CN: disability discrimination
Today I had a task – make appointment with specialist for urgent test.
I wrote out my letter, as I always do, with my name and that I want to make an appointment and asking for accommodations for my disability and for a copy of any forms so I can fill them out at home since I can’t write very well. Armed with my letter and the referral, I fought against rush hour traffic and made it in at around 4:45pm.
Well, first the receptionist took my letter and walked out on me.
I stood in the waiting room for so long I considered sitting down because I was shaking and, having just had yet another blood test, was not great at standing anyway. (After two years of no tests, I have had three in four weeks, roughly the equivalent of a full blood donation at the Red Cross, but without the bikkies and soda at the end. Huh.)
The receptionist came back and sat down, and then said “is that your referral letter?”. Which, well, yes, since it was attached to the letter that said here is the referral letter and receptionist had to actually split them up…
So then the receptionist walked out again.
Eventually they came back and were like “you can’t type to us because the computers all have patient data do you still want an appointment?” and I’m like … this is urgent, like, wtf are you doing. The receptionist ignored me nodding and kept asking if I still wanted the appointment. My phone crashed, and wouldn’t let me type on it, and the receptionist started yelling about whether I could even hear, and I tried signing.
So, the receptionist walked out again, and came back with what was apparently meant to be a kindly little old man, who strongly insisted I go with him. In the time the receptionist had been gone, I had managed to reboot my phone and was waiting for it to complete. The kindly little old man turned out to be a doctor, and he took it upon himself to explain to me what the referral letter said, after telling me off for signing because he didn’t understand, and refusing to wait for my phone to finish booting and keeping on asking me to write because that’s easier (because I can totally hold a pen and write letters the right way and in order, oh wait, no I can’t).
Finally, my phone worked, and
I know what’s going on, I’m not stupid.
“Oh. Well, I’m not doing that.”
I am here to make an appointment
“I’m explaining to you why we can’t do this immediately,”
Nobody sees anyone immediately
Why am I not allowed to make an appointment
And so then the kindly little old man walked away from me, dumped the referral on the receptionist’s keyboard and said to make the appointment.
So then back to that.
“I DON’T KNOW HOW TO COMMUNICATE HERE OH MY GOD” receptionist said, and almost walked out again, but then sat back down, and got huffy with me for not being able to write my phone number.
“But our doctors are old, and they don’t always come in, and we have to let you know to not come in. Or you can come in anyway and we can send you home.”
Well, that’s totally promising… not…
“And you’ll type on your phone?”
Uh, no, that’s not going to well, is it, reception person? They wouldn’t even look at it.
And they made appointment for me, did not give me any options as to time or date, and then told me I can’t drive because the test requires eyedrops. And explained what a gap means. Because clearly, they think that not talking means I’m deaf and stupid.
And I think, perhaps, I am going to take great glee from writing all this out, walking in, putting it on the desk, and walking back out. Because the urgent test? Has been scheduled for the end of May. It needed to be done in the next two weeks. And I also kind of like being treated with respect, if not actual politeness and compassion.
Because, obviously, if I am going in with a letter that says ‘may I please make an appointment’ I am not expecting the appointment to occur at that exact moment, particularly when it’s past closing time and all this time being left alone while they threw hissy fits meant that the three minute process of ‘sure, here’s a time, is that okay’ took half an hour. At least, it should have been obvious. Or, at the very least, the receptionist should not have refused to deal with me and walked out because I was signing.
…
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated occurrence, or a unique one. People just suck sometimes. Or all the time, or most of the time, but definitely more than commonly. Something about me being different and confident and expecting people to treat me nicely.
Like, whoever has heard of a doctor coming out to explain a referral that they did not make and was not to them, because the receptionist refused to make an appointment? If I was able to talk, that wouldn’t have happened.
The whole thing was completely unprofessional. There is nothing about my having a disability which justifies this kind of behaviour. And, of course, that calls into question whether the test would be done correctly, or reported accurately, or… and honestly, if the doctor being old and not coming in because of that sometimes is a thing, then how am I meant to trust that they’re capable of doing their job? Not because they’re old, but because apparently being old means they’re so infirm that they cannot reliably attend work? (Which is what “our doctors are old and sometimes can’t come in” means, as opposed to “in case we need to reschedule”.)
And, for reference, when the receptionist was making a fuss about how I can’t write, I said if it was too hard I would ask the GP to refer me elsewhere.
“It’s up to you,” they said. The venom in this statement cannot be conveyed by text, but honestly? I’m not trusting a doctor whose staff hate me that much simply for having a disability which means they need to come off autopilot. Particuarly not when I have to, apparently, sacrifice a sense. Because, did you know, “you might not be able to see properly after because they use eye drops”? Like that’s, you know, a surprise. (Oh wait, I have visual disturbances without eye drops.) But because I wasn’t consulted as to the day or time, I also have the issue of, if I’m not meant to drive home… getting there and back. The bus doesn’t go close enough, if I can’t see I can’t even call a taxi even if that was guaranteed to be safe (ha), and it’s not like I have anyone who can take me. So there’s that as well, because if they’re going to be saying ‘you can’t drive’, they also need to give me (and any other patient) the opportunity to make arrangements to facilitate that.
I shouldn’t be surprised – nobody’s let me type properly to them since I left the psychiatrist, who used to arrange it for me (and still had a spotty success rate). I’m stuck writing letters and being limited to 100 characters per sentence. But the thing is, if I ask for accommodations, and they do not provide them, they then cannot blame me for being hard to communicate with, as they’re actively and knowingly preventing me doing so. If they walk out on me because I’m signing, that’s them being rude, and if, in order to get permission to make an appointment, the reason why I can’t have an appointment has to be explained to me, then that’s just flat out wrong. It wouldn’t have happened if I could talk. If I could talk, I also wouldn’t have had to be there.
I have a lot of rage right now, and anything else I have to say on this will just be going around in circles. In short: this was not okay. It’s obvious it was not okay. It is not okay that it is not an isolated not okay incident. And if I go back to the GP and say I was not allowed to make an appointment because of my disability and that I do not feel safe going back, I expect that to be respected, because at some point, everyone has to accept that there is no reason to treat me like anything less because I have a disability, and particularly not when seeking treatment or testing related to that. It doesn’t matter whatever symptoms I have, I am entitled to the same standard of treatment and civility as anyone else. If people cannot respect that, then they miss out on my business.
And also, I really can’t wait three months.
glittermetalprincess 