"Each person in the chain was calm, pleasant, efficient and professional"

I arrived for an appointment a couple of minutes late. The receptionist was absolutely fine about that. She checked my appointment, asked me to sit in the waiting area and chatted for a couple of minutes, by which time the podiatrist arrived to collect me. He was very good at explaining things, made what I believe was an excellent diagnosis and gave me a choice of treatments which he explained well and fully. We agreed on the first line of treatment and agreed a review period. At no time did I feel at all apprehensive about anything or fail to fully understand my choices and their implications. I am not a nervous person and I am well educated but it is not uncommon for medical practitioners to talk down to patients or fail to explain all the possibilities and implications following a diagnosis. After the consultation, the receptionist produced various pieces of written information for me at lightning speed from a printer.

There was nothing dramatic about what happened, but that is my point - each person in the chain was calm, pleasant, efficient and professional but made it look very easy to do, which is a great skill and one which few people exhibit so well.

The excellent podiatrist was called Matthew.