"Extremely rude staff on the phone"

I had an appointment scheduled, which I unfortunately couldn’t attend. I called Wembley Park Medical Centre to let them know and to book a new appointment. What should have been a simple, polite conversation turned into an incredibly frustrating experience because of the way the person on the phone spoke to me.

The person who answered the phone was very rude right from the start. They kept interrupting me, wouldn’t let me finish a single sentence, and spoke in an extremely dismissive and unprofessional tone. I was simply trying to confirm the appointment that clearly appeared in my NHS app, but instead of checking properly or even listening, they insisted that I didn’t have an appointment and that only a referral was sent.

The facts were wrong — my app showed that the referral was sent on a different day, and the appointment was clearly listed. Yet this person refused to even consider what I was saying. They just kept talking over me, raising their voice, and repeating themself without verifying anything.

What made it worse was the complete lack of respect or basic courtesy. I was trying to explain the situation calmly, but they showed no willingness to listen or help. The tone and attitude made me feel genuinely disrespected — and to be honest, I even felt that there might have been some bias or discriminatory attitude behind the way they spoke to me.

I work as a nurse in the NHS, and I know first-hand how important it is to treat patients with empathy and respect, especially over the phone. This kind of behaviour gives the NHS a bad name and undermines the hard work so many of us do every day to care for patients and maintain trust.

It’s really disappointing that someone like this is the first point of contact for patients. I hope the management takes this seriously and provides proper training or reconsiders who handles patient calls — because this person is clearly not suitable for a patient-facing role.