"Receptionist in Omagh urgent care"

My girlfriend and I are in a lesbian relationship. My girlfriend had a sprained ankle so we went to get it checked. The staff member at the reception asked my girlfriend why her name was incorrect, she explained that she had been adopted by her stepfather in recent years and maybe it hadn’t been updated in the NHS system. They then asked if it was a legal name change, and didn’t seem to believe her. 

After that clarification, they asked who I was, to put it on the form. My girlfriend then replied, this is my girlfriend. She was told that there wasn't enough room on the form for that, and that they would just put down "friend".

I commented that this sounds outdated, and then we went to wait. Both my girlfriend and I were shocked at this behavior and the putting me down as ‘friend’ on the form. 

I proceeded to think more about the encounter and it began to really annoy me, so then I went to up to reception again. I asked if there was a ‘partner’ option if ‘girlfriend’ wasn’t. They had a shocked expression and replied that there was. 

I said then they can put down partner as we are together. They didn’t say anything back and had an overall rude expression on their face. 

The whole encounter seemed homophobic and we were shocked at the discrimination of me being put down as ‘friend’, as my girlfriend was expecting the hospital to be a safe space for LGBTQ+ people but we were met with discrimination at the door. 

A shocking experience. There should be further training on respecting queer people, as they definitely would not have treated a woman and her boyfriend like that.