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Attending for an appointment

Posted By Lennymore

"Attending for an appointment"

About: Royal Victoria Hospital / Cardiac Clinical Investigation

(as a relative),

I brought my father to an appointment last week in the Royal Victoria Hospital.  We are exempt, as per the NI Executive directive, from wearing a face covering and we were wearing exemption lanyards which again as per the NI Executive, we do not have to do.  We were stared at and verbally abused by other patients while walking to the appointment location.  This was very intimidating and frightening.

When we reached the appointment location, there was no reception staff or administration staff present at the reception desk.  A masked person approached us and stood almost right on top of us - there was no physical distancing of any sort.  They did not speak one word to us.  No "hello", no "can I help you", nothing.  This was just bad mannered and rude and made us feel extremely unwelcome.  All they did was stare at our exemption lanyards and then pointed to a chair and said "sit down". 

Both my father and I felt very unwelcome and extremely disappointed by the behaviour of staff and patients in the hospital.  I pray we don't have to attend again any time soon.

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Responses

Response from Susane Mulholland, Lead Clinical Physiologist, Belfast Health And Social Care Trust 3 years ago
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Susane Mulholland
Lead Clinical Physiologist,
Belfast Health And Social Care Trust

Submitted on 03/09/2020 at 12:00
Published on Care Opinion at 14:09

Dear Lennymore,

My name is Susane Mulholland and I am Lead Clinical Physiologist in the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.

Thank you for sharing your story on Care Opinion.

Firstly, I would like to apologise for the experience you and your father had while attending for an appointment. Thank you for taking the step of wearing your exemption lanyards. The fact that you were stared at and verbally abused by other patients while walking to your appointment is completely unacceptable and this is something we as a trust can learn from and create awareness about.

I also apologise for your experience regarding the way staff communicated with you and your father. As we are all wearing facemasks, it is now more important than ever to ensure effective communication is occurring. I will certainly be feeding this back to staff to ensure that patients and relatives are always treated with dignity and respect.

Like yourself, I am very disappointed that when you arrived for your appointment you were not greeted by a member of our reception staff or any administration staff. This should be staffed continuously from the start of the working day. Furthermore, I am saddened to hear that you do not feel welcome and would like to invite you to contact me at susane.mulholland@belfasttrust.hscni.net to discuss further.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Best wishes,

Susane

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by Lennymore (a relative)


Thank you for your response, Susane. I will be in touch very soon.

I am not sure you have fully understood what I have written though - my complaint is not about admin staff not being present at the reception desk. Admin staff are fully entitled to be away from their desks during tea and lunch and toilet breaks and also to fulfill duties of their working role. I have absolutely no issue with no one being present.

My complaint is about the behaviour of the masked person who was a member of staff. I would reiterate that this person did not speak to us, did not welcome us, did not even acknowledge us verbally and this is just downright rude. Manners cost nothing. We appreciate that they may not have been reception staff but a simple "hello, can I help you?" would have been a much more appropriate welcome. To simply stare at our exemptions lanyards - which I will again confirm that we do NOT have to wear according to the NI executive's legislation - is not acceptable, pleasant or reflective of the Trust values.

I will be in touch directly with yourself shortly but just wanted to clarify where the issue lies.

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