Well, the referendum came and went – and with it, an awful lot of ‘hoo-ha’ as to what will or won’t happen – the ifs, buts and maybe’s… and regardless of how you voted, that vote will possibly have been made on the basis of what directly impacts on you. I was astounded at the amount of abuse that was sent out on social media on Friday and Saturday – we are after all, in a democracy and it’s a real shame that people have taken to sending out what can only be described as vitriolic, hateful remarks without thought for what those comments will do.
Thinking about the referendum and the reasons why people voted the way they did led me to a thought about the complaints that we receive (it’s a weird leap, but stick with me) and why people complain about certain things and not others. The bottom line is that they complain about what matters to them specifically – the fact that their prescription is not ready within 24 hours affects one person far more than it affects the other (very organised) person who orders their medication a week in advance. The other day, a colleague of mine received an email to say NHS Choices had been updated with a comment from a patient that they might like to view… mmm… well, said patient complained that their child was refused an appointment for the same day and how awful the practice was and blah, blah, blah… you can just hear it, can’t you?!
My colleague spoke to her team and asked if it rang any bells, and of course it did! What the patient had omitted from their tirade was the fact that they were offered an appointment the same day – it just wasn’t with the doctor that the person wanted their child to see. Now that changes the whole story – but it’s only one side of the story – very much like the referendum!
The complaints and comments that are posted on these tripadvisor-type websites only give the patient’s perspective and one side of the story – they certainly don’t reveal how ridiculously inflexible and unreasonable the patient was, and they also don’t give everyone else reading the tale, the full facts. So, I thought I’d post something on NHS Choices that was completely stupid, so that people might start to perhaps understand just how unreasonable some people are…
I phoned the ‘WeCanDoMiracles’ Surgery on Monday morning at 8.10 am regarding my blood results. The blood was taken 2 weeks ago and although I was told to phone for the result three days after the test, I thought I’d leave it until a Monday morning when I was walking the dog as that’s the best time for me. Well, the woman who answered the phone asked me if it was an emergency (I don’t know why) and of course I said yes, because I need to know what my blood group is because I’m going to Thailand for a bit of R&R and might bring something nice back. Anyway, your receptionist really wasn’t very helpful at all. I think your staff need training on how to behave with patients – it’s not my fault she’s busy, I mean it’s not like I was being unreasonable.
M.r A. R. Seoul
The idea of course is that another patient reading this will agree that this patient was being completely unreasonable in their expectations of their practice and who knows, they could even, possibly, just maybe think twice when they phone first thing on Monday morning for something that isn’t urgent. Or do you think I’m being unreasonable in my expectations?!
Nicola Hayward
July 8, 2016 at 7:40 am
Patients complain because we say ‘no’. In this high speed/instant access get whatever you want whenever you want it society, we are probably one of the last few organisations that, unfortunately, due to lack of funding/capacity, are left in a situation where we have to say ‘i am sorry, i cant give you want you want right now, but I can offer you something else’
This is never satisfactory to the patient, hence the comments of useless, rubbish, unhelpful etc are plastered all over social media. When and only when, patients expectations are more realistic, then I am afraid we will always be at the end of some barbed comment.
July 8, 2016 at 7:59 am
The lack of support NHS staff receive coping with the adage ‘If only you’d hear what I’m saying’ is a problem and by the time Friday comes morale is usually dropping, and yes an NHS choices ‘opinion’ usually comes my way. So articles like this blog are what I reach for with my morning coffee to put a better end to my week.
I like what you’re suggesting Nic, it’s time we presented to our patients that these are unauthenticated musings. They are not facts.
It’s easy to create a ‘rogue’ email account and post plausible commentary on fantastic service received. There are many self-employed people who do this on full time basis – running down the competition in order to protect their employers reputation. We forget how difficult real truth actually is.
Implicit trust is something we rely on in the NHS, but when we cant trust our patients to be objective, we have to give a hard look at the reasons why.
July 8, 2016 at 9:17 am
Very refreshing Nicola and I completely agree…or maybe it is just because it is Friday and we’ve had a week of difficult conversations with patients. Your example from a colleague was absolutely spot on…it is only ever one side of the story and we don’t really have a right to reply. (I once tried a fairly innocuous response to a comment on NHS choices expressing an apology and asking the patient to contact me at the surgery which was simply followed up by another rant about how they didn’t want to discuss…blah blah..!)
The other issue of course is the abuse that, mainly, our reception staff face on a day to day basis. I can’t think of any other customer service environment where staff would so consistently have customers/patients speaking to them in the way that some of our patients do. Of course, we also need to remember that it is actually a very small percentage of patients who are like this it is just that, unfortunately, they are the ones we remember.
I also agree with Mary’s comments that people are now just not used to being told no…and this is sometimes a completely reasonable and justifiable response.
It also seems to me that patients often complain about the things that we offer. As a city centre practice with no parking the one thing that I never get complaints about is parking! Yet two colleagues in the same city centre who do have small car parks receive regular moans and groans about the parking at their surgery.
I think that the bottom line is that the old adage that ‘you can’t please all of the people all of the time’ is just about right. Not that we won’t continue to try, but to stop us going insane trying, I think that we need to bear it in mind!
Have a good weekend!