The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Homeless man shocked to find address given as ‘Bench by River Tay, Perth’
Humiliation after GP surgery staff print ‘address’ on prescription
A homeless man said he was left humiliated after staff at a GP surgery printed the address on his prescription as “Bench by the River Tay, Perth”.
Scott Cummings, who has been sleeping rough for eight months after the relationship with his family broke down, claims he was made a laughing stock by an employee at Perth’s Yellow Practice.
The 49-year-old, who is from Forfar, has been camping out in Perthshire and occasionally works at local estates.
He visited the practice at the city’s Drumhar Health Centre to speak to a doctor about his bronchitis.
He said: “I never get ill but I had been having problems for a while and thought I should get checked out.
“When I spoke to the receptionist, she asked for my address. I told her I was homeless and she just laughed in my face.
“She kept laughing and asking me for an address. There was a waiting room with more than a dozen people listening in, so I found this really embarrassing. She asked me three times.”
Mr Cummings gave the receptionist a “care of” address at Dunkeld. “She asked me where I slept the night before, and I told her on a bench down by the river,” he said.
But his ordeal continued when he picked up his prescription.
He said: “I couldn’t believe when I looked at the label and saw the words ‘Bench, by the River Tay, Perth’. It was totally humiliating. I’ve been told that they don’t have to include an address on the label, they can leave that part blank. But I felt they were just trying to make a fool of me.”
A spokeswoman for the practice said: “We are sorry the patient feels disappointed in the service he received, but we cannot discuss individual patients with a third party as we are bound by patient confidentiality.
“Should Mr Cummings wish to pursue his concerns further he should contact the practice.”
We are sorry the patient feels disappointed in the service he received