Life on the ground #3: Why are we seeing this patient?
A patient arrives 25 minutes late, refuses other slots and abuses staff. An off-duty clinician steps in, until the patient overhears an administrator's insult. What more could the practice have done?
From the archive
First published on 1 May 2023 and kept for reference. Details may have changed since then.
It seems that being on the receiving end of patient abuse is part and parcel of running a GP service. Private general practice is no different to NHS general practice in this regard, and with patients paying there can often be an added sense of entitlement.
We recently heard a story from a private GP practice where a patient arrived 25 minutes late for their appointment. The 30-minute appointment window had all but expired, and the clinician was booked for the rest of the day. The patient was offered other slots that day, in the clinician's lunch break, but refused and demanded to be seen immediately, without acknowledging the effect on other patients and their appointments. Their language and manner were threatening to administrators, doctors and other patients waiting for their appointments.
An off-duty clinician arrived at the practice at this point and offered to solve the problem by seeing the patient themselves. The matter seemed resolved, until the patient overheard an administrator, who had been on the receiving end of the abuse, exclaim from a nearby office: "Why are we seeing this patient, they're a complete a*******?" The patient's anger rose even higher. They refused treatment and left the practice a one-star review on several review websites.
The practice carried out a significant event analysis to see what could be improved in a similar situation, replied to the patient's reviews, and offered the staff member additional training in handling difficult interactions.
Over to you
What more could they have done? Do you have any tips for dealing with tricky patient interactions?
