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Practice bosses are warning patients they will not tolerate abuse after a spike in hostility towards members of staff made them feel “scared and upset”.
Those working at Park Surgery in Herne Bay were sworn at on a daily basis throughout August by members of the public frustrated with measures brought in during the pandemic.
When lockdown was imposed in the spring, staff rarely had to deal with any such incidents.
But after the Covid-19 restrictions were eased in July, receptionists were shouted at and exposed to greater levels of vitriol from people trying to book appointments and prescriptions.
And practice partner Jeremy Carter says foul-mouthed patients could be struck off the surgery’s list if they continue to behave rudely.
“It’s not acceptable for the receptionists to come to work and get shouted at or abused when they’re just doing their job and trying to help the patient,” he explained.
“If they’re continually getting this level of hostility it can be quite wearing on them. It makes them uneasy and fearful.
“Verbal abuse can be extremely detrimental to their mental wellbeing. It’s a concern. It’s not something we’ll tolerate.”
Dr Carter attributes the spike in abusive behaviour to patients’ disillusionment with the surgery’s decision to continue using measures designed to lower the risk of Covid-19 spreading.
Patients currently need to have an initial telephone appointment, before seeing a doctor face-to-face.
Dr Carter added: “Perhaps some patients are getting a little fatigued with being in the system we’re in.
“It’s coincided with lockdown easing and people coming back to some degree of normality, and maybe some of them then wondered why these changes in how we were operating were still here.”
Dr Carter stresses that those who have behaved unpleasantly represent a “small minority” of the practice’s 22,000 registered patients.
“Bearing in mind the profession we’re in, we might have a patient who’s distressed so we might have an interaction that’s more challenging,” he continued.
“We accept that’s part of the job – but there was certainly a rise in that in August. There’s no indication that it’s got worse recently.
“If a patient’s behaving unacceptably we can write to them and give them a warning. If it continues or if there’s an event we thought was dangerous, we’d have them removed from the practice list.”
