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Rude secretary!

Story from nhs.uk

"Rude secretary!"

About: Wansbeck Hospital

I contacted my consultant's secretary recently to ask advice on when my follow up appointment would be following treatment. As they were answering the telephone they said "for god's sake!!". The secretary comtinued to be rude unhelpfu and said they could not help i needed to phone appointments. After transferring my call to appointments which rang and rang with no answer. I then phoned the secretary back again they continued to be rude saying they could not add me to a list i stated i was not asking to be added only enquiring to see if there was a review appoinment in process, this secretary is off hand unprofessional and needs to learn manners. I work in healthcare and feel as a patient they showed very little respect at this time . I understand my consultant is very busy and their role may be stressful but that does not account for a rude manner via telephone!

They finally transferred me again and a lovely professional was able to organise an appointment.

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Responses

Response from Wansbeck Hospital 7 years ago
Wansbeck Hospital

Submitted on 30/08/2016 at 09:41
Published on nhs.uk on 31/08/2016 at 02:30

Dear Sir/Madam

Firstly let me offer an unreserved apology – we don't expect any of our patients to encounter rude or unhelpful staff. It concerns me greatly that you have had reason to feel so disrespected at this time.

The behaviour that you describe is completely unacceptable and based on my understanding of our patient feedback would be considered very unusual behaviour for most of our staff.

It is important that we establish who it was that you spoke to so that we can learn more about the conversation that took place and what actions we need to take to ensure this doesn't happen again? Unfortunately your post is anonymous so I am prevented from responding in the way I would like to.

I will make sure that your concerns get passed on to the orthopaedic team involved. In the meantime, please could you email your details to me at Annie.Laverty@nhct.nhs.uk so we can look into this further?

It is good to know you managed to speak with someone who was able to help you organise an appointment.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Annie

Annie Laverty - Director of Patient Experience

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