health check in a corridor!

Everyday living
1

Hi gang, been for a blood test at GP`s today. Now they know me well…been a patient there for 26 years, plus been a wheelie user for 12.

So I arrive, get called in and wait at the end of the required corridor, wondering did the information notice say room 7 or room 8? So I knocked on the nearest door, as smack in front of me was an empty bookcase…nicely filling a space, but narrowing the area I was going through.

A nurse appeared from a small room, with an even smaller door (Alice in Wonderland comes to mind) and recognises me and says Oh Ive just looked at your notes. You cant get into this room, can you? Duh! Got stuck in that doorway last time.

So I ask if we can use another room, as we did before. I was told no, this is the blood room! So then she asks me what I want to do…??? did she mean did I want the bookcase moving, did I want the door widening,did I want a cup of tea, or did I want to fly to the moon! I know I `m being sarky now!

But heavens to Betsy! They KNOW me, theyve seen me get stuck in that chuffin doorway.

Next she asks me if I wouldnt mind having my blood taken in the corridor and shed put a screen around me! Ha, thats a laff…there`s hardly room for me, my wheelie, and the empty bookcase…let alone a screen!

I give in…I tell her to just take the blood where we were.

All this and there is a dirty big notice in reception, asking if patients are satisfied with the service at the GPs. Shall I fill a form in? Or can I actually be chuffin bovvered?

Have a nice afternoon guys.

luv Pollx

2

wouldn’t make a formal complaint but would write to the practise manager saying what happened. I think they have to respond. You wont be the only wheelchair user at the practice and a comment may ensure others (less robust??) may be better treated.

1 Like
3

Well, at my GPs then tend to do the flu jabs for wheelies in the waiting room!! It helps to not be in a queue but if you’re not expecting it is rather disconcerting. Last year there was a woman who was pretty much sitting in the waiting room in her bra. I’d had the experience the previous couple of years so was wearing a t-shirt under a jumper. This isn’t because we can’t fit into a room, but (I think) to prevent us clogging up the hallways. They do flu jabs in a conveyer belt type way.

Sue

1 Like
4

Hi Polly,i find the way you were treated is really bad it,s not good practise at all to have a room that,s inaccessable to wheelchair users and to have your blood taken in a hallway is astounding.

Really you should at least send a letter to te practise manager or the senior doctor in the surgery pointing out the lack off disabled access at the surgery.

Let them know that your not satisfied with the service you were given today

hope you get some feed back from them too .

Barbara.xx

1 Like
5

Blimey Poll your patience and tolerance is impressive. I dont want to be the “chippy crip” and I dont expect the world to be adapted just for me, but a medical venue that can not cope with a wheel chair ,that sucks and should be pointed out to the practice manager. i would be tempted t keep banging into the door frame and see if the management could work out what the problem might be. All the best m

6

The one place you would expect to be wheelie accessible is your local surgery! That’s inexcusable on their part. It also must be written on your notes (prominently I would hope) that you need to be seen in an accessible room.

Get writing that letter, Poll! Let them see what Boudica is known for :wink:

Tracey x

7

poll

thats awful! gp surgery is one place that def should know better!

ellie x

8

Speak to the practise manager Poll. l can’t believe that a health centre is not wheelchair friendly. Pity you did not take a photo of you stuck in the corridor. You could have ‘pinned’ a copy of it in the waiting room. lf you could not get in - what about the mum’s with twin pushchairs.

l am still waiting, and hoping, that our local district councillor will help me get the stiles/kissing gates altered so l can have access to the public footpaths with my scooter. He responded straightaway when l emailed him about it - but so far l have not heard anymore. He has a toddler and twin babies - and is a keen ‘jogger’ and walker. Often see him with a huge pushchair with them all fastened in. So he is another one who is prevented from using the pathways. His pushchair is the type that goes over all sorts of terrain.

There are steep steps up to the vets - which make it difficult for me. But the staff are so kind - and do come out to help me in - and get me back safely to the car. Thankfully, my dogs are very friendly and the vets/nurses can come out to the car and get them. They have even come out to the car, and taken sutures out after an op. Neutering etc. As l drive a 4x4 - it is a good height for them -especially with large dogs like my Rotties.

l did change dentists because l could not manage the stairs.

Complain Poll, for yourself and others in the same predicament.

9

I do agree with Tracey that the one place you’d expect to be wheelchair-accessible is the local doctor’s surgery.

After all, it’s highly unlikely you are their only wheelie patient! And the doctor’s is the one place people with disabilities more-or-less have to go - at least sometimes. You can’t simply withdraw your custom, as you might with some other establishment that wasn’t very disabled-friendly.

Having said all that, a blood test isn’t particularly intimate or personal - I’ve had one in full view of other patients before - at the MS clinic, of all places. The other patients were hooked up to infusions of a trial drug, so we were all having something done.

They were stuck there for hours, poor things, but meanwhile, recruits for a genetic study were being ushered in to get our blood done. All of us were fully dressed, whichever procedure we were having, and nobody was in distress in any way, so I don’t really feel dignity was compromised. Then again, there is the big IF of what if anything did go wrong, and you bled a lot, or threw up, or fainted or anything. Not very nice for the person it happens to, in front of an audience, but not very nice for the audience either.

If you’re in a clinic having something done, and you see something unpleasant happen to one of the other patients, it must be disturbing, to say the least.

So yeah, all fine - except in the rare event anything goes wrong, and then it’s not fine for anyone really.

Also, it seems a bit unnecessarily officious to insist another room could not be used, because of not being “the blood room”, and yet a corridor is perfectly alright. Something up with the logic there! It only takes two ticks - they could hardly claim “loss” of the room was the reason it couldn’t be done elsewhere.

Crikey, my doc’s done a blood test in her own office before! No nonsense about having to move to the “blood room”, because we weren’t in the right room. Any room that has the kit and a qualified person in it can be a “blood room”.

Tina

x

10

You need to take the swords off your chariots wheel !!! I thought your scenario was amusing initially, but time has fermented the episode to make me feel irritated about it. Why couldn’t they take you to another room? It wasn’t the blood room ! Ffs ! That needle and tray was such huge equipment to transfer, what with those little tubes and stickers ! Gather the troops, we attack at dawn… or yes, you could write a suitably sarcastic complaint. … if only they were a caring profession…

11

Thanks all, for your replies and advice.

next week, I go back for the results, health questionnaire, BP check and wee test. I was told this will take place in an accessible room…one I`ve used before…but outside at face height on the wall, is a fire extinguisher…I have to duck to miss it!

I will tell the nurse of my unhappiness this week. I will make it clear I am not happy being attended in a public corridor.

Another tale;

almost 17 years ago, our first grandchiild was born…our lovely Oscar!

We were thrilled and I opened a bank account for him, right next door to where I worked in Hebden Bridge, with the Yorkshire Bank.

in 2000 I was retired from work on ill health.

Hebden Bridge was no longer part of my world and besides, it isnt very wheelchair friendly.

So I went to the same bank in Huddersfield to change details for Osacr.

Well blow me! I couldnt get in! I called for assistance and was told, sorry no ramp, no lift, nowt!

I decided I would close the account and asked for the manager. he came outside. Paid me what was in the account and had me sign some papers…all outside on the public pavement!

I wonder if they have changed anything! Hope so.

luv Pollxx

12

Were the curtains drawn ? Maybe the couldn’t leave the corridor because no one had invited them in ? Are the walls painted red ? What am I going on about ? Anyone fancy steak ?