Experienced a rather irritating experience today, let me explain...............
My husband and I (same sex couple and married as far as I am concerned) have recently bought a house, cutting a long story short, Daniel had a negative mowing the lawn experience resulting in acute back pain. Being the nursing professional I am I knew how to manage this without seeking help but my partner's condition deteriorated resulting in a new symptom 'active vomiting'. I was concerned and took him to the walk in centre *oh yes I know not to waste A&E time, it is for emergencies only after all*
After waiting for 2hrs in the waiting room *patiently* we were finally seen by the GP who did routine tests and asked for a sample of urine from Daniel who reported to me " I have only just been before I came in" to which I replied "well squeeze some more out, in my authoritative tone". GP diagnosed him with a urine infection and started him on Nitrofurantoin for 3 days. In my clinical mind I was thinking.. let's see how this one plays out.
Now onto the juicy bit... I contacted my local surgery to register ourselves as new patients (must add that I went there only a week ago to get the forms to be told that "you must book a patient assessment before you can be registered". I took this a caring intervention and said "I will look at our diaries and ring you back with a convenient time".
Anyway, back onto contacting the local surgey.... RING RING... RING RING.... confronted with "Hello surgery".... I reply "is this ********** **** Surgery?"...... "Yes".... "oh I didn't know it was ********** ******* as all I heard was SURGERY".... not a good start the first conversation eh?
I explained that I picked up the registration forms last week and was ringing to make an appointment for my partner and to come and have a patient assessment (added in that unfortunately I had to take my partner to the walk in centre yesterday and he needs a follow up with the GP this week)... this is where it gets climactic....
"What is her name?" to which I replied "HIS name is Mr bla bla bla"..... phone goes silent...
At this point I would like to state that a normal person with effective communication skills would have replaced the previous phrase with "Can I have your partner's name please" or stated "excuse me for that" now I am not the biggest complainer but this is common sense.
Now she obviously was uncomfortable with the situation but I kindly explained my relationship status as a matter of course.
I then asked the receptionist to confirm the appointment times back to me for each of us and then experienced a complete reluctance to state my partner's name.
Moral to the story... people might be uncomfortable with conversations relating to relationship structures but this receptionist is an employee of the healthcare service; simple adjustment in thinking and sensitivity for patients situation is needed.
