A letter arrived from a doctor telling me it was time to make an appointment for a check-up.  The problem was that the last time I saw the doctor he told me “come back in five years time” . That was exactly a year before.

But when I called I was told to hang on….and told to hang on…and told to hang on.  I tried another line – same thing.  Eventually, having wasted 20 minutes on this matter already, I spoke to a woman who told me the letter was a mistake, and that this often occurred. I wondered what would have happened had I made an appointment in good faith and spent a morning there, only to find they didn’t need me to come.  Were I a wage- earner I could have lost a morning’s wages.  I told the woman that, aside from anything else, being kept for ages on the line and being asked to stay there when no one was on duty was a waste of the customer’s precious time and shouldn’t happen.  She couldn’t have cared less.

My point is not just a rant about the American medical system, it is the lack of good manners and training.  It happens a lot in the American healthcare system.  Doctors, especially surgeons, skin doctors and those with anything to do with the digestive system, make huge sums of money, and while their technical skills are usually fine, the management-of- people bit is a bore for which they themselves are not trained, and it shows.  “The level of care for  the customer is inversely proportional to the money being made”.  (Roberts Law)

 I was brought up to empathize with others and to apologise if a mistake was made.  “I’m so sorry you have been inconvenienced.  I will draw it to the attention of my boss and we will make sure this sort of thing doesn’t happen again” – a comment like this costs nothing.  Most people understand mistakes, and make them themselves.  But to so obviously not care – and in a caring profession – is a shock for those of us who believe consideration, empathy and good manners are part and parcel of an Epicurean – or civilised – life,  and should be offerred in healthcare.