I once had to take my father, who has since passed away, to the emergency section of a hospital. There were quite a number of people waiting for attention. After two hours, nothing happened, no one was summoned “NEXT”. Nothing.

Two doctors on duty were joking at the front counter most of that time, seemingly unconcerned about the people waiting. An elderly Indian couple came in, the man’s arm around his wife, clearly concerned about her. She looked really ill and stressed. The husband asked the doctors to please check her as they thought she may have had a heart attack or an impending one. The response was, “where do you live?” and “Why did you not go to a hospital in your own area?” They made every effort to make it difficult and unwelcome. The whole scenario was : why are you bothering us?

I can’t with all honesty say whether they eventually did give her attention or not, because at that point I felt such repulsion and disgust by their lack of interest. The stress this elderly couple had endured to come all the way to the hospital and still be treated in that manner made it impossible for me to keep quiet and I confronted the doctors. Its really not my style, but it was one of those moments in life where you simply cannot shut up! They acted like little gods and I told them that. It progressed to a point where I was told to take my father and leave. I refused and said they were employed to treat patients, whereupon the one, having become aware that he had stepped out of the line of duty, said “OK, we’ll treat him, but you must go.”

I phoned my sister and asked her to come and take over from me. When she arrived, I left, but not before I asked her to make sure he got medical attention and not to be put off by them.

The Monday, after that weekend, I phoned the Matron and told her about it. She said they had received complaints before but she needed it in writing. I’ll never know what actually transpired after that, but I do know that nine years after the event, there has been a massive improvement. I’d like to think my small contribution helped in some way.

I guess it was not all that passive!