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?

Yeah, nobody pushes back on the rude ones.

I find the female Consultants to be generally lovely. The male ones are a very mixed bag. To say the least.

Orthapedic ones scare the living daylights out of me. That speciality is notorious and its certainly been my personal experience though I don't work in Orthapedics any more. Wouldn't fancy going back!

Medicine has been extremely patriarchal for generations and has struggled to move away from this. Many of the younger consultants are better but it will take a long time for these attitudes to change fully.

It's not just surgeons. I don't work with surgeons and I'm exhausted some days with the poor manners of some of my guys.

It's not even age because the 2 worst are mid to late 40s.

They've probably met BIL. He's a right prick.

All other consultants I've met have been lovely

I work with lovely consultants. I've met a couple of horrible arrogant gits. But they were all at retiring age and have left.

Nurses are ward-based generally, focussing on the care of patients in their bay or perhaps the ward if they are a charge nurse.

Consultants are rarely ward based - they may be in clinic, theatre, doing procedures (e.g. endoscopy), in MDMs. They are in overall charge of patients under their care on the wards, outpatient and community. They will get 100s of emails a day, from which they need to identify the urgent ones. They will need to follow up on all biopsy/radiology/blood results etc, manage theatre lists and other lists. They need to do audits, CPD, teach junior doctors, write papers/talks.
I can understand why they are elusive. Some struggle and it manifests as rudeness or arrogance. Some are just rude and arrogant but not the majority.

I’ll never forget the consultant who waltzed in the morning after I’d almost lost my life during a miscarriage and asked whether my pregnancy was planned. I was quite taken aback by her even asking the question tbh, still not sure how or why it was relevant. I answered honestly and said it wasn’t so she retorted ‘better sort out some decent contraception so this doesn’t happen again then’. I was in pieces.

I work with several consultants daily. Done are really lovely. Others are known to be a bit short with people occasionally. But the pressure on them is frankly immense. Their patient caseload is massive and they are responsibly for everything that happens to them even if they aren’t physically there. Plus I work in Cancer care and they lose hundreds of patients that they have relationships with. It takes its toll.

Some are...

P.s I am know that nurses have audit, CPD to do - I don’t mean imply they have an easy time, they definitely don’t! Just explaining that consultants are not ward based and why they may not be as “visible” as other staff.

@Nowaynothappening - she is an awful human being

The only consultant I've had to see about my son was a nightmare. Refused to do an operation when my ex told them about a condition his grandpa had. The name escapes me right now (cant believe that) but it was a sex linked condition, which would not have been passed down the male line. I studied biomedical sciences. I knew that, but my ex blurted it out and the consultant on the day refused to do the surgery because it could cause excessive bleeding. I had to stand and argue the bit with him and bring up sex linked conditions on my phone and on and on it went. He was just so bloody arrogant the way he spoke to me and called me "little mum" and all sorts. Ugh.

I dunno but they seem to get annoyed when you call them doctor.

My timekeeping is very poor I do admit
Partly this is a character flaw but mainly it's just there is such an impossible amount of work.

I've had clinics (in a former job) where 4 patients were booked in each 15min slot for 1 or 2 Drs to see. Thus running late was just a fact. We had a notice out saying basically 'your appt time is fictitious but you will eventually get seen'. After a while we forgot to apologise to each and every person which probably looked rude.
Often we were verbally abused and told we should be liable for the car park charges.

I always tell my patients and relatives that if I promised to see you or speak to you or do something I 100% will but I can't tell you when. They are often surprised when I ring them at 6 or 7pm but that's still work hrs for me on a busy week.

I am not a saint by the way
I do admit that I am disorganised and untidy and many other things but rude is not one of them.

Most of the one’s I’ve met have been lovely!

I did have a very abrupt pyschiatrist once who really upset me. But everyone else has been delightful.

I'm a junior doctor (been working for several years now). I've worked with probably over a hundred consultants and the vast majority are absolutely lovely to both patients and fellow staff. In my experience the "god complex" is thankfully, on the whole, an issue only with the minority of much older consultants.

Also there are exams in communication. It's possible now to fail medical school finals based purely on communication even if you are brilliant academically.

In my own and my family's long and varied medical history I've met and been treated well by many excellent consultant doctors . I've only encountered one bad apple ( near retirement). His antique professional outlook has long since died out IME.

Over the 22 years my DD was alive, I met many hospital consultants in different hospitals across many departments of medicine. I can honestly say that Consultants fall into the following categories:

1. Arrogant areseholes who are rude to both patients and staff
2. Those who are lovely to patients but who frighten the living daylights out of staff even if they haven't done anything wrong.
3. Those who are absolutely delightful, who couldn't do enough for their patients and who are respectful of their colleagues.

They are just people with their own personalities. Some have a delightful bedside manner - some do not. It's not something they seem to get taught in med school (at least not in the dim and distant past).

Also they probably take hours to turn up because they are in clinic/MDT meetings/theatre/endoscopy/seeing their patients on other wards etc.

I don't think it's surgeons generally rather than Consultant grade specifically and it's not about being a bit short when under pressure. In one of the trusts I worked in the Cardiologists were much more civil than the cardiac surgeons but in the transplant department the Consultant Surgeons were lovely and the Consultant transplant physicians were arseholes without a single exception. People are able to distinguish the difference between being stressed and a superior attitude which results in shit behaviour towards anyone you consider "beneath" you.

I have met many consultants unfortunately. Although some seem lovely I think more were arrogant than a a similar sample from other professions would have been, mainly the older male ones. I get how busy they are but I am astounded how much private work they manage to do on top of their NHS hours, often across multiple sites and even cities. I do think their families must see very little of them.

However - I'm sorry that you've witnessed this and there isn't really an excuse for speaking to fellow staff or patients rudely
And sorry for the multiple posts!

I was in hospital four times this year and saw four different consultants at various times. They were all very nice. The registrar I saw all the time was absolutely lovely though.

@ElspethFlashman

Yeah, nobody pushes back on the rude ones.

I find the female Consultants to be generally lovely. The male ones are a very mixed bag. To say the least.

Orthapedic ones scare the living daylights out of me. That speciality is notorious and its certainly been my personal experience though I don't work in Orthapedics any more. Wouldn't fancy going back!

That’s funny all the ortho consultants I’ve met here been delightful!

Only one consultant I’ve ever had issues with was a cardiac one.

My son has a rare health condition and his care is coordinated mainly by his paediatric surgeon. He would belong in bigbluebus category 3.

He has been looking after my son since he arrived in NICU at two hours old and had to break some bad and unexpected news to us, which he did with kindness. One of the nurses told us later that we were lucky to have been assigned to this particular surgeon and that has been so true. He has made a difficult path much easier for our family.

But honestly I think it is like any job. You will get a range of people with different personalities and manners.