"I'm not doing that again!"

What I liked

The nursing staff were very nice.

Chairs were comfy.

What could be improved

Maybe it's me.

Maybe it's my fault.

After all I was very nervous and probably gabbled a bit; perhaps making it a little difficult to understand and interact.

Or maybe it wasn't me.

Maybe it was that the person I saw had a really poor bedside manner: oscillating between the aggressive / patronising and the dismissively disinterested.

And that's perhaps that's why I felt like I was being processed rather than examined / treated.

Now I realise that this 'difficulty' could just be a personality clash. It happens - we've all met people with whom we just don't get on. Or it could be that I'm over-sensitive and that my nervousness made it difficult to establish a rapport.

That said, you would hope that a highly paid ?????? would have learnt to take into consideration the obvious (and confessed) nervous state and to modify their approach, tone, body language etc. Many people are very nervous, anxious and not exactly at their best when they're concerned they might have something seriously wrong with them. It is, after all, a hospital and not an automotive body shop. A little empathy wouldn't hurt.

[contd in Any other comments]

Anything else?

Of course, it's not easy to prove this sort of thing: one man's cold, clinical and uncommunicative is another's efficient and professional.

But I think, however, that I have one piece of convincing evidence with which I can effectively backup my case: I have no idea who he was. When my GP asks me who I saw, I'll have to tell them that I just don't know. Not only did he not introduce himself - the introduction was no more than just "Sit down there!" - but he didn't even tell me what position he holds; what he does. I have no idea if he's a consultant / surgeon, a junior doctor, a staff nurse. Just who on earth was he? Dunno.

That lack of communication was both illustrative and indicative of a general lack of interest in me as a person. I felt like an inconvenience. Actually, it wasn't just that I felt like a burden, when I suggested (as tactfully as I was able; bit peed off at the time) that he might want to consider reviewing his bedside manner it was intimated that it was my fault alone that I felt so uncomfortable.

I should add that this relationship is at an end - I'll ask my GP for an alternative - so I'll most likely never find out by whom I was being belittled and patronised. But then I don't expect that the grandly rewarded Doctor Who?? cares two hoots about me (or anyone else) either.