I had to go to emergency last week after my family doctor informed me through my screams of pain that I probably had appendicitis. I expected a long wait, and it actually wasn’t too bad – only 3 hours in the waiting room in excruciating pain! What I didn’t expect was the lack of overall care and decency from almost every health care professional that came across my path. Starting with the triage paramedic who didn’t listen to my symptoms and actually cut me off to stick a thermometer in my mouth, to the 3 nurses (yes 3!) who came into the room to try and poke with me with an IV without so much as a word or introduction that left me feeling dejected and like an object of nuisance rather than a patient. Not to mention the doctor who, when my CT came back clear, treated me as if I had made up the pain and sent me on my way while leaving my bedside in a hurry before I could ask any questions about infection or what to do once home. It was almost completely a horrendous experience with the exception of the paramedic who actually was able to get in an IV and treated me like a human being, and the guy who did my CT scan who was so wonderful I almost cried with joy while there instead tears of frustration and pain. I understand emergency is usually over-populated and understaffed but its no excuse to treat people like cattle. I won’t be going back unless unconscious and near death. I really hope once Capital Health finally makes cuts to the administrative overhead, they use those funds to train their health care professionals to treat patients with respect and even a hint of kindness so no one has the same kind of experience I did. —Its called heath “care” for a reason.
This article appears in Oct 10-16, 2013.
We get sympathy from our loved ones, and health care from professionals. Anything else is extra, and not required. Did you ever consider that they might be tired, and have more important things going on? You waited three hours, so I assume that your case wasn’t as earth-shaking as you thought it was .. sometimes we have to deal with pain, a lot of pain, but that doesn’t make it anybody’s fault. Life goes on.
If you employed the same fuckish attitude with the medical staff as you do on here, you’re lucky to have been dealt with so promptly.
You sound like a Grade A Wanker.
be thankful they fixed you up and you didn’t have to pay out the ass for it. geesus the entitlement of some people!
Shut up, OB
You felt like cattle? The Nurses must feel like cow pasture then – walked all over and shat on…
Imagine working three 12 hour shifts in a row at a hospital packed full of I’m-the-center-of-the-universe type patients, such as yourself. You wouldn’t exactly be in the mood to start conversing with every grumpy, self-entitled, critical patient to walk through the door – and you wouldn’t be performing at 100% all of the time either.
“It was almost completely a horrendous experience with the exception of…” – When you left the building…… that’s what the hospital staff said….. about you….. after you left the hospital…….. asshole
so what did it turn out to be?
This is how I feel I am treated when I try to go to a GP so I don’t have a family doctor and I just don’t go. I can’t remember the last time any medical professional actually used their fucking ears to LISTEN to what I was telling them. Most can’t wait to get out of the room. I don’t go often so when I go, it’s because I’m legitimately concerned about something. I just want somebody to sit down and listen for 2 minutes and to at least pretend that they are taking me a little seriously (even if they are just going to dismiss me and my concerns).
They treated your physical needs OB; you needed to ask them to address your mental ones….
Don’t even get me started…lol
Lemmie guess, the DG? My husband was in with abdominal pain so bad he collapsed in the waiting room. I sat with him on the floor while he yelled and heaved. The duty nurse just watched, until a senior tried to get out of his own fucking wheelchair to help me get him up, scolding her the whole time. Pain doesn’t matter, but shame sure works in a pinch.
Shitty experience aside (and it sounds shitty op) what we are all waiting to hear is.. are you ok? Hope you’re feeling better.
Oh i agree captain. It’s why I didn’t go into medicine. I don’t have the ability to manage that sort of schedule and still keep some semblance of bedside manner.
If you can’t do that, you’re not cut out for medicine. You are responsible for the well-being of sick, scared people. People in pain. People grieving. People not knowing what’s wrong with them or their loved ones.
Not just any old idiot who passes chemistry a few times can be a doctor.
I was going to go into medicine but all that studying would cut into my You-Eff-Sea watching.