Dear Christine,
On September 6thI took my two daughters to [a] polyclinic around 9 a.m.
My oldest, who is nine, had an extremely high fever, her eyes were hurting and she was very weak with a slight touch of diarrhoea.
My nine-month-old had the cold and was very miserable because she was teething.
On arriving at the clinic I spoke to the clerk and later, a nurse. I explained the situation to both and the children’s notes were pulled. We were told to sit and we did.
After 90 minutes I inquired from the nurse if my daughters’ names had been called, she said no without even lookingb at me.
After waiting another hour and watching my daughter curl up in the chair shivering, I felt like crying. I returned to the nurse and explained my daughter had a really high fever. She asked me “why had I now come”. She assessed her and realised she had a really high fever, then assessed the baby and sent us to sit again.
I sat there and watched people come, spoke to the nurse, then went straight into the doctor’s office.
The other patients begun complaining about the long wait as some were there from 8:05 a.m.
Finally a nurse came at 12:30 p.m. and asked if the doctor said he was leaving at 2 p.m. I said no. We the parents inquired from the nurse if he was leaving and she said she did not know. Around 1:15 p.m. patients started inquiring from the doctor if he had their notes.
The doctor came out of his office to explain the problem. He allowed the patients to know that we should have been turned back at the door that morning and we should be home.
Some patients who were there from morning said so but the doctor said that we were ungrateful and right now we “were begging to be seen”.
He said if anyone had a problem they should leave now.
An elderly lady proceeded to ask a question and he cut her short and told her he wasn’t taking any questions. He said he would see the patient in his office, then leave if the patients didn’t shut up.
I told him what he said was not nice and he said he didn’t care. He said again that we were begging to be seen.
When I asked him “doctor what does the sign say”, he responded “you are being rude I won’t be seeing you”. After other people challenged him, he called for the guard.
The doctor removed my two daughters notes and another young lady’s because we did not agree with him. Three o’clock came and other doctors were dealing with appointments. The other young lady was seen by another doctor around 4:15 p.m.
My oldest daughter was seen at 4:25 p.m.
She was diagnosed with a throat infection.
My baby was not seen because the clinic shuts down at 4:30 p.m. We were the last in the clinic; even the nurses had left.
We need to have more respect for each others lives. Doctors should not be allowed to do as they like.
The sign I asked the doctor about was referring to the order in which patients were seen. It said first emergencies, second appointments, third walk ins.
It is said this doctor conducts himself in this manner all the time and nothing is ever done. What can be done?
If we don’t stand up who will?
– SW
Dear SW,
No doctor has any right to speak to patients in this disrespectful manner. He needs to be reported to the Chief Medical Officer and be disciplined.
No patient attending a polyclinic in Barbados should ever feel that they are begging for attention; that is our right!
Your letter was very detailed so I had to delete parts of it to fit into this space, but the fact that you stated where and what time this incident occurred and who was involved means it can be investigated.
If this incident occurred as you outlined, this doctor’s behaviour was disgraceful and need to be dealt with promptly.
– Christine