Rude dinner lady in hospital

[fedup78]

I’ve been in hospital this past week undergoing some gruelling treatment, which has been very taxing both physically and psychologically.

This morning a dinner lady comes round, knocks on the door and shouts “breakfast trolley”. I said thanks and then she goes, “Oh my god, what do you want”. I ask for tea and toast, which she brings in, then goes, “Do you walk?”

I said that I can walk but not particularly easily - plus I’m not meant to be lifting things.

She then shrugged and said if I can move my legs I should come and get the breakfast myself. I apologised and said that nobody has told me this since I arrived - they’ve always just brought it into the room, so how would I know?

I then asked her to take away a smelly plate of half eaten dinner that has been in the room since yesterday afternoon and she said she’ll collect it when she’s done serving breakfast.

I’m feeling really fragile as it is without having to contend with rude dinner ladies giving me grief. The food is grim anyway (and they often miss my room altogether) so I’m not especially bothered if I don’t eat.

AIBU to think there’s no need for her attitude and that a little bit of kindness goes a long way?

Also a jug of water is heavy, she's been told not to carry kettles because they're heavy

I sincerely hope some people on this thread don't work in a position which requires kindness..

I've had the absolute opposite of this from, well actually to this day I don't know what her roll was, she brought snacks and sat and chatted to patients without visitors, when I had my youngest. She was also the one who told the midwife off for not moving me to the labour suite when I was clearly in advanced labour. She was... A bloody angel. And to this day, whenever we're buying brownies DH and I have a giggle "go on, have a brownie. You deserve it." Cause she kept saying it to me, even paused half way through when I had a contraction. She was flipping amazing.

Conversely I've had the exact opposite where one made me cry. Normally I'd just ignore it, but if you're ill and vulnerable and feeling discombobulated anyway, the smallest thing can trigger it.

In our local hospital there has been some confusion over what ward hosts and hostesses can and cannot do at the moment due to the current pandemic, all patients coming into our ward are treated as potentially covid positive and go into a single room, anyone entering the room must wear ppe which must be removed at the door before leaving the room, this caused massive problems for the hostesses because food was getting cold before they could get it to all the patients so it was decided that they would leave the food outside the door and HCW/HCP (more of them so they could do it quicker) would then take it into the rooms. That has all changed again now and the hostesses are back to taking food in, they cannot collect dirty crockery at the same time as giving out meals due to potential cross contamination, water jugs and glasses are changed 3 times per day and if the patients need more water they ask for it or if anyone See's an empty jug they will take it to the ward kitchen and ask for a refill.

Currently it takes 5 trips around the ward to do lunch service, starter, main meal, dessert, tea/coffee, water jugs and glasses. There are extra staff because of the extra work involved with having to take all meals to the patients instead of the majority of patients eating in the dining room.

There is no excuse for poor communication, please ask for clarification.

@fedup1978 hope you're doing a bit better today

Just to add, while one hostess is giving out food, tea/coffee, jugs and glasses another is collecting dirty crockery, cups, jugs and glasses on a separate trolley.

No food or crockery should be left overnight, if for some reason it can't be collected by the hostesses it should be removed by a HCW/HCP.

She was really rude. She could have explained she wanted you to go to the trolley in a much kinder way and still got the same message across. "Morning. Do u want breakfast? Aww perfect we have tea and toast. Can u walk? Would u mind coming to get it off then trolley it's just in the corridor. Enjoy. Sorry about the plate being left will get it asap." I would complain. She needs to be told not to treat people like that. Its not hard to be kind. Dont take it personally it's her attitude that's the problem and nothing u could have did differently.