Rude Doctors.

[Blackmagic1515]

Last week I had to take a friend of mine to hospital because she hurt her arm while we were at college. We sat in the A&E waiting room for, I kid you not, four hours before she was seen. I actually had to go up and ask if she'd be seen soon and it turned out they'd forgotten about her. When she was finally called through, she had to wait another fourty minutes before actually seeing the doctor.

Now what happened was three months ago she hurt her arm. We think she fractured it. But when she went to the hospital they said her GP had to refer her to the hospital, which is utter rubbish. Unfortunately she has alot of other stuff going on and couldn't manage it. So when she hurt it last week we took her back to the hospital. She could barely move her fingers, had a swollen lump on her wrist and actually went into shock one point from the pain. The doctor then tries to tell her it was jump bruised soft tissue from where she fell on it. She didn't fall, all she did was pick her bag up and it clicked. When she tried explaining what happened he had a go at her about how he didn't want to here about past injuries only the current one, even though it was an old one she'd hurt again. He then said it was just sprained and to put some ice on it. When we asked about having an X-ray done to check for a fracture he said they don't do X-rays there nor deal with fractures...in the A&E of a hospital.

Now unfortunately I didn't see this doctor as my friend's mum went in with her but his attitude and the bullsh*t responses he gave have been driving me insane all week. I was wondering if this sort of thing had happened to anyone else or if it's just my friends bad luck? If it has, how did you deal with it?

Oh, and sorry for the wall of text. I really needed to rant =p

 

[Lord George]

Doctors are under a lot of stress most of the time, if your not dying its unlikely they will care too much about you or on matters of curtsey. If you went to A&E for only a minor fracture then it does seem like you may have been wasting the doctors time, there suppose to be dealing with the horrible life threatening illness's not the minor ones there. Its a shame but thats how it is.

 

[Blackmagic1515]

I guess thats true. It just annoyed me the fact that he was rude and shouted at her. And that he refused to give her an X-ray or any help at all. Plus almost everyone else there had similar minor injuries like my friend had. Stress or no stress it doesn't make how he treated her right.

 

[Berethond]

I guess thats true. It just annoyed me the fact that he was rude and shouted at her. And that he refused to give her an X-ray or any help at all. Plus almost everyone else there had similar minor injuries like my friend had. Stress or no stress it doesn't make how he treated her right.

They don't do fracture X-rays at hospitals. They do them at urgent care facilities, which is where she should have gone.

And, if you only had to wait four hours, you're lucky. My dad had to wait eight once.

 

[DazZ.]

I buggered my foot up down a handrail once, couldn't walk so we decided to mish it to hospital, a mixture of piggy backs and one foot skating all the way (stopping off in a cafe for tea).

Get there and I had waited about an hour before asking when, and my foot was pretty huge at this point, I ended up leaving at about 2 hours and just giving up. I had crutches at home from previous incidents so just used them for a bit and it sorted itself out.

But yeah, haven't bothered with hospital since for myself, and I really don't like referring people there (when I'm being a lifegaurd) because I know it will take ages and the doctor will just say what I said (Ice/rest or whatever).

I'd only go to hospital if I couldn't physically get there at the moment.

 

[Nepeccel]

Ah yeah, I only realised this a couple of months ago, some hospitals don't have an A&E but have a sort of drop-in place you can go for minor injuries

 

[fix-the-spade]

Now unfortunately I didn't see this doctor as my friend's mum went in with her but his attitude and the bullsh*t responses he gave have been driving me insane all week. I was wondering if this sort of thing had happened to anyone else or if it's just my friends bad luck? If it has, how did you deal with it?

When I had 3rd degree burns up most of my right arm and the skin was hanging off it like a sheet.

She wanted my name and address, fair enough, then asked me if I had the right to work in the UK, my response of You fucking well what?! didn't go down too well with her. Neither did the next fifty F bombs that spewed out of my my mouth at Yorkshire volume when she told me not to be so rude. Bear in mind I was staggering around in the A&E entrance with the skin of my arm dangling about and bleeding profusely at this point.

Then a different nurse pumped full of vicodin and pentazemine and all was well in the world, she was nice.

 

[Bofus Teefus]

A problem we have in the US is that people go to the emergency room for non-emergencies. This causes congestion in the ER and interferes with the care of people who really need it. It happens more frequently in our more impoverished areas. You're arm is off! Why are you not being seen? The idiot parent next to you bringing their kid in with the sniffles is why.

 

[AkJay]

Did he look to be about 45-50? unshaven, unkempt, and walk around with a cane with 4 people behind him?

 

[Lullabye]

eh, most doctors i met have the most morbid humor ever. but i'll be damned if they wern't nice.

 

[Kodlak]

Doctors are a lot busier than they look, I am doing a placement year at the moment in a hospital, and it's amazing how much work they have to do even on a night shift. And most I've spoken to have a temper because of the stress, and a sort of mental barrier to all around them because it can be too easy to get attached to some patients.

 

[megapenguinx]

Chances are, if you go to a public hospital you'll be waiting around for quite some time. The longest I've ever had to wait was 30mins in one, and that was because they were "busy". I have heard of horror stories though where people had to wait for several days at a time just to even see a doctor.

 

[Low Key]

Pretty much all of the doctors and nurses I have met have been very nice, and I have met a lot of them throughout my years. My mom spent 88 days in the ICU after some really bad stuff, and now I drive her to doctor's appointments at least once a week. You're in England and I'm in America though. Don't know if that makes a difference or not.

It's really a case by case thing. Sometimes people have bad days. Sorry for your experience.

 

[Random Argument Man]

Sheesh 4 hours? I waited a whole day when I had my accident with a bandsaw.

EDIT: Ok, bad doctor moment though. I hitted a car while I was driving downhill with my bike.

I had bruises all over my leg and I could't move my left hand. The doctor I had was a total *****. She didn't wanted me to take an X-Ray, she moved my left harm which caused me a lot of pain and she said I'll be fine.

The next morning. I was in total pain.
We talked to a second doctor. He gave me a X-Ray. The wrist is broken. He sets me up for surgery.

 

[Aesir23]

Now unfortunately I didn't see this doctor as my friend's mum went in with her but his attitude and the bullsh*t responses he gave have been driving me insane all week. I was wondering if this sort of thing had happened to anyone else or if it's just my friends bad luck? If it has, how did you deal with it?

When I had 3rd degree burns up most of my right arm and the skin was hanging off it like a sheet.

She wanted my name and address, fair enough, then asked me if I had the right to work in the UK, my response of You fucking well what?! didn't go down too well with her. Neither did the next fifty F bombs that spewed out of my my mouth at Yorkshire volume when she told me not to be so rude. Bear in mind I was staggering around in the A&E entrance with the skin of my arm dangling about and bleeding profusely at this point.

Then a different nurse pumped full of vicodin and pentazemine and all was well in the world, she was nice.

Gotta love the nurses that deal out the painkillers.

 

[Godavari]

I'm pretty sure that's just the American way of doing it. I know her pain.
I tried the health care in Canada once when I had pneumonia. They did a freakin' CAT scan.

 

[Octorok]

I was playing rugby when I took a funny tumble and my arm twisted at an awkward angle. Hurt like hell but I had five minutes off with an ice-pack and the sub they put on instead of me had let a try get past and my team was getting nowhere.

I insisted that I was fine and had to be allowed back on the pitch because he was costing us the game. Later on in a regular tackle it got stood on with the full weight and force of a rugby boot at the end of a huge forward. My arm literally splintered.

I had blood everywhere, six large punctures bleeding profusely and my bones had split in half and come out of my arm, bending the flesh at a right angle. You know, the way bones don't.

I was rushed to A&E where I had to wait four goddamn hours to be attended to. It was an empty room. I was left passed out in a wheelchair bleeding into my lap covered in a muddy rugby kit. I was woken up later by a ***** of a nurse who asked me why I was just waiting around, ignoring the obvious injury. I was in major shock and so had trouble getting across the fact that I was injured beyond a vague grunting and a bizarre motion that was all I could achieve with my intact arm.

The nurse noticed the pool of blood below my chair and sighed like it was my personal fault and said that I shouldn't have been so messy. He pushed me out of the way and essentially hid me behind a potted plant.

My rugby coach came back at this point from getting a coffee and asked where I was. The nurse asked who he was. He told her and she said that since he wasn't my legal guardian he couldn't sign me in to be given any drugs, me being underage and all. He got pissed at this and pointed out that I was bleeding and had been waiting for hours with my fucking bones out of my arm without anyone coming to help us, there having been nobody at the reception desk and nobody walking about.

I was eventually put in an ambulance and told that the children's ward was closed for the night anyway and there was no room for me to get any surgery for another eight hours, so I was being taken to another hospital.

There I was given a shitload of drugs and asked how long it had been since the accident. He said about five hours. The doctor literally dropped his jaw. He pointed out that I had a dangerous injury and would require immediate surgery and asked why I was not sent over sooner if the other hospital was full. He said that he didn't know and that there was only one nurse on duty and she had not admitted me to the hospital or given me any form of medical attention. The doctor said that was incredible and rang up the other hospital (while I was being wheeled over to an X-Ray room) and apparently filed a very angry complaint against the nurse and I heard that she had several similar complaints against her name and was fired about a month later.

I have no sympathy for her. Fuck's sake a fucking ten-year-old in extreme bleeding pain with my arm literally bent in half at the forearm with my bones snapped and on show to the world.

I have a large scar now because apparently I moved just enough in the five-ish hours that I was in shock that my bones had moved into a position that they could not have pinned back together, but had to remove some of the bone and seal the two parts together with metal plates that I had to keep for three bloody years because some ***** wouldn't let me into the hospital to get basic medical attention.

 

[Low Key]

I'm pretty sure that's just the American way of doing it. I know her pain.

The OP is in the UK.