I hate mornings, there is something deeply depressing about crawling into work while it is still dark knowing that for the next twelve hours you'll be run ragged.

The current topic of conversation in the messroom at the moment is the furor over Jack Straw's suggestion that Muslim women wearing full face veils only divide communities.

My patch has a huge number of Muslims, some days I'll only attend to Muslims. This isn't a problem for me as most of them are polite and don't get horribly drunk and try to hit me.

On more than one occasion I've turned around to discover that the patient I've been talking to has 'robed up', the woman has turned from a person into a black 'blob', it's always surprising to see such a total change.

I'm a big believer in freedom of expression, and I have no problem with people wearing whatever they want, but the burka and it's relatives can make my life difficult.

You see, I'm a bit hard of hearing, and if the person I'm talking to has a strong accent I tend to get more meaning from lip-reading rather than just listening to them. If the person has a full face covering then it's often tricky for me to hear what they are saying. Add in the fact that the back of an ambulance isn't the quietest place on earth and the problem becomes a lot worse.

I don't want to offend people, but it does annoy me to keep saying 'pardon?' because I can't understand what the person is saying. I'm trying to be as nice as possible here (considering I believe *all* religion to be foolish), but what is more important, the wearing of a veil or the ability for the ambulance man to understand you and your illness?

It's Ramadan at the moment, so loads of people are fasting and again this can lead to offense...

I went to a gentleman who had fainted, as he was South-East Asian I asked him if he had been fasting (as this is a common cause of collapsing at this time of year). He told me that he was a Hindu rather than a Muslim, and that he hated all Muslims due to the fighting that had occurred between the two faiths in the past.

I apologised, and the patient wasn't bothered by my assumption - but another person may have taken offense and complained. It can be a minefield out there, especially given some religious adherents near constant level of being offended.

Still it could be worse, we could be killing each other over which sect of a religion we belong to...

...again.
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Sent from a mobile phone, probably from the cab of an ambulance.
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