"Blood test at Selby? Think twice!"

What an unpleasant experience! Having left an appointment with my GP and on their advice, I drove to Selby for a blood test. I followed the well positioned signs directing me to take a ticket to wait my turn. At all times the door was open and I saw a person with a civilian coat on and an another person. I didn't see any one go in or leave the room. Minutes later I saw the person with a civilian coat asking other people in the waiting room if they had a ticket. I stood up and indicated to them that I had. They signalled to me to come into the room. As I entered the room, the door was still wide open to the rest of the waiting room. The other person looked at me and snapped "Can you hurry up and take your coat off? I shouldn't be taking anyone else now!" Despite feeling anxious and vulnerable, the way this member of staff spoke to me certainly could not go unacknowledged. I explained that I had followed the signs in the hospital and that this was my first visit since the hospital had been expanded and that I wasn't happy about being spoken to in that tone. The person with a civilian coat was clearly embarrassed and tried to explain that they had had issues all morning. Why was this taken out on me? I was asked to sit down and commented sarcastically on how comfortable the other person was making me feel as a first time patient. As I looked up, they were rolling their eyes at the person with a civilian coat. I asked them not to roll their eyes. They denied doing this. Still with the same ice cold tone they asked "Have you got any paperwork?" I produced the form handed to me by my GP and suggested that that should have been the first thing they said to me. Astonishingly they then started to cry and acuse me of putting pressure on them when all they were trying to do was to take bloods and get them sent off before the bank holiday. They half tied my tourniquet and asked the person with a civilian coat if they could take over. I was promptly dealt with by that person after they had advised the other person to go home..?? As my bloods were being taken, they professionally explained about a 12:30 cut off time prior to the bank holiday weekend. I thanked them for explaining this to me so professionally and explained that if that had been explained in the first place then I would have given a different response to the other person. I suggested a few solutions: 1. Update the times on the paperwork given to patients. 2. Put clearly marked signs in reception leading up to a Bank Holiday so as to avoid irritable members of staff taking their frustrations out on patients. 3. Inform surrounding General Practices; that send their patients to Selby of any relevant or changed information. This may reduce extra pressure that some staff quite clearly cannot handle. In addition to this the dissatisfaction of patients will be eliminated.