I’m a GP receptionist and prepared to be honest about my job.

And back and forth it goes.

I'm on hospital prescribed immune-suppressants. I'm supposed to ask my GP for prophylactic antibiotics if I get so much as a sore throat. The Receptionists say that's the hospital's job to prescribe. My paperwork says it's the GP's. Ditto: follow-up appointment after emergency hospitalisation for pulmonary embolism - that was a No from the Receptionist, and very supercilious he was too.

Getting stitiches out after surgery is also a nightmare. You have to ring first thing on a Friday morning for appointments, and when they're gone they're gone. The last-but-one skin cancer I had excised, I ended up getting DP to take the stitches out with some nail scissors. It's all so crap.

Every single person I have met or had contact with at my practice is fantastic. I do make a point of thanking and making it known that they are appreciated it is a tough gig, even tougher these last couple of years.

Ooo actually i ran out of tablets because they didn’t tell me i needed a medical review until i put my repeat in

So i booked the medical review for three weeks time and asked if I could have a prescription to tide me over and the receptionist said no

When i saw the dr i said that id run out two weeks before and he started telling me off so i told him I’d tried to get some more and he said ‘I understand, sorry about that, they can be a little over zealous’ 😀

I work in a hospital and I've witnessed first hand the abuse that Band 2 Emergency Department receptionists receive. It's disgraceful.
Thank you for all that you do.

@TwistedSisterUK I think the problem is that GP receptionists are gatekeepers. You sounds lovely and I have been helped by lovely GP surgery staff. However, I’ve also had appalling treatment. Been spoken to in ways that are completely unacceptable. Often there is little consequences (perhaps because the GP partners what a rude receptionist as it reduces their workload?!). Whatever the reason, I think we need PALs to take on GP surgeries in their remit because the variation is appalling.

I don't mind being called by my first name but it is slightly confusing as I'm never called that, something like my name is Katherine but I've always been called Kate. I don't like things like love or dear as it seems so patronising and I might be old but I'm not in my dotage just yet.

I think the trouble behind a lot of gp practices is that they are franchises. No longer concerned for your health just money.

Because there are fewer GPS per head of population than ever?
Coupled with a backlog because of COVID ?
Abs the fact that before COVID many people struggled to see a GP anyway ?
And the fact that COVID has made more people poorly with long COVID problems ?
Leading to GP s getting exhusted and retiring early or working part time

Yip can't imagine why things seem to be getting worse all the time

I think telephone appointments are fine…great idea

I’d just like to be able to book one at 1pm today for a weeks time

Not ring at 8am every day that I’m not working til i get a same day appointment

Stupid fucking system

*I think somebody else answered the question “ What are doctors doing now they aren’t seeing patients?” I’ll try and explain some of their many tasks they do at my surgery :

Phone calls to patients. If they want to examine patient they will make a face to face appointment for that day ( or another day if not convenient for patient.

Taking lots of calls from other medical ppl regarding patients. Ambulance crew often ring. Social workers, probation services, addiction services , MacMillan nurses etc.

Loads and loads of paperwork!

Sicknotes.

E- consultations.

Doing the prescriptions.

Home visits.

Reading and actioning every letter received, either by postman, internal mail or electronically.

Checking all blood tests and other results and lots more!

Trust me on this, I wouldn’t want to be a doctor and I understand why so many are leaving. Our doctors do hours and hours of work at home in the evenings and weekends - solely to play catch up.

When I lock up to go home - doctors are still there!*

Yes but they did all this before Covid and saw patients so they are doing less now?

99% of the time the receptionists I’ve dealt with have been polite and professional

Probably 70% of those have gone further than the above and have been friendly and very very helpful

There have been a small percentage that have been rude and positively unhelpful and if i were to start a thread about unhelpful receptionists then they are the ones I’d be talking about.

Our appointment system at the local GP is just dreadful, actually awful not patient based in the slightest, incredibly stressful and it might suit the GPs but it doesn’t suit anyone else. And there is nothing that anyone can do, a Facebook complaints page was started PRE the dreadful post covid appointment system and had to be taken down under threat of legal action. You can’t vote with your feet and leave and you can’t complain to the surgery as they circle the wagons

One of the things that my sister finds unbearable to deal with regarding her own, very busy, GP surgery is when the doctor tells her to make a follow-up appointment for 2 weeks time, and the receptionists tell her that simply isn't an option, they don't make appointments that far ahead and she'll have to ring in the morning of that day.

This is an untenable position. The doctor wants to see her again, 2 weeks ahead - she should NOT be forced into doing the phone roulette at 8am to try and get an appt that the DOCTOR wanted her to make.

I don't at all understand why this system was ever allowed, and I know her surgery wasn't the only one that did this.

I'd always thought the receptionist would ask the reason for your appointment to determine if it warranted a visit or just a phone call? The practice im with at the moment cannot be faulted. The receptionists are wonderful, polite, helpful and have made a fuss of my toddler on the few times I've taken him in.
I appreciate them so much as the receptionists at my last practice are the reason I moved. To cut a long story short, one of them told me I didn't need a high dose of folic acid when I fell pregnant with my son. I explained why I did, calmly, her response was simply no. Wouldn't book an appointment either. Yes, I lost my temper. Got a GP appointment though and the vitamins. I apologised but actually still feel she had no right to deny me an appointment. Before and after this they sounded do miserable, would sigh down the phone etc. Messed up appointments with my sons vaccinations...
There's good and bad in every sector I suppose.

I have enormous sympathy for overworked GPs. I would say though that the funding model is a bit unusual. My mate who is a GP is paid close to £180k for three days work. She often laments not going into a corporate job which she thinks would be less stressful and I have to point out there are very very few corporate jobs (any?) that would pay similar amounts for three days a week and have equivalent holiday allowance (a lot), sick leave (generous) and amazing pension. Meanwhile receptionists working in the same practice are paid very little. This is in London.

@C8H10N4O2 very well said.

They went through 5-7 years training to earn the right to be called doctor. It's not the same as calling someone "miss" or "mrs"

This has to be one of the silliest arguments yet to support a hierarchy approach, with patient as supplicant.

No professional achieves their status after a three year degree. We all spend years gaining further professional qualifications, charter status, fellowships etc and for most of us the very long days and being away from home are a completely normal as part of that. We don't have the job security or pension schemes of doctors.

My clients/customers address me as "C8" and I call them whatever they prefer - they are paying my bills.

Its a relic from a past age and embeds the mindset that patients must be ever grateful for whatever standard of care is available. Women are disproportionately treated like this Its the same mindset which sanctifies every second of doctor time whilst holding the patient's time as completely valueless.

There are many reasons for the problems in the NHS today and money is only one of them. Attitudes that patients must be grateful, outdated management practices, more quality management and probably the invisibility of billing all contribute to one of the weaker systems in Europe in terms of outcomes.

I love the receptionists at my doctors practice I have many dealings with them lately, they do so much and are incredibly busy.

@reesewithoutaspoon if there were 2 lines then they would probably have to employ another Receptionist.
Also people would ring the wrong line. We used to have 2 lines, one for the surgery and one for prescriptions. We would constantly be saying "I'm sorry you are ringing the wrong number, you need 123456". Now we have one line with options to choose and the times they are open, e.g. test results and prescriptions and still people chose the wrong option. Then they wonder why they've been cut off and that's because they choose test results, open at 2.30pm, and they are ringing at 12pm.

I rang my GP for an appt last week while suffering a MC. I had to describe in detail to the receptionist what I was experiencing. She booked a telephone consultation for me so that I could get a referral to EPU. I waited for my appt. It never happened. The receptionist never booked it - I called to chase it after waiting all day. The receptionist (different person now) said rather abruptly that the GPs couldn't refer me to EPU anyway.so there isn't any point having an appt. Oh and I had to describe a second time to that receptionist what I was experiencing also.

Two receptionist - no attempt at compassion, no appointment made.

Question - if I suffered sepsis or some other nasty effect of an incomplete MC, what would and should happen to the receptionists? Would they be subjected to disciplinary misconduct? Would they lose their job? Would it be a case of "do better next time?"

I am genuinely interested if a receptionist is in a position to avoid a medical situation from worsening and decided against taking that action - what happens to them?

There is another patient at my GP surgery with almost the same (very common) name and different birthdate but born in the same year. I know this because the GPs are constantly getting our notes mixed up with some quite serious consequences. I am constantly being asked how I am getting on with medication I have never taken, being sent for tests with a form printed from the other person's records, and on my last visit I was told that I was a nurse working at the local hospital. Er no, I'm an accountant. On many occasions very nearly got prescribed medication that would have been dangerous for me. The worst incident was when my solicitor requested a full set of my medical records from them. They sent a fully comprehensive set of all medical records right from birth to the present day... for the other person! My solicitor was appalled but the surgery were not even slightly bothered.

Do you have systems and checks at your surgery to avoid such mixups, as mine seem to think it is perfectly reasonable to just pick a set of notes randomly if the name matches, even though I make a point of giving my date of birth every time.

Why the appointment systems though. why can't they have 2 lines? one for urgent same-day appts for stuff that needs seeing in a timely manner like acute infections etc and another line for routine appts that can be booked in advance or for prescription queries etc. It just seems so inefficient and designed to stress people out
Sometimes you need to book an appt for a review or something that is non-urgent but needs a GP referral. It can wait a few weeks. Instead, you have this system where you cant book ahead and have to join the daily scrum for appointments.

My GP receptionists are amazing. They have sorted out emergency prescriptions, scheduled months worth of nurse appointments for wound packing following major surgery, go out of their way to get me seen when their spider senses tell them I need to be (and they're always right) and do all of this whilst being friendly and personable and asking after my children. I value them. Thanks for doing a thankless job, OP.