Sharon Roberts was delighted that her local hospital had left a message on her answering machine to rearrange an appointment, but her gratitude waned when staff went on to describe her as a smelly, black-toothed alcoholic who was lucky to have a boyfriend.

The teenager discovered the caller's true feelings after the telephone operator, from James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, failed to hang up properly at the end of a message. The answering machine continued to record as the operator began to gossip with a colleague.

“That girl didn't think she had a problem,” the operator said. “One unit — that's a half of lager, half a beer, or one of them small glasses of wine or a shot of spirit. She drinks 100 a week.”

The unnamed speaker accused Ms Roberts, 19, of Stockton, of being drunk at a previous appointment and her colleague suggested that she was lucky to have a boyfriend. “Come on, who else is going to have her? Bless her. She smells, she had black teeth. She's a typical either druggie or alkie [alcoholic] because she's dead skinny.”

Ms Roberts, who was due to attend the hospital's genito-urinary clinic, is outraged and has called for the two staff members to be dismissed. “I was really disgusted when I heard it. I felt physically sick. These people are supposed to be helping people.”

She denied that she drank 100 units a week and said that she had never taken drugs. “I had anorexia when I was younger and that's why I'm so thin. I want compensation and I want them sacked.”

Ms Roberts, who has been with her boyfriend, Bashdir Mawlwd, 26, for three years, attended the clinic because she had a rash, which has now cleared up.

Mr Mawlwd was unimpressed by the message, in which the operators suggested that his Kurdish Iraqi ethnicity was relevant. “We love each other, so how do you think I felt when I heard that message?” he said. “I am happy with her and she's happy with me. No one else can get in our life.”

The hospital has apologised and promised to identify the culprits. Simon Pleydell, chief executive of South Tees Hospital NHS Trust, said: “We would like to apologise unreservedly to Miss Roberts for the distress this has caused.

“Everyone has a right to dignity, respect and confidentiality and what has happened is totally unacceptable. The trust has launched a major internal investigation.”

THIS IS FOR SHARON . . .

“Hi there, a message for Sharon, please ring health adviser about your appointment that you missed this morning on telephone number deleted. Thank you . . .

. . . That girl didn't think she had a problem. One unit - that's half a lager, half a beer, or one of them small glasses of wine or a shot of spirit. She drinks 100 a week. A lady . . .”

“. . . A lady?”

“A lady should be 14 max

“Hello, sorry . . . but she weren't no lady”

“I know”

Laughter

“Was she really bad?”

“She was drunk as well”

“She can't have said to you that she drinks 100 units, she must have put it in”

“No, well I said, 'Oh you drink 100 units', but she won't have said that. It will be the doctor who will have guessed that from what she told him. I don't know how he's got to that”

Muffled

“Here, alcohol intake — the patient doesn't think she has a problem and is not really interested in help. She wasn't bothered

“How old is she?”

“18”

“The boyfriend said that as well

“He's Kurdish Iraqi the boyfriend”

Muffled . . .

“Was he canny enough?”

“Yeah”

“Oh yeah, but come on, who else is going to have her, bless her. She smells, she had black teeth. She's a typical either druggie or alkie because she's dead skinny”

Muffled

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