I can't say that I walked into the offices of University Health Services (UHS) without warning. I already knew that UHS was an embarrassment to the medical community.

I was a witness to the kind of care a friend of mine received from UHS last fall and spring. She was sick for a large part of her first year, complaining of a sore throat which caused an inability to swallow.

She repeatedly went to UHS but never saw the same doctor twice. The physician that she had seen the time before wouldn't have an appointment until a week later. Seeing no other resolution, she would have to petition to see a doctor who had a more immediate appointment available.

Because she changed doctors so much, no one became familiar with her medical history and no one could diagnose what was wrong with her. Each time she went she would be sent home with Penicillin and a trite "feel better."

She asked a dozen times if her tonsils needed to be taken out. But she was assured that, as the patient and not the qualified doctor, she knew not what she was talking about. Her tonsils were just fine, they said.

Finally, because her inability to swallow prevented her from eating, she passed out. Once again, she had to go to UHS.

Unable to diagnose her illness, the "qualified" doctors told her she should just go home because she could be contagious. Once at home, she saw a specialist who said she had the most infected tonsils she had ever seen. Later on in the year, she had adult tonsillectomy.

Knowing this story, I still went to UHS last week. I was running down the stairs and I must have placed my right foot the wrong way because my knee popped in and out of its socket and I lost my balance and fell to the bottom of the stairs.

I needed to go to UHS at one point, very soon, to get some help. I waited until the next day, when I felt that I was more able to physically make it to UHS.

It took three different people, (one of whom swore at me a couple of times), two different floors, and a good half and hour of playing trial and error before I finally, on my own, figured out where I could possibly, but not necessarily, get some medical attention.

The staff was rude, vague and appeared completely unwilling to help me. No one told me exactly where I should go; everyone was unsure. No one offered me a wheelchair or an alternative to limiting the amount of walking I had to do.

As far as I have been able to tell from discussions with many other students, my experience that day with UHS is typical.

The treatment given to patients (and potential patients) by the staff at UHS is a ridiculous disgrace.

Every time that I and many students go to UHS, we don't feel like we are going to a friendly place where we will be treated with the respect and sincerity that any individual deserves--let alone receive quality medical care.

We feel like we are going to a prison where we will be treated with rude comments by a staff which not only lacks in quality and insight into the medical field but one which also shows little, if any, concern for its patients.