"They made me feel like a timewaster"

Having first gone to GP for an urgent appointment, I was told to go to hospital as they can do tests.

I was in pain, I was frightened and I thought I was having a heart attack. I was on my own. It made sense to attend the hospital on site. I was told to wait for a doctor to speak to me.

The Dr arrived quickly and immediately berated me for attending and proceed to lecture me. They told me I had been there before and knew it was call first. They made me feel like a timewaster.

The doctor showed no empathy and didn't seem to have any interest in my health. I said I thought I was having a heart attack and tried to say how I was feeling. They did not seem interested. I was crying. As I was trying to talk the doctor kept asking if I had chest pains. They were not listening to me. They said they could give me a late afternoon appointment and all I could think was I could be dead by then and women do not always have chest pain.

I felt attacked and belittled (we were in a public area). I was not taken seriously. The doctor did not appear to care. It felt like they did not want to know if I was ill or not. They did not seem to care about my previous medical history or mental wellbeing (and as they had my medical history perhaps should have taken me seriously).

I understand it’s a phone first system but the time it took to chastise me could have been spent triaging me and helping me either medically or redirecting me.

I went to another hospital who did treat me.