Title: NHS nurse describes non-verbal autistic patient as “nightmare” within range of their hearing.
Source: London Autistic man
Date received: Jan 2021
Details:
While attending an NHS surgery for a routine appointment, an autistic patient who is rarely able to talk and most frequently communicates in writing with NHS staff, overheard nurses describe him as “a nightmare” while he stood in the waiting area.
A nurse who had previously seen the patient aproached the one he was about to see and was heard to say “Is it him? I just wonder if it’s the same one. If it is, he’s a nightmare.”
The patient was stunned to find them saying such things just a few metres away, behind a barrier which obscured vision but not sound.
The nurse went on to say “He’s very nice, but he’s a nightmare.”
The patient attended the appointment and went through the motions, as usual, providing information on the relevant medical condition and saying nothing about the conversation he had heard. Upon returning home, he sent a detailed email to the Surgery administrator and shortly after received a brief apology and a promise of an investigation.
Ten days later, the patient received a written letter apologising for the comments and claiming that the nurse actually said “Getting hold of him is a nightmare”. The patient disputes this, being quite sure of what he heard and also points out that when he once received a phone call from the nurse in question, she was told by another household member that he could not speak to her on the phone but would always reply to emails. She refused to email or write to him and a number of further appointments were wasted because of this. The issue was ultimately completely resolved through emails from the patient to the Surgery administration staff. The patient says he can present evidence that he has replied to all emails from the surgery staff in less than an hour, except for on one occasion when an email was received at late office hours, 18:27, when he promptly replied the next morning. He maintains there is no reasonable way to categorise him as difficult or “a nightmare” to get hold of.
The patient does not want to reveal the location of the surgery as he is going to take up the complaint with central NHS administration. He feels strongly that although there is no lasting harm caused to him by the nurse’s discriminatory comments, the double standard of NHS staff being free to insult patients whist their premises are covered in posters declaring “zero tolerance” regarding any abuse of staff, is simply something that should not be left unchallenged.