GP surgery phoned wrong person but made out me and DH are liars

The surgery will have a record of the time they were called and they usually record calls so you could ask the Peactice Manager to check

Mistakes happen

I couldn’t make this into an enormous drama what’s going to be achieved
at best you’ll get an apology typed up by someone who doesn’t mean it or have the remotest interest in your complaint

Could DS rang himself for an appointment. Not wanting parents to know about it & not fully understanding how the DR system works?

My dentist thought I'd had open heart surgery as a child according to my notes. I was born with a hole in my heart but it was small enough that I didn't require an operation and caused no problems. I'm not sure what's on my record but it was very confusing for us both when he questioned me about it.

@VegTrug took it from me and said 'wait here, you need another one" or something to that effect and actually tutted.
I said this is a GDPR breach which I hope you will report to your manager and she ignored me.
Our practice is awful

I have access to some medical records systems and believe me, there are some very, very unusual names which there are several of in one city and DOB can line up sometimes too.

It was a mistake, just make it clear it was and request it's recorded as such.

I should imagine the original caller will call the surgery and complain that their son didn't receive the call back for his appointment. The receptionist will then understand that an error has been made, and will know that you and DH are not liars. I suspect you will NOT receive a call from them to explain/apologise. It does sound extremely frustrating.

This! ⬆️

I agree with this.

I'd raise this with the practice manager, get them to check the phone number they rang against patient records. They'll probably find it's someone else. Also ensure they haven't marked it on your son's record that he "did not attend" his appointment.

I kept complaining to my GP surgery that my children’s medical records weren’t linked to mine on my patient app, so I couldn’t order repeat prescriptions for them. Surgery kept denying it, saying their system showed they were linked. Eventually I got a phone call admitting that my children had been added to a total stranger’s account and had been for the last two months …

That would depend on the school. I would imagine contacting your child's school and asking would be the best way to di d out.

What's so intriguing about that. Plenty of 16 year olds do extra curricular activities such as swimming, football, netball, dance, pretty much all sports either in school or atva private provider. Our small high school has around 15 clubs daily after school and our town has loads of activities for teens.

So funny.

I had a call from a receptionist wanting to arrange an appointment for me at a cancer clinic. I didn't have cancer.

Definitely raise it with practice manager. My DH had a call from our surgery recently. They were trying to contact our adult DS but didn’t have his phone number so rang DH’s mobile number instead to ‘pass on a message’. Massive GDPR breach

Of course they do. My children did when they reached 16 just ad their friends do. I did when I was 16, so did all my friends.

“I use the kill them with kindness approach now and am bordering on smarmy.”. That really made me laugh, especially as I do the same with my dentist’s receptionist since she made a mistake with my appointment time last year and tried to blame me. Not that I’m ever anything but polite and friendly to her, but I have turned it up a gear!

It was obviously an error on their part but unfortunately some GP receptionists are just spectacularly rude! I changed practices because of rude receptionists - the ones at my new surgery are lovely and I joked to a friend that they obviously hadn’t gone to the special GP receptionists training school where they teach them all to be rude and unhelpful!

I’ve had similar from my dentists (but won’t go anywhere else because the dentist himself is so great). The receptionist there is not rude but also not exactly friendly/smiley. One time when she offered to write down my next appointment date on a card I said “Yes please, that would be great cos my memory is appalling these days”. Day before the appointment I got the usual text reminder but didn’t read it fully because I knew the card said 12.15pm and I’d also written it in my diary. About 11.30am on the day of the appointment I got a call from her asking why I hadn’t turned up for my 11.15 appointment! I told her she’d written 12.15 on the card and she just denied it and made me feel like I’d wasted everyone’s time. She even remembered the conversation we’d had when I’d booked it, so she knew she had written out an appointment card. She eventually begrudgingly admitted that she “may” have got it wrong but then blamed me for not checking the time on the text reminder. This was in December and I had toothache and the next available appointment was January so it ruined my Christmas dinner! When I went to the new appointment, I told my lovely dentist what had happened - not in great detail and not to complain, but to apologise for not turning up in December. I didn’t want him to think it was my fault and had a feeling she would have made out it was. He apologised, bless him, laughed sheepishly and said “Oh, she never told me that, but to be honest I’m not surprised she didn’t!” I got the distinct impression that she has a reputation for being a bit scary!

Another thing you need to be flagging up with the practice manager is that unless your son has signed something to say he is happy for you or your husband to discuss his medical record with the surgery, the receptionist shouldnt have even mentioned that he had a phone call booked with at 11.30 (even if they were wrong).

Again, massive GDPR breach. Your son is over 16 and therefore the surgery shouldn't be discussing anything about his record (including booked appointments) with anyone other than himself or someone he has physically signed may discuss his record on his behalf with anyone. In NHS land over 16's are classed as adults and we aren't allowed to discuss their record with anyone unless it is an emergency/safeguarding issue and we feel that it is in the patients best interest.

I would definitely be bringing this up with either the practice manger or the caldicott guardian. This is bordering on a significant event if they are discussing your son with you without his consent.

Thing is though, if it was that, they still went against his wishes by calling his mother’s number, and what they seemed to think was his father’s although it sounds like they got that wrong since the father said he didn’t get the calls, instead of his own number which is what I would expect him to give in that situation. He would still be justified in complaining.

I have zero trust in most health care professionals after they’ve nearly killed me in every pregnancy with some kind of mistake.

And the doctors surgery may as well be a mirage. I think it’s a front actually.

I could drop dead in reception and they’d tell my corpse to ring 111

When I used to work as a GP receptionist, there was an elderly, semi-retired, receptionist who was very much a dragon, unlike the rest of us! She seemed to have a particular dislike of young people/teenagers. They would come into the surgery and she would be so rude to them! When they walked away from the desk, she would complain about them to the rest of us, despite the fact they had been extremely polite and courteous. Nothing was ever said as she had been there for years (working for the senior partners who were husband and wife) and she usually covered for sickness and holidays.

This! Maybe there is something he doesn’t want you or his dad to know about?

Some years ago, there was a funeral notice in the local paper regarding a person with the same name as my DP. He doesn't have much contact with his DC (long story), but his DS worked near him and visited him at work to check his DF was still alive! This was shortly followed by a visit from one of his DDs to check on him.

Then about a week or so later, the Practice Manager (who happened to be the doctor's wife) rang to ask if he was still alive! Apparently, the deceased person was once registered at the practice, but had moved a few months earlier and the notes hadn't yet been transferred. My DP found the whole thing very unnerving!

GP surgeries do make mistakes and as others have said, you should report this to the Practice Manager. It's a potential data breach that should be recorded and investigated by the practice.
In the last 6 months I've been requested to attend cholesterol and diabetes clinics despite having neither condition - I reported these incidents as I was concerned that these messages were intended for other patients. During that time the practice also managed to lose my notes for three months - I only copped onto that as I was still waiting for x-rays to be done and wondered why I hadn't been called up for these scans. Unfortunately this delay has put my treatment back 😒