough without appointments being even longer than necessary.

AmserGwin · 27/10/2014 13:38

Yanbu why do they always do this?

marmaladegranny · 27/10/2014 13:40

Patient confidentiality??? Or maybe concern that they are not pronouncing name correctly…..

LineRunner · 27/10/2014 13:43

I prefer Argos for People.

ovenchips · 27/10/2014 13:44

YANBU. I appreciate it may not come naturally to them if they are not comfortable 'public speaking' as it were. But they really do need to say it loudly enough for everyone in that room to hear.

TzuByTwo · 27/10/2014 13:50

My husband and I were saying the same thing the other day as we sat in a hospital waiting room. One of the staff who came out was so quiet, most people didn't realize she had even spoken at all. By the third time she called the name, she was speaking at around the level others in the room were chatting among themselves, and she was starting to look rather cross. With people waiting for three different clinics all in the one space, you would think they at least would try to be loud and clear enough to be heard and understood.

Gileswithachainsaw · 27/10/2014 13:53

Yanbu

I swear it's a game at my drs. You can barely hear them

ElephantsNeverForgive · 27/10/2014 14:04

YANBU
Our DCs play area is off to the side and I used to dread either missing my name completely or miss hearing which room to go to and walking in on some poor woman having a smear.

bodhranbae · 27/10/2014 14:07

YANBU - a major bugbear of mine. My poor dad has 2 hearing aids and can never hear them - it really panics him that he'll miss his appt.

And they also look down and mutter towards the floor which is no good for people who are lip reading to cope with hearing loss.

Stand clearly in view of the room and speak up!

SirChenjin · 27/10/2014 14:07

YANBU

I'm partially deaf, and struggle to hear over a noisy waiting room. Although I do notify the receptionist the message often doesn't get passed on. I remember one midwife who thought it was very funny that I didn't hear because I was "too engrossed" in my magazine. I told her that I was a bit deaf, but she continued to insist it was because I was "too engrossed" Hmm

QuillPen · 27/10/2014 14:09

I hate this too. I was waiting in the ENT department (with lots of people who were waiting for hearing aid fittings...) and the lady muttered out a name. I thought she had said my name and followed her. Turned out she had called someone else- I had misheard and the the other lady hadn't heard at all! Embarrassing.

Of all the places where there is a need to loudly and clearly call out a name, it is an ENT department!

manchestermummy · 27/10/2014 14:11

YANBU. Ours has a pa system but if the person mumbles you've no chance. I was once told off for burying what I had just heard in case it was me . "The Dr will call you now take a seat" was all the receptionist kept on saying. No matter how I asked her if it was me who had been called, she just yelled at me to sit. So I did. Eventually a cross looking nurse came out and called me. Cue dirty looks all round.

The nurses use different treatment rooms so the receptionist really could have helped me out but no.

ginnybag · 27/10/2014 14:13

Agreed.

Could we get a movement started to get them all to use those vibrating things they have at restaurants? At least then you'd know it was your attention they were trying to get.

If someone could make them so they'd flash a room number, that would be even better!

T'would resolve the data-protection issue that is yelling someone's name, too! :-)

bodhranbae · 27/10/2014 14:17

Or what about the ticket system that they have at supermarket deli counters? Grin

HappyAgainOneDay · 27/10/2014 14:19

This happened to me in the Fracture Clinic earlier this year. Most of the nurses called out the names reasonably loudly but one didn't. I mentioned it after I had been called (by someone else) and was told that it was the quiet one's first day and she would be told to raise her voice now. If people (patients) don't mention it at the time, nothing will improve. If you forget to mention it at the time, write a letter to the Head of Department.

I have to do things at the time because I forget ......

plecofjustice · 27/10/2014 14:20

I hate them reading out my name at all. It's such an invasion of privacy and questionable under DP legislation. I want a number, and when the number is called and shown on an LED board, you get up and go.

zipzap · 27/10/2014 14:21

I was once waiting for a hospital appointment - I'd signed in at the desk and was sitting in the waiting area reading a book. Thought they were taking a long time to call my name but have been to enough appointments that have run very late that I just assumed they were overrunning again.
They finally came out of the consulting room and said to me that as I'd missed my appointment it was too late to have it now so I was very Shock I've been waiting here since 15 mins before my appointment times. Turns out the previous person was a no show - so they had been waiting and chatting and had assumed they would hear me when I arrived. They hadn't and as I was alone and reading plus not supposed to make phone calls, I was quiet once there.
I'd even been to the desk to see how much they were over-running by and they hadn't spotted a problem or thought to ring the room either. They hadn't even been out to call my name Angry - you'd have thought they would have thought that just occasionally their waiting room will be quiet but have people or a person in it!

And I can guess why the person before me missed their appointment - I had missed my previous appointment too as the letter informing me that I had missed my appointment (sent first class, direct from consultant's secretary) arrived before the letter with the appointment details (sent second class, through the hospital internal mail, through the hospital post room and who know where else). Bonkers. If they want me to attend an appointment, especially if it's being organised at short notice, then they need to make sure the system notifies me of the appointment before it happens, not afterwards!

SirChenjin · 27/10/2014 14:22

But how can you catch up on your sleb gossip from Heat, March 2009, if you have to watch an LED board? You can't, that's how. You'd have a room full of patients who have missed their slot and it would be utter carnage, I tell you, carnage

ZivaMcGee · 27/10/2014 14:27

We aren't allowed to use names where I work (and it's drop in so no appointments). We have to rely on clues from the supervisors/receptionists as to "your client is the lady in the corner/the man with the long hair/the one with all the kids" and trust that when we go in and ask whose next they'll be honest.

Minisoksmakehardwork · 27/10/2014 14:28

Yanbu. Our surgery has a pharmacy as we're rural. But it's so small and cramped that once you've handed your script in, you're better waiting outside in the corridor so others can queue. Especially when like me you have a double pushchair. They encourage it.

Then you have to contend with the constant opening and closing of the auto door to surgery, people catching up with neighbours while they wait and so on. You're about as far from the person calling as it's possible to get.

I did end up complaining to the pharmacy manager when I realised the three or four people behind me in the queue all got their scripts before me because I hadn't been able to hear my name called over general comings and goings. The manager said I had as much right to wait in the pharmacy as anyone else, even with the double pushchair. Although the callers did soon buck their ideas up when I did wait in the pharmacy and took up the entire space with the pushchair. Especially after I was asked to make way for other people (politely) and I equally politely pointed out the reason I was there was because I couldn't hear them calling my name from outside.

Now they've out one of those screens up outside which effectively blocks sound. But their seating is the wrong side of it...

WobbilyFang · 27/10/2014 14:31

Our LED screen makes an offensive beep every time a name comes up.

ipswichwitch · 27/10/2014 14:33

It infuriates me too, and I work in healthcare! I tend to bellow a bit when I call people, since most of our clients are older and a large proportion are hard of hearing, plus our waiting room can get a bit noisy. I actually got told off once, however, when the lady I called in said "there's no need to shout!"

SauvignonBlanche · 27/10/2014 14:36

YANBU I'm deaf and this drives me nuts! I agree with a PP that the worst place ever was in an ENT clinic.

The hospital I'm going to tomorrow has a large screen which flashes up your name and the room number, it's great but when you have to go for a scan the radiographer just mutters. When I couldn't tell what she said I assumed she'd repeat it but no, she went away and I had to go over to the desk to discover that it was me she'd called.

Mascaramascara1 · 27/10/2014 14:39

True story from a couple of years ago:

I was sitting in the waiting room of the local health clinic (waiting for a smear test). Nurse appears - 'Mr Smith please'. No answer. Louder - Mr Smith PLEASE'. Still no one responds so off she goes. Then returns 2 minutes later and calls for Mr Smith one more time before calling her next patient.

10 minutes late a very elderly man goes to the desk to (loudly) complain that he's still waiting. Name? Mr Smith.

So the nurse reappears and gives him a ticking off, and is very obviously cross, telling him she called him 3 times and he's missed his appointment with the Dr, while he stands and stares at her blankly.

When she stops, he shouts at her 'I haven't got a bloody clue what you're shouting at me you stupid old bat. Just run along and tell Dr Parsons I'm here to collect my hearing aids, I've not got all day!'

The waiting room pretty much dissolved into giggles and the nurse turned and went to the Drs room without a word Grin