My beautiful wife had a health scare recently which meant we
both had no choice than to place our futures into the hands of the NHS.
On that crazy day I experienced firsthand how it feels to be
a partner waiting to hear news on their loved ones health and I have been left wondering
whether I was treated as well a husband or wife would be as part of a
heterosexual couple?
With all the forms that were filled in prior to surgery I
was always recorded as the next of kin or listed as the civil partner but I felt
throughout the whole experience that I was treated as if I was just a friend.
As my wife was wheeled off to theatre I was left to stand
teary eyed in the corridor until I gathered myself leaving without anybody
explaining what happened next. I had expected
to be sat down and told exactly what was happening, shown to some kind of relative’s
room so I could wait to hear she was safely out of surgery or even just to have
been given a phone number I could call would have been helpful, maybe I’ve just
been watching too much Grey’s Anatomy.
After 3 hours of waiting back at home I phoned the hospital
for a progress report where I was told that everything was ok but nobody had
thought to phone to tell me she was safely in recovery.
When I arrived on the hospital ward I was breathless at seeing
my partner covered in wires and being monitored carefully by a hovering nurse,
I was told visiting hours were over after just 30 minutes and was swiftly
shepherded off the ward. Thankfully the
patient was back at home the next day so I didn’t need to use my plan to evade
detection by the nurses to be able to spend more than half an hour with her, it
was such a genius plan.
I’m happy to report that after months of healing my wife is
back to her usual happy self and I could not be more grateful for the doctors
and nurses of our wonderful health system that provided my wife’s care that day.
I am however still left wondering whether this is the treatment all partners
receive no matter whether it’s a heterosexual or same-sex couple or whether I
was treated as less important that day?
Hopefully I’ll never have another event like this that I can
compare against, but have you got any stories you can share where you’ve had a
great/not so great experience of being the same-sex partner of a patient of the
National Health Service?
By: Katie Doyle
Interesting Article. We have a lot of experience of hospitals here at Planet London. We've never had an issue of the other person being recognised as partner once it's been explained (apart from the time the nurse would not believe we weren't actually sisters).
ReplyDeleteI think with the NHS sometimes it's hard to tell what might be a lack of understanding about respecting LGBT partners and what might be just the way the system is regardless of your sexual orientation. We all know it's not perfect.
Glad your wife is much better and home :)