to wonder why consultants have a reputation of being so rude???

[staydazzling]

Been in hospital a few days, nurses, midwifes, auxiliary, care staff all very keen to do their best in hard circumstances always trying to help, largely on time etc, I sadly couldn't say the same for the consultants /surgeons sadly not just in terms of taking literally hours to turn but also how i saw them speak to said, nurses, midwifes, care staff etc and patients.
I jokingly mentioned this to a relative who works cleaning and sterlising equipment, who said yes its well known sadly, your lucky if any move or say thank you for returned equipment, i just wondered why is this a thing, AIBU to wonder where did that culture of behaviour come from?

Most are nice, but some are rude and arrogant IME.

I'm a nurse, the consultant on my team is lovely and very approachable. Joins in with banter in the team and comes on nights out. Junior doctors we've however, rude, condescending, arrogant individuals.

It may be a misfortune as regards my health, but I have been treated by quite a large number of medical consultants, some over the years are now very well known. They are not always terribly punctual (unless you are seeing them privately!) but never rude or abrupt. I have found them courteous and knowledgeable, and vital in getting one the right treatment with the right people. I count myself very lucky in having met them.

As regards how they may treat staff around them, because I have also been involved with many of these staff, I can only say they are greatly respected and liked.
But maybe this is because I am a patient at a large London teaching hospital, and centre of excellence, I don't know.

Most consultants I've had at hospital have been great. I've found they were the best at understanding the question that I wasn't asking and then answering it (although registrars are pretty good too). More junior doctors and nurses just answered the question, which meant that if the question wasn't perfect, you got an unhelpful answer.

However, I had the misfortune of meeting one who was the most passive aggressive creature I've ever met. She didn't talk to me, just talked to the nurse about something the junior doctor did before I arrived and it was skin-crawling passive aggressive.

The junior doctor had dripped water on the floor while washing her hands, apparently. So the consultant decided the best way to approach this was to say to the nurse, "What's this?" while waving her hand vaguely at the sink. "Err" said the nurse (because yeah, WTF is the consultant on about). "Dr X shouldn't build swimming pools in the ward" "Oh, ok". Fuck me, I felt like telling the consultant to USE HER WORDS next time.

@DougRossIsTheBoss "I do try to wash up my own tea mug etc because I am not an arsehole but it's true other people make tea for me more than I do for them. Again this is a resource issue. There is a lot of stuff I can do that literally no-one else can. It makes sense for me to be doing that and not washing up. I am very expensive to be deployed washing up or fetching things.
This is especially so if we are busy."

This! Absolute claptrap, delusional & stereotypical behaviour, nobody is that busy that they cannot buy a teasmaid, for example, use a flask, or indeed, wash their own feckin mug...

Surgeons...they are all weird..they chop oriole up for a living and love it.

Consultants...my son is severely disabled and we come in contact with lots of them....Ususlly they are lovely....its the overworked Reg who is usually the arsehole!!! And they are shit at putting in cannula.
On day 9 in hospital with DS at the moment ....Addenbrookes...shit...filthy....shit

@OnlytheStrawberrySweets

I've never found this. My DD has a lovely consultant for a condition she has, always takes time to explain things to DD, takes an interest in her, asked her what she wanted for Christmas etc. Thanks me for keeping treatment on track as well.

There’s a difference between how a consultant treats the patient, and how they treat staff, which also happens in lots of other occupations as well

The ones I have are incredible

Haematology - will fight for me constantly, isn't at my local hospital but I was missing off the shielding list. He got me a shielding letter and a supermarket delivery slot in a day (I hadn't been able to get food delivered for 6 weeks) and sent a box of food to me that day. Will do any blood test despite how random/expensive and writes me supporting letters for anything I need

Neurosurgeon - looked me in the eye and said "you poor woman, that must be agony" and then spent 5hrs fixing my cauda equina. Said I was wilful and stubborn and has a photo of me on his pinboard of me riding my horse 10 weeks post op

Dermatology - remembered me from a decade ago, told me how to see him via NHS when I emailed his private clinic.
I burst into tears when he said how debilitating my condition is, and then prescribed an expensive drug that isn't approved in my area which has given me 50% relief

Doctors on the other hand...

I have several consultants (we call them specialists in Canada) for a number of separate issues. They are all kind and quite understanding.

I have only had one bad gastroenterologist who seemed unable to display any empathy at all in relation to what was then an unrelenting ulcerative colitis flare. She basically made me cry in her office several times. DH was there and he was shocked. I stopped seeing her and now have a GI who is fantastic and really gets it.

I have had more really awful experiences with hospital nurses. Some are great, but this past year I had one who literally bullied me. I still feel traumatized by some of the things she said.