Dr Tim Dalton, Local GP and Joint Chair of the Healthier Wigan Partnership

Does it feel like the world is getting a little more impatient, a little ruder, a little less compassionate? Every couple of days I have an interaction that surprises me. Whether it is a driver not acknowledging someone who has waited, another shopper trying to push in a queue, the ridicule one person gives another in a social media comments section simply because they disagree, or someone speaking rudely or shouting at a shop assistant or receptionist who is trying to help them.

It is something I am witnessing in my working life too as a GP.

Now, I know that the world feels less secure than it has for a very long time. War in Ukraine, the events in Isreal and Gaza, the strife in the USA. Lots of anger and blame in the news and the online world surrounding us. The cost of living is going up and up and up – every bill seeming to just grow month on month. Less tolerance, more strife, less joy everywhere you look.

All this understandably makes people tense, makes it more difficult for them to stay calm, and be thoughtful in their interactions. But just because it is understandable, does that make it ok?

GP practices across the Borough offer on average approximately 140,000 appointments a month every month and about 300,000 prescriptions. If you add all the additional things like phone calls and people dropping in practices to ask questions, GP practices in the Borough have hundreds of thousands of interactions every month.

That’s a lot of opportunities for people who are tense, finding life challenging, or just out of sorts to give them a hard time or be rude – sometimes to the point of abusive and threatening. Some of it is particularly, and particularly sadly, targeted at colleagues of different cultures, religions, or ethnicities.

Now, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t hugely common. Compared to the number of interactions it is still quite unusual, but nowhere near as unusual as it used to be. Which both disappoints and worries me.

GPs, practice nurses, receptionists and all the staff working in GP practices and health care across the Borough deserve to be able to do their jobs without worrying about being shouted at or threatened. They should feel safe to come to work, safe to see people, safe to help you. Without feeling safe they can’t do their best work to keep you healthy.

I don’t want to ignore the fact that sometimes things go wrong and you may not have had the best experience in one way or another, which can make it harder to keep your temper and stay calm. We are always sorry for that. But, if you aren’t happy with your experience or care, there are proper ways to raise it through the practice manager rather than shouting at a member of the team; it never makes the situation better.

So please, wherever you are in your day, whoever you are interacting with – online or in person, remember that however you are feeling you are dealing with another human, who just like you, are possibly having a difficult day, and take a moment to be kind. You might just make both your days better.