Complaint 7th October 2009

On 7th October 2009 NHS Ayrshire and Arran Ambulance called at named garage for diesal with the appropriate card and filled tank with £30.00 of diesal only to discover that the card was invaild, the NHS Member of staff then contacted the office to explain situation, the hospital is situated 100 yards from garage, when it was explained that someone would come across with the money in a matter of minutes the individual working for BP call Elaine very rudely said would we expect to visit Asda and not pay for messages, at no time was it indicated to the BP member of staff that the diesal was not being paid for. Also initially when asked if the phone could be used the answer was no also when asked if another member of staff could be brought over to pay the answers was no, when asked if she could supply her name to the NHS she said her name was Elaine and that was all we needed to know, the BP Member of Staff also threatened the NHS Ambulance Staff with calling the Police which again was very rudely said. After having spoken to an NHS Manager on the phone who explained the situation the said Elaine became even more abusive and ignorant.

As the Manager who spoke to this individual i would like to say that I found the member of staff very rude, ignorant in speech and totally unhelpful, considering that she knew that the staff were genuine, in uniform and the ambulance has NHS Ayrshire and Arran painted on the side, and also the fact that the said member of staff could see the hopsital from where she was standing.

The situation got so bad the NHS staff member paid for the diesal from her own pocket, bearing in mind also there were eldderly paitents in the Ambulance the situation was all the more distressing.

I would say in light of this situation the fleet of vehicles used by the NHS will not be using that BP Garage again, i would also like to have response to this complaint in the near future