"Attitude of staff members"

In March this year, I was referred as an urgent referral to ENT RAS @ Lewisham Hospital for Lewisham and Greenwich Trust-RJ2 because of a lump inside my throat. The hospital sent a letter advising me to call them, if nobody contacted me by the beginning of April. I waited until May to give them a call, only to be told I was not on the waiting list. I called again in August and was told the same. However, this time, I was strongly advised to ask my GP to refer me to another hospital because they didn't then I would put on the waiting list.

After that, I tried to book an appointment with a GP to discuss a referral elsewhere. I submitted the request online and got a call from a member of staff, who told me that I could only be offered an appointment the same day at 10am or the following day around the same time. From the moment I answered the phone, the member of staff already sounded irritable.

When l explained that because of my job, I would need an appointment late in the afternoon, the member of staff started to speak with clear rudeness. Wouldn't let me ask question to explore my options and what is more, wouldn't tell me clearly why I could not have an appointment at least at 4pm. I was almost in tears because of the way I was addressed, I told them that they are supposedly a professional and should not speak to patients like that.

When I tried to book an appointment again for the same problem another time, I found the same obstacle. I called the surgery to try book a GP appointment for the same issue, only to get a different member of staff speaking to me in a rather upsetting manner. I dared to say to them that for some reason, lately, every time I speak with someone at the surgery,  except for one person, everybody else sounds irritable. Their response was to say that I was being rude and they started going on about what I said, what they  said, sounding like someone who has complete lost control.

As they continued to repeat that I was rude, ( by the way, a characteristic not associated with me under any circumstances), I asked if the call was being recorded because, then it would be easy to see who was actually being rude. They said calls are not recorded. At this point, I told this member of staff that they should have received a training and learn that part of their role involves having the ability to de-escalate situations, and not to do the opposite as they had just done. I reminded them that for them to call me rude after I described how I have been made to feel was actually an escalating response. I also added that since calls are not recorded, there was no point to continue arguing about who was actually being rude.

To finalise, I would like to stress that by employing unprofessional,  unhelpful, rude, irritable members of staff who don't seem to have a grain of compassion in their body, I believe Edith Cavell Surgery is potentially putting the lives of vulnerable patients at risk. I will of course, leave this surgery at the earliest opportunity, but not before having the ENT referral situation resolved because I consider what is happening to be negligence, and if I get diagnosed with a serious condition after all this time of trying to get help, I shall hold the surgery accountable.