Over the last two weeks we have seen an increase in abuse and unreasonable behaviour towards members of our team.
We have a zero tolerance policy and will issue warnings to patients where necessary.
We do not accept patients (or their families) shouting and swearing at our team.
We work hard as a practice to meet both our own and patients’ expectations. This isn’t easy given the pressures we are facing.
At the end of the day, every member of our team is a human being doing a job. They shouldn’t fear coming to work, they shouldn’t be threatened whilst earning a living, they shouldn’t be verbally abused when trying to help.
We know patients can get frustrated. We understand you probably don’t feel well, you may be in pain and you just want help and we do take this into consideration.
The system is under immense pressure. We are doing our best. We have a limited number of clinicians and appointments.
We make appropriate signposting suggestions to other services so that patients are seen faster or by someone more specialised (eg opticians).
At this time of year we are incredibly busy with vaccines in addition to the normal work. Our staff may be working long hours and giving up their weekends to the benefit of our patients.
Please be kind, please consider whether your expectations are reasonable, please give us a chance, we are human after all.
Thank you