"Urgent Walk-in Centre Reception"

Previous experience of walk-in centre here has been fair. New Urgent Service patient been met with an aggression and combative manner by nurse on reception (APRN, Staff Nurse, LPN, CNA/nursing assistant ? ~ unable to discern by name badges worn - understanding the level of nurse helps patients to know how much or what type of information to share with nurse and what feedback to expect). Nurse did not listen calmly to patient, had knee jerk reaction for refusing treatment. Some of the nurse’s annoyance was obviously supposed to be targeted to the patient’s GP surgery for sending but it has to be remembered that the patient is only a casualty of the system and is not to be treated roughly and aggressively in the process. In less than a minute a decision was made to not treat the patient. Patient was talked over during the briefest decision making time. Please be aware your patients may have learning difficulties and disabilities -and cannot always explain their situation in less than a minute. Was the centre full of urgent dying patients therefore resulting in the need for this sort of overly officious treatment? No. Does it ever occur to staff that they might be talking to an experienced medically trained person who might be assessing their performance ? Obviously not. Not all nursing or reception staff are like this as shown in previous reviews but we need to focus on treating patients as equals, with kindness and understanding. We pay for the NHS ~ it’s not a free service, it’s a service we pay for created by the people for the people. It’s imperative that staff comprehend that treatment starts from the point of patient engagement at reception, treating people with respect and patience. If a patient is obtuse by all means counter with firmness but if a patient is polite return the behaviour.