A 79-year-old patient claims an Ayr Hospital surgeon ‘interrogated’ him while he awaited surgery.
Louie McColm, from Prestwick, was due to have polyps removed from his colon last Thursday when he claims a senior consultant demanded to know where he had received the appointment and grilled him with questions.
The ex-army sergeant, whose dad and brother died from bowel cancer, said he had been referred to the consultant after undergoing a similar procedure three weeks earlier.
Louie, whose preparation for the op included not eating for 18 hours, told Ayrshire Live : “The nurse said I’d go in to see the consultant and they’d explain what’s going to happen.
“In comes the consultant — and I can tell they aren’t happy — and [they] start to interrogate me.
“‘How did YOU arrange this appointment? I’ve never seen you before in my life’ — this was the way the consultant was talking to me.
“And then [they] start saying ‘do you think you’re fit enough to go through this? I don’t and I certainly will not be performing this procedure’.
“I thought what the hell is going on here, I can’t believe this is happening to me.
“I just didn’t understand [them]. I hill walk, I cycle, do weight-training, I’ve got a gym in my house.
“I’m lying in an open ward with a curtain with just a gown on, there’s a patient lying next to me, and there’s all these nurses.
“So I said ‘sorry I’m not going through the procedure, on your advice’.
“Then [they] said ‘who brought you here? Phone his wife and get him out of here’.
“[They] stormed away like a baby who threw their dummy out the pram.
Louie, who is Type 2 diabetic and has two precautionary stents fitted as well as a non-dependent pacemaker, said he was not given any discharge instructions, but was later told he would not receive any due to not getting the full procedure.
Now Louie wants an apology and to ensure no-one else is spoken to in the manner in which he says he was.
He said: “It isn’t right. They shouldn’t be talking to anyone like that.
“I was a sergeant in the army and I would never speak to anybody the way that the consultant spoke to me.
“It was like an interrogation.
“I’m getting wee flash backs, waking up at 4am and can’t get back to sleep. It’s put me on edge.”
Crawford McGuffie, Medical Director at NHSA&A, said: “NHS Ayrshire & Arran takes all patient feedback, comments, concerns or complaints very seriously.
“We are sorry that a patient has felt they had to raise concerns about their care however, we are unable to comment on individual cases.
“We would encourage anyone who is unhappy with our services to contact us directly with any concerns they have. This is the only way that we can properly involve patients and families in the process and provide feedback.”
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