IMPOLITE patients who use their mobile phones while being seen by a doctor will be kicked out and asked to make another appointment.

Staff at Victoria Gate Surgery in East Reach, Taunton, are so fed up of rude patients making a racket on their devices before and during appointments they have decided enough is enough.

A notice pinned up in the surgery warns phone users they will not be seen and will have to re-book.

Senior receptionist Amanda Foster said: “People come in to the waiting room and they are oblivious to other people's space and the fact other people in there are unwell.

“They take phone calls and are generally loud even though we have signs up. Some patients even take calls when they're in consultations with doctors and they have been asked to go outside.

“Rather than go outside, they just stand outside the room and shout down their phone. We're a small surgery and everybody can hear them on it and it's not pleasant, so we decided to do something about it.”

Amanda said she hopes the scheme will work but admits there are some teething problems.

“It's difficult to know what to do next,” she said. “The signs are there but some people still take calls in the waiting room so we have to point the signs out to them.

“You can get appointments fairly quickly here but we still make people re-book and we won't let them have another appointment on the same day.”

Somerset County Gazette:

As reported in the County Gazette, town centre shop County Stores introduced a similar policy in October 2012.

Customers were warned that anyone having a natter over the phone will be ignored by staff, who will serve the next person in the queue.

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