"Consultant"

I had an appointment at 4.45pm today. I did not know anything about the hospital. I was guided by the Waze which took me to the physiotherapy building. There was a sign on the front requesting that patients ring only once - which I did and waited patiently. After some time, I walked round the back and the front again. Eventually, I met another couple who informed me that, actually, the hospital was the next building along.

In short, I was approximately 10 minutes late for my appointment.

I checked in and sat in the waiting room. After the waiting room had emptied itself twice of patients who had arrived before and after me, I went to the reception desk to check I was on the Consultant's list. A man standing by the nurse informed me he was working through the list and I would be seen in due course. I asked the nurse if that was the Consultant and she responded in the affirmative.

I waited again. The waiting room was not very full and there was no one there for my Consultant. Twice in a row he came in and called the names of patients who were not there and saw me sitting there. He went back to his consulting room "empty-handed", so to speak. I went back to the nurse and enquired again as to the delay. She said she would wait for him to finish with his patient and check. I informed her that he could not possibly be with a patient because he had just called out two different patients' names who were not there.

The nurse went in to see and was informed that he would not see me. She explained that I had been waiting over an hour and a quarter and had been enquiring. He refused point blank to see me because I was late.

I was absolutely livid at the nastiness and arrogance of the man who actually spoke to me and saw me sitting there for over an hour and did not bother telling me from the outset that he would not be seeing me (despite at various points having time to fit me in!) Neither the other patients in the waiting room or the nurses could believe his behaviour / attitude.

I hope he is not paid by the NHS for a "no show" patient because I did and waited and he had time.

That would very simply be a fraud on the system.

He has no idea what I had to do to get to him and he did not even have the guts to tell me to my face that he would not be seeing me at all.

I plan on informing my GP and requesting that he refer no more patients to him.

Certainly, I shall not be opting to see him.