Does it actually benefit the NHS when medics treat you like a number?

[MrsMerryHenry]

I'm sure there have been a thousand threads like this already, so I'll just add mine to the pile! I had an ultrasound this week - not pg, just a health check. The radiologist was nice enough; not cosy, just professionally friendly, which was fine. However, a few minutes after I lay down and had the scanning thingummibob on my tum, the door opened and a woman walked in unannounced, didn't even look at me or say anything, and sat down to start working at the computer.

Once she started tapping away it was clear that she was an assistant, but bearing in mind that all the doors in the examination rooms have a notice specifically saying you should knock and wait before entering out of respect for the patients (who might even have a probe up their fanjos - bit personal, no?), was it too much to expect her to do the same? Or to say 'hello, my name is x and I'm the radiologist's assistant'? Would it have inconvenienced her or restricted her ability to do her job?

It's not a huge deal, I'm not going to write a letter to the hospital, but I just find that approach irritating. Having had the benefit of both private and NHS care I don't see how it benefits the functioning of the NHS when patients are not treated thoughtfully.

I don't really see how this equated with treating you like a number.

Maybe the radiologist would have made some arrangements if an intimate examination was going on. Maybe that particular assistant didn't need to knock. We don't know. You;'d need to bring it up with the staff.

there is a lot of that about, especially when you get older, having seen the way both parents have been treated when ill and older. however my dad is currently in ICU and i have been absolutely stunned by the quality of his care and the staff. So i think with the NHS you have to take the rough with the smooth.

Hopefully the radiologist pulled her up after you'd gone. I don't think it was acceptable for her not to knock.

MDS, maybe he thinks you're blowdrying your minge! (sorry - hilarious thread in AIBU)

Pointydog, I think we can safely assume that since the door said you should knock before entering, the assistant did need to knock! And actually I could have been having an internal exam, it was one of the options made available to me.

Ruty, with both my parents I found the NHS treatment to be undesirable, shall we say. We managed to move my mother to a better hospital but sadly she didn't live long enough to benefit from their better standard of care.

ALl I'm saying is, if that member of staff works in that room and uses the computer there as part of her job, depending on the nature of her job maybe she doesn't have to. You didn't ask, we'll never know.

So the notices are meant for other people but not her?

If it hasn't traumatised you enough for you to write and complain about it I don't see why you feel the need to moan about it on here!

Yes she should have knocked. Poor woman has probably spent the rest of the day fretting over her mistake and being hugely relieved that you weren't legs akimbo etc. People make mistakes but this isn't symptomatic of an NHS problem as a whole - nor does the NHS treat patients like numbers. Was it really a radiologist doing your scan by the way? It's more usually a sonographer?

possibly, if she works in that office

NL, I'm so sorry, I didn't realised I had to be actually traumatised before saying something irritated me.

Yep I'm only interetsed in serious trauma

Seriously though - mumsnet is full of NHS bashing threads - most of which arise out of unrealistic expectations of what a publicly funded and universally available system can deliver. I think she should have knocked - I just don't think that an absence of knocking is significant enough to get your knickers in a twist over it

I think like all places you get good and bad, I don't think that private care is always better - although having said that I have 2 relatives who had mental health issues, one with private health one without and you definitely don't want to lose your marbles without private healthcare!!

When I was in out patients with dd recently the consultant was v.rude and another time my mum was having a (internal) scan a consultant stormed in, needed the room and she had to leave and come back later!!

I think I've made it clear that my knickers aren't in a twist, I was irritated. Cheeky cow .

Though looking at my thread title it's perhaps a little stronger than I intended...

I do find it weird, though, how someone can walk into a room with two people and completely fail to acknowledge one of them.

Totally agree with you MMH, manners are free

Yes it was the title that got my knickers in a twist!

I think gross embarassment is the answer as to why she didn't say anything. Doesn't make it any better though.

it is possible she thought it was more considerate just to slip in and not make eye contact.

Wonderstuff -

Yes, that is possible, pointydog. Still irritating, though!

I think there's a British thing that says it's better to ignore someone than to draw attention to yourself, when in fact ignoring someone like that draws a wall between the two of you and creates more awkwardness.

It would be annoying, MMH, but I'd put it down to one person's lack of social graces, rather than the NHS.

Yes, I think you're right. Thread title OTT. Am I forgiven?

oh yes, nothing to forgive for

in our dept when the radiologist is scanning we do have all the computers in the same room as they all have to be linked up as the radiologist does his report straightafter they have scanned you,
however, we do have a curtain which is pulled across the room so it is split in to 2, most of us do knock before coming in some dont, (if it is an internal scan than they make sure the door is locked) but we dont go behind the curtain, onlt the radiologist and their tgo behind there while there is a patient in there.
i have to say that they are probably so used to each other walking in the room they dont acknowledge each other, we seem to work like that in our main xray rooms, it's only if someone starts being really noisy or distracting we say something to each other!

Northernlurker, we have sonographers and radiologists doing ultrasounds. mainly sonographers but we do have a couple of radiologists who specilaise in general medical ultrasounds and like to do their own scans. as in obstetric ultrasounds it is not always a radiography trained sonographer doing the ulrasound, it can be a midwife who has been trained to do do obstetric scans

im not defending them by the way, they should have a curtain or a screen of some type to pull around you to shield you from the door and visitors to the room.

Indeed you are forgiven - mis-worded thread titles easily done in heat of the moment.

Just for interest - one of the people who does obs scans at our hospital is a specially-trained obstetrician, so she may be doing scans in the morning, and sections in the afternoon - she says she likes the whole lifecycle experience it gives her. And she's fab!