To ask why people think it’s okay to abuse NHS staff?

[notafanofthisanymore]

I’m NHS admin. I just got a call through to me and I was the wrong person to help, but as it was a simple query (think where to go as opposed to anything medical), I tried to help the patient.

I understand that having health issues is stressful. But I’ve just been called a useless thick bitch and told that my job is the reason the NHS is sinking, because I told this patient something they didn’t like. I was then told that if this patient died on the way to their appointment it would be blood on my hands, and I should hope they don’t.

I’m just baffled. I was polite, answered this person’s question and got abused because they didn’t like the answer (having to go somewhere else for something they needed). In what world is this acceptable?

the other side of it is the public themselves dont listen or if you say you need this or its there etc they expect instant results or instant answers

This person was clearly out of order.

But I can have some sympathy - communication in the NHS is the pits and people get exasperated trying to navigate themselves to treatment via the convoluted systems. I have often felt like swearing at someone, but I know that the failures in how the system is set up are not their fault.

It is not acceptable for people to do this, but as professionals in the NHS we have to remember we are dealing with sick people whose anxiety levels will be high - for themselves or for a loved one. It is our job to stay cool and objective.

Now drunk abusive people in A&E are in another category ........ no excuses there, except their ability to tolerate inexorable waits without blowing their top will be reduced by the alcohol.

It's definitely getting worse. I graduated in the 80s and patients/relatives were more polite back then. By the time I retired I'd expect at least one person to be rude to me most days. I've only been physically attacked once in my career though which I think for a frontline patient facing role is good these days.
But it's not just the NHS, all public facing jobs are similar. My niece is a teacher and she gets verbal abuse on a daily basis and not infrequent threats of violence. When my DD had a Saturday/holiday job in a cafe she had some horrible things said to her - and it was a very naice place popular with middle class visitors.

You’ve misunderstood the post. Saying they’re surprised there isn’t hospital shootings isn’t advocating for people to get shot.

I think I’m just a bit shaken up because I explained to this person that I wasn’t the department they were looking for (which I do understand is frustrating), but that I’d try to help. I gave clear directions and got abuse because they didn’t like the answer!

I don’t condone the patient’s language at all, but your lack of comprehension here suggests that maybe OP, you WERE getting the wrong end of the stick and he got very frustrated

No, it’s pretty obvious what that poster was saying. I gave the patient clear directions that they understood, and then when they asked for something else (that they’d not mentioned in the first place!), I explained they’d actually need to go somewhere else, and that’s when they got angry.

thats what puzzles me, its like people just react how they would around people they know at a guess and then forget about talking with professional people and its like all manners

It’s baffling! Like in what world is it okay for you to ask directions, not mention something, and then when they gave other information I changed what I was saying appropriately and that’s what annoyed them!

Because people feel forgotten, ignored and not respected by the NHS.

Because they have to beg further appointments and that makes them upset and frustrated.

They shouldn’t be treating staff like you like this, but they also should not be treated by the NHS like something thr cat brought in.

that is the strange thing, its like no paitentance anymore either that or they just want to click fingers and sorted etc

or they are just rude and have the mentality of i want this and i want it now ?

No, like knowing you need an appointment because you have been told you need to
be seen now but the next one available is February 2027.

I’ve had the misfortune to be in A and E a few times recently and to be honest everyone waiting was extremely docile and quiet and polite for the many hours we spent sat on a plastic chair in the waiting room.
Obviously there was the odd drunk, but I don’t think their behaviour should be lumped in with that of the general population

Sadly people get frustrated if they cannot get what they want instantly and you being in the front line so to speak get the anger. It is wrong but hanging on the phone then not getting your query answered came be so annoying does not make it right as abuse is never right

I am guessing they had already been going round in circles - it's what happens with the NHS. They should not have sounded off but I am very aware that the system can be utterly expasperating.

Some people are just like this- even working in retail I’ve experienced this sort of thing. Angry, aggressive members of the public who love being rude or abusive.

For some reason the social contract has fallen apart. See also the way people drop litter now, which didn't happen a decade or two ago.

Perhaps it has something to do with late-stage capitalism.
When all the public services are privatised (like electricity and water that people depend on), and the "customer service" from these big corporations is just about non-existent if you have a problem, when the cost of living is insane, when everything is subject to shrinkflation and crapification, when you have to subscribe and pay forever instead of just buying once, when landlords are raking it in because there is no social housing and young people are stuck with parents well into their twenties, when profit is the be-all and end-all of everything, then people feel that 'the system' is abusing them and ripping them off every which way, they no longer feel any social responsibility or duty.

If you are in a customer service role, you are the face of 'the system' that is abusing people.

It's absolutely not ok under any circumstances to abuse anyone like that - NHS or any poor sod in a public facing role. It doesn't matter how frustrated they are in the system, it's not the person on the phone's fault. There are signs up in NHS premises about no tolerance of abuse and that goes for online or on the phone as well as in person. I'd have just hung up on them.

It happens because you are accessible to them.

If you are a receptionist then you'll cop for the lot.

If you were a AHP who had their own room to hide in, like I did, it's not so bad. However, I still had to emerge at lunchtimes to go to the canteen. At that time anyone wearing scrubs or any kind of uniform is fair game for some member of Jo Public to vent their spleen on.

A friend of mine used to work on the Council switchboard and she regularly got GBH of the 'earole because callers thought she, personally, was somehow responsible for their bins not being emptied !

It's getting worse for sure because (partly) the NHS is getting worse, but abuse of NHS staff isn't new. My brother, big chap and takes no nonsense would often be asked for help in his dept in A&E when the drunks and entitled came in started kicking off. This is over a 30+ year career.

I think the behaviour is disgusting, as I do when I hear about ambulance folk and police being attacked more and more. WTF.

Yes -crap behaviour on their part but they are going on into their day angry, bitter, negative - it will possibly shorten their life so try to forget it.
I have a friend who is furious at any,as she sees it, bad driving- I mean who cares if someone speeds and overtakes you - life’s too short to fret over these things

This. NHS doesn’t give you immunity to the general publics shitty behaviour - most people
in a public facing job get it.

I do believe it’s for worse post covid - people seem to want the moon on a stick laid on for them.

But you’re not factoring in that the person you’re talking to has probably phoned 100+ times getting the ‘user busy’ tone, eventually got through, waited for an age on hold listening to awful music repeatedly interrupted by a recorded message thanking them for holding, had their call answered finally only to be told that they’ve been given the wrong number and they have to call a different department. And then had to go through the whole rigmarole again.

By the time their call is answered by the correct person a hour later their blood pressure is stratospheric and they’re not at their calm best. The telephonists should have some understanding of this. Don’t take it personally if someone is rude.

Though it’s partly frustration - my experience of the nhs is 50:50 - some excellent some shit - not good enough imv and it’s been like this for years and years and the public are furious that the Gov won’t sort it in case they lose votes - people are angry