Kimmy’s Garden

At the ultra sound place at Tawa Centre with my hubby this morning, one of the receptionists asked a fellow what his last name was after he was examined. In front of everyone. With a tone like “Oops, how was I supposed to know, tee hee”. The guy is a bit embarassed, but tells her, “Oh, it’s OK, I get that all the time …”

No, it’s not OK.

First of all, I think that that should have been done in private so that the guy – who is in the middle of walking out anonymously with some sort of lubricant dripping out or off of wherever – is not thinking that the whole place is thinking: “Oh, so his last name is Lloyd*, interesting”. And then the guy is standing there, not sure now if he can leave, if the transaction is finished, if his medical test results are going to be filed or sent correctly, slightly embarassed like he has just done his first stand up comedy routine that didn’t go as well as planned and is accidentally making an encore performance by walking into the crowd instead of backstage … and we’re puzzled to see him back.

(*name changed to protect privacy)

Second of all, if the receptionist didn’t know the first time that they spoke, why did she not ask then? Don’t just assume. Do we not all know this? ASK. CONFIRM. These are important health records that need to be organized correctly, efficiently … We all know how busy the health services places are these days, and it simply more efficient to get things done right the first time, the only-touch-it-once filing philosophy.

I would like to suggest to any educational facility that teaches Reception, Administration, Data Entry, whatever, that they include either a cultural sensitivity-cum-common sense objective, or even better, to stop using the terms First and Last name. Start using FAMILY NAME and GIVEN NAME. Some groups of people, like those with a Chinese background, use their family name first, then their given name(s). How can we get public service to not be so freaking WASP? Seriously. How do we learn if we don’t ask?

Just annoys me.