I am not violent . . .
nor do I easily lose my temper, swear or otherwise intimidate other people (intimidate? I'm 5ft nothing for goodness' sake)
But . . . two days ago I threw a patient out of a clinic. *Do not* piss off a Greek girl . . .

Why?

Well, I was always raised to be polite - "please" and "thank-you"; to show respect for elders, and especially to be polite to three members of the community: policemen, doctors, and priests.

Mr AGF (Arrogant Greek Fuckwit) is a 20 year-old who sauntered into clinic Wednesday morning (public outpatient clinic in a very busy hospital), with chronic pain problems after a wrist injury sustained in a car accident. He also wanted an extension on his sick certificate (it's been 9 months already). My junior resident had a chat to me, then asked for help (from me) - something's not right she feels; he should be better now, but his range of motion is lousy, and all he wants is more time off work. We had a chat about him outside the room (with AGF listening) about his options for rehab - BTW this guy has been stringing his injury out for a l o n g time, claiming Workcover *and* TAC should cover his bills.

AGF bellows: "come in here and say all that to my face instead of talking about me outside!"

Mrs Legless enters the room and tells AGF exactly what she told her resident - ie: your injury was a long time ago, and you're still not as mobile as I would want. You need to take responsibility for your own rehab - it's your wrist, not mine, and your problem if neglect your physiotherapy. We can offer you help, but you need to be the one who controls your own rehab.



Actually, that wasn't quite what happened . . .



Mrs Legless enters the room with a resident in tow. I'm treated to a tirade of "I've been waiting here for two f*#%ing hours", "you know nothing about my injury", "don't you look at me like that" (not entirely sure what he thought I looked like), with chiming-in from AGM (arrogant Greek Mum) about how rude we all were. 5 minutes of shouting from him, with restrained replies from me, and I've had enough. AGF is frothing at the mouth, ready to leap up from his chair.

"Lana, leave the room - this is going to be a code" (code grey - violent patient - and I'm worried this dick is going to take a swing at someone). The friendly security guards arrive, and haul this little shit to their office. Funnily enough, he becomes quite contrite there "I know I have a short temper" - "I was frustrated with the wait."

Well, tough luck kiddo - you're banned from this clinic and this hospital - unfortunately for you, the surgeon who performed your surgery was next door listening to your rantings, and he doesn't want you back here - seems he's not keen on his staff being sworn at - so tootle off to your GP and find some other sucker to treat you. If you have no GP (you don't - I checked), you're on your own - but you'll need someone to fill in your certificates for obtaining your benefits.

Yes, AGF, to paraphrase you, it is my "fucking job" to deal with patients, and treat even the slack-jawed chavs that need medical attention; funny how that sort of behaviour is "not on" at your local bank or when you call the plumber around; ranting about a wait at the hairdresser's won't score you points; but walk into a clinic, hospital, or doctor's waiting room, and suddenly good manners don't apply any more.
( Mrs Legless . . . belongs to, well, you know . . . :), Fri 5 Sep 2008, 14:34, 3 replies)

if you're going to have a secret codeword for something,
choosing the word "code" seems a bit self-defeating
( spacefish bong!, Fri 5 Sep 2008, 15:03, closed)

That's awful
there's a guy over here known as "Hannibal" who needs kidney dialysis (IIRC) and isn't allowed in the hospital without a uniformed police escort. He has several convictions for attacking (verbally and physically) the staff treating him.

They're not allowed to withhold treatment because his condition's life threatening (although the world would be better off without him) and he's now costing the tax payers a fortune.

Oh the joy of the NHS ....
(TheWeeWitch hasn't been here much recently .., Fri 5 Sep 2008, 15:44, closed)

I'm fairly certain...
That if I was relying on someone like your good self to make me better, the last thing I would do would be to act like that.

But then again, I have respect for Doctors. :)

*clicks*
( Devil_In_Tights the *real* DiT!, Fri 5 Sep 2008, 16:02, closed)