"Communication problems"

Positves:

I was seen pretty quickly and the doctor who treated me was efficient and capable, with a pleasant manner.

Negatives:

I heartily agree with the dissatisfaction of the person who has found it impossible to communicate with this department by phone.

Just getting an appointment at a time I could make it was a nightmare.

I work nights, am often out of Leicester and was also going on vacation, but every time I left a message saying I couldn't make a certain appointment, they just churned out another letter with another unsuitable appointment.

I asked them to phone me back, but they never did. Ten seconds speaking to an actual human being instead of a machine would have saved a lot of time and money.

Secondly there was a student (doctor?) sitting in with the consultant.

I spoke to them very pleasantly and smiled, but they stared back stonily with no change of expression and basically refused to acknowledge my existence.

They didn't smile once and made me feel quite uncomfortable.

As someone else on here has said, there doesn't seem to be much importance attached to making people feel better about their situation.

Please tell students to put in a bit of an effort to show some basic manners.

In the future they're probably going to be doctors themselves, and an integral part of their training should be "not making your patients feel bad".

Holistic medecine and all that - treat the patient not the disease.