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"Fat Shamed"

About: University Hospital Ayr University Hospital Ayr / General Medicine

(as the patient),

I have good and bad in my story. Firstly the goods, the nurses were all lovely and tried very hard to help me, I was seen asap and given good care and comfort through out my treatment.

However the first doctor I saw was very nice and thought I may have a inner ear infection that it could be viral or bacterial. They started me on pain relief, anti sickness and fluids through an IV. 

Over night I stayed at  Ayr Hospital. In the morning i felt a bit better. The next doctor came round at 7am and walked in. They were welcoming and asked if i could be pregnant. I said unfortunately not I had been trying for many years. They obviously hadn't read my records because if they had they would have known I had hypothyroidism and pcos and the coil and had made the painful decision to try and improve my symptoms rather than conceive earlier in the year. They were like "well you know if you lost weight you would get pregnant". To which i replied, "Its not quite that simple I have pcos and hypothyroidism and it's a battle I'm loosing". They replied with "well try metformin but I'm not here to help you with this today." They then proceeded to tell me I needed an antibiotic for my inner ear infection and that they aren't good with ears as they hadn't looked at them in over 40 years and they don't have a machine to look in my ears in this hospital. If i still feel bad I should go to Crosshouse Hospital. 

I was really shocked. They didn't know me or my story or my pain, they just saw an overweight girl. They weren't interested in helping me with any of my problems. In the whole of Ayr Hospital apparently there is no ENT doctor? I think not. Total cop out. It obviously is an infection as the antibiotics are helping me immensely. 

To this doctor - you need to think how your words affect patients and do your homework before walking into a room. Your words hurt me deeply. I don't smoke, I don't drink, I live a relatively healthy life but all you see is a fat girl. Shame on you. If you had been interested enough to pass an opinion you should have been interested enough to help me in at least one of the problems I was suffering from. 

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Responses

Response from Phil Hodkinson, Associate Medical Director, University Hospital Ayr and Respiratory Consultant, Medicine, NHS Ayrshire and Arran 5 years ago
Phil Hodkinson
Associate Medical Director, University Hospital Ayr and Respiratory Consultant, Medicine,
NHS Ayrshire and Arran
Submitted on 25/09/2018 at 12:22
Published on Care Opinion at 15:07


Dear PCOS1in10,

I am really sorry to hear about the terrible experience you have had in University Hospital Ayr. This is not the standard of care we aspire to and you should not have been spoken to in this way.

Please could you phone me on 01292 617087 and then I can obtain full details and investigate this further?

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Response from John Swiatczak-Steele, Assistant Director, University Hospital Ayr, NHS Ayrshire and Arran 5 years ago
John Swiatczak-Steele
Assistant Director, University Hospital Ayr,
NHS Ayrshire and Arran
Submitted on 25/09/2018 at 15:22
Published on Care Opinion at 16:14


Dear PCOS1in10

Thank you for sharing your experience on Care Opinion. To say that I am disappointed with the way in which you were spoken to is an understatement. As my colleague Dr Hodkinson stated, you should not have been spoken to in that way.

We welcome all feedback, good or not so good, so that we can continually develop our services. I would like to assure you that we act on all opinions shared with us and I note that Dr Hodkinson has asked you to contact him with further information.

If you prefer to e-mail your details you can do so by e-mailing my PA Ms Tracy Scott on: tracy.scott@aapct.scot.nhs.uk

Once again thank you for bringing this to our attention.

John


John Swiatczak-Steele

Assistant Director of Acute Services, UHA

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