Homeless man: I was laughed at by GP staff
A homeless man with bronchitis was horrified when a GP’S receptionist listed his address as “Bench by the River Tay, Perth.” Scott Cummings, 49, visited his doctor about his chest problems after spending eight months sleeping rough.
But he was left humiliated when a staff member at the Yellow Practice in Drumhar Health Centre, Perth, filled out the address on his prescription as a bench. He had already been embarrassed when the woman quizzed him about where he lived in front of other patients in the busy waiting room.
Mr Cummings said: “When I spoke to the receptionist, she asked for my address. I told her I was homeless and she just laughed in my face.
“There was a waiting room with more than a dozen people listening in, so I found this really embarrassing. She asked me three times.
“She asked me where I slept the night before, and I told her on a bench down by the river.”
He added: “I couldn’t believe when I looked at the label and saw the words ‘Bench, by the River Tay, Perth’.”
A spokeswoman for the practice refused to discuss individual patients but said: “We are sorry the patient feels disappointed in the service he received.”