"Below the level of conduct expected"

My wife recently underwent colonoscopy procedure at Queen Margaret Hospital, Dunfermline.

The day prior to her visit she received a phone call from an NHS staff member asking details including medication etc., which took approximately half an hour. She considered this to be efficient use of staff time. However, on admittance to the Colonoscopy Unit she was asked the same time consuming questions again. She pointed this out to the nurse who stated that other patients had also told her that today. What happened to the transcript of their telephone calls?

Initially everything went OK. The nurses were attentive and helpful.

Then the surgeon came on the scene.

They did not introduce themselves to my wife nor did they even have the courtesy to say “Good morning” at the least. Bearing in mind the personal nature of the procedure, I consider this to be below the level of conduct expected from someone of his profession.

The surgeon proceeded to ask, in a jokey manner, where another two members of staff were.

My wife had been instructed on how to use the “gas and air” system but had great discomfort and experienced pain during the procedure caused by the carbon dioxide being administered. She was told she was not using it correctly. She found the instructions on how to use the gas and air to be confusing. To muddy the waters even more is the fact that she had used gas and air on three previous occasion successfully.

Because of the surgeon’s accent and face mask, not only did she find them difficult to understand but because they were obviously standing out of her line of vision she did not know whether they were addressing her or one of the staff as the surgeon never used my wife’s name to ensure she knew she was being addressed.

After the procedure, the surgeon then asked what her symptoms had been which seemed to be a topsy-turvy way of going about things.