I’m an NHS doctor and my first word to patients is this – sorry (2 March 2022)

Summary

“Hi, I’m the doctor. First I need to apologise for how long you’ve been waiting.”

An apology is now the default way I introduce myself to patients in the busy emergency department where I work, writes an emergency medicine consultant in an article for the Independent newspaper.

An apology for the shortage of beds, an apology for the shortage of staff and most importantly for the person in front of him, an apology for how long they’ve waited, in pain and distress, to be seen.