Arrogant doctor’s heavy-handed attitude shows some medics just don’t care about their patients

DURING a recent car trip, my wife suddenly felt ill and we rushed to the nearest hospital.

What followed was a living nightmare, ending, ultimately, with my wife and I being thrown out of the emergency room of Craigavon Area Hospital.

The nightmare began when, after three hours waiting without for a doctor, I asked about the words ‘breech time’ on my wife’s medical notes.

A doctor snatched the document from me that had been placed outside the cubicle my wife was in, saying we “had no right to see them”.

He said: “It is against the law to read them. You’ll have to apply formally in writing to the relevant authority, which would then decide whether you could access them or not.”

I told the doctor this seemed excessively secret and, as a long-time medical journalist and author, I would inform media colleagues about it.

The doctor refused to give his name, or an approximate time when my wife might be seen by a doctor, or any diagnosis.

The only consultation was a brief nurse visit for blood and urine samples.

Later, the same doctor approached us, saying he had spoken to the consultant and we must leave immediately, as I had “threatened” him with a complaint to the health authority and the media, including a newspaper I once worked for, the Belfast Telegraph.

My sick wife, having no one to treat her, became more upset, but had to leave without treatment of any kind.

Is this how doctors — public servants, whose education is partially funded by the taxpayer — should treat patients?

Is simple courtesy to stressed patients and families too much to ask?

SEAN HILLEN Belfast