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?

There have always been people like that. Working on a big switchboard based job in the 1980s, we were taught to respond politely, but to say that unless they moderated their tone, we would end the call, and to hang up if they continued. Zero tolerance. I used the same approach when manning a reception desk. "Sir, unless you can be polite and reasonable, I cannot help you." Then not responding in any way to a rant, but waiting until they ran out of steam.

So for all the NHS participants on the thread, why is it OK for NHS staff to be discourteous to patients. In any other environment, the bill would not be paid.

Thats fine, and I am sorry for what you are dealing with. But it's still an important discussion point too

It’s never ok to be discourteous.

If you face the public in a job role, telephone or face 2 face, regardless of that role, you will always encounter people who will give you abuse.

it works both ways. There are NHS staff that are abusive to patients,ignore them and treat them very badly. No, the person should not have called you names over the phone which happens in all customer facing roles but no doubt they had been trying for hours/days trying to get information and just being passed around.

I’ve never been discourteous to a patient, ever. I’m sure it does happen and it’s unacceptable but it’s a two way street.

Well that’s not true either. They phoned reception and got passed straight to me.

The bill isn’t being paid. That’s the problem. If people did have to pay and treat their medical and support team with the same respect they show their hairdresser for example then I don’t think we would see such a level of disrespect. This abuse doesn’t happen in America.
And please don’t say that we are paying for it through taxation because we simply aren’t (paying nearly enough and some have never paid anything).

Maybe not entirely relevant but I worked for a while in a lovely, very middle class farm shop. We often got rude, entitled customers who spoke to us like we weren’t worthy of any consideration. I once met a customer socially who’d been very snotty with a younger staff member and ignored me when I tried to intervene. She was so embarrassed she left when she recognised me.

You can't possibly know that. How do you know they weren't passed from pillar to post before they got to your reception??

Because as I answered the phone and said my department he said “oh, the operator said this was XYZ”.

When I see a sign saying "staff must not be abused" or similar then I know I am dealing with an organisation that offers a poor customer experience.

Some people like to take out their frustration in the low paid worker they interact with. And they know you are forced to serve them. I have had abuse when temping for Social Services (Older Adults), working at call centres and working in a bar. The latter I just had them thrown out immediately. Luckily I have a thick skin so would hang up the phone and not think about it again (aside from taking pleasure in the fact they had to rejoin the queue again). But I know people who it really impacted them emotionally.

Unfortunately some people are arseholes.

Nail on the head. Funny how lots of places don't have those signs, and who usually provide a competent/good service!!

Respectfully, many of us do pay. I am now seminretired and even when fully retired, I shall pay top rate tax I imagine I have also subsidised many others. The NHS is free at the point of delivery, it is not free for anybody.

I could, and would, happily pay and have insurance alongside the NHS. There is no tax relief on insirance contributions, so I pay twice.

Notably, my hairdresser had never been rude to me. Nor have my accountant, solicitor, bank manager, etc.

Also it makes no sense as often the person they are choosing to abuse is not responsible for whatever has the person annoyed. It’s like people who should at TFL staff because there are delays on tube lines. How is that their issue?

It’s not ok and I don’t think I have ever experienced this.

Why do you assume medical staff are not abused in the USA?

A 10 second Google search would have shown you that is completely untrue.

Violence is just part of the job. Every nurse and health care worker experiences it at some point.”
Sentiments like this echo across American hospitals and health care facilities, capturing a disturbing and growing reality. Though Americans think of nursing as the most trusted profession, we often fail to see that it’s also one of the most dangerous.
An alarming 8 in 10 nurses face violence at work. As a result, health care workers are more than four times as likely to be injured by workplace violence than workers in all other industries combined.
Despite these staggering numbers, the full extent of this epidemic may not be fully understood because nurses and other health care workers chronically underreport violent encounters. The American Nurses Association estimates that only 20% to 60% of incidents are accounted for. Additionally, there is no agreed-upon definition for workplace violence or clear way of tracking it on a national level.

https://theconversation.com/how-the-hidden-epidemic-of-violence-against-nurses-affects-health-care-248083

It is not ok to speak to anyone like that, NHS are not better and not heroes. Even speaking to a genuine shithead unhelpful person in a non hero stars place like Primark is not ok. I don't have any respect for NHS workers though, they are complicit and enabling unnecessary deaths and suffering to happen by pretending to be so bloody heroic

How do you know if someone works in the NHS?

Don't worry, they will mention it in the first milisecond 🤣

My first week at my new job , there was an orientation and the head of security started his talk with "everyday we are one day closer to a hospital shooting". Very cheery.

I don't deal with the general public.My customers are hospital staff and they can get really nasty. Nobody likes our department so we make great punching bags.

but being angry at the person trying to help, how would that make them help you more ?

But the vast majority of people don't think it is ok.

Long waits in A&E are a general thing. Not just NHS. Unless you live somewhere with almost no population.