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

I appreciate mistakes happen. What shouldn't happen are the disgraceful, reductive and poor attitudes too often experienced from GP receptionists and some of the GPs. In reality, I imagine the GP's don't care and don't have much more respect. If they did the conduct would be dealt with.

No 16 year old boy in the history of the human race has ever made his own GP appointment.

This made me laugh.
And, as a dentist I can confirm that most (men of all ages, even when they are married!) tend to get their mums to make their appointments 😂

This is the thing. When I saw the title of the thread I felt sorry for whoever made the mistake, but then their hostile attitude (to deflect blame I suppose) isn't OK so a complaint is justified.

But if the DS had made the appt, surely he would have picked a time when he was actually available to have it, and not given his dad’s phone number!

More likely the surgery made an error somehow

And why shouldn’t a 16yo do an after-school club?

Was it on the home phone?

How odd, I had this scenario recently. I’d not left the surgery though as I had to wait for someone else.

After they had told me loudly in front of everyone that I was late and missed the appt, they told me (much more quietly) that it was the computer’s mistake 🤣

I'm intrigued, a 16 year old at an after school club 🤔

Loads of secondary schools have clubs after school!

Are you absolutely sure he’s not got a mate to phone pretending to be DF and make him an appointment for something he doesn’t want you to know about, for example an STD?

I had this with the dentist recently. They messaged to confirm date and time. I turned up at 3.15 to be told the appointment was for 2.15 I was an hour late and the dentist wouldn't see me. That evening I checked my messages, blow me the message said clearly 3.15. I took a screenshot and emailed them explaining their mistake. Never got an apology.

Definitely get in touch with the practice manager......
I'm intrigued, a 16 year old at an after school club 🤔

I recently had three unexpected voicemails left from my GP and when I called them back to find out why , they said it it was regarding my morning after pill request. I had not made a morning after request and have no need to as not sexually active, I explained this to the receptionist who said the GP still needed to speak to me, when I spoke to her to reiterate what I had said she just said ‘well, I better work out who needs the morning after pill then’ this was at 4.45pm on a Friday afternoon so I wished her good luck.

I have a medical exemption from paying prescription charges. I completed the renewal form given to me at the surgery and gave it to the receptionists. Several weeks later I received a letter saying they could not accept a photocopied form and when I rung the GP receptionist she said I must have photocopied it before sending it! I explained that I did not leave the surgery with the form so that wasn’t possible.

This is hilarious 😆

Please write to the practice manager OP. I’ve had something similar happen- gp appointment call for someone else and it wasn’t until I spoke to the practice manager about it that something was done!

GP employee here. This can happen - but shouldn't. Everyone is human and makes mistake. Results or correspondence were probably filed to an incorrect patient. It shouldnt happen but it does.

This is a massive GDPR error. Flag it to the practice manager so a learning event can be raised.

If it is the fact your son doesnt want to tell you something it is still GDPR as he is over 16 so needs dealing with.

I did wonder that - about OP's son contacting them. But wouldn't the missed calls then show up on son's phone?

In re PP: at our GP practice 16 yo and over HAVE to deal with the practice themselves, unless they have signed proxy forms allowing parents (or others) to do soon their behalf.

any chance that DS pretended to be dad making an appt for his son? [grasping at straws but I have a son a similar age and weirder things have happened]

I would contact the practice manager formally. They need to know. They will be able to listen back to the tapes and see who called. I raised a complaint recently about a message not being passed on and they were able to listen to a conversation 3 months earlier : and arranged for some extra training for the receptionist as a result ….really glad I followed it through.

There’s a chance it could have been your son (possibly pretending to be his dad). He might not want to tell you if it’s something embarrassing. I made appointments at that age without telling my parents.

Just as likely they have got the wrong person though. They shouldn’t have made you out to be liars.

My GP surgery are generally fantastic, but mistakes do happen. Which is fine. What I object to is being told such mistakes are impossible.

eg. I was told a time for a same day appointment over the phone by the receptionist- 5.15pm- and I checked it twice because it was unusual for them to book in after 5. Turned up at 5.15 to be told my appointment had been at 3.15, I’d missed it, and was wasting resources. I explained I’d checked the time twice and had def been told 5.15 and asked - politely- if perhaps the receptionist had misread 15.15 as 5.15 (it could easily happen!) and it was like I’d questioned the existence of gravity, or asked if perhaps the earth was flat after all?

TLDR: I feel your annoyance!

I had a note in my nhs app telling me I had penile cancer and needed an urgent appt once. Lucky I don’t have a penis.

You what? Both of my DC (one boy, one girl) started making their own appointments when they got to 16. What a bizarre concept to think no 16 year olds ever do that!

There is every chance your son wanted to speak to the dr about something. He could have said he was his dad (worried they wouldn't give an appointment maybe). Either way I would leave it. It's either an honest mistake or he wants to speak to a dr.

My fil was called back from a holiday abroad (some years ago) to discuss his test results. .
Can't imagine how he got home without having some sort of attack with worry....
They had mixed him up with another man. Surname spelled a letter different... No real apology either.

Are their calls not recorded? They are at our surgery. I’d be asking them to check, and then provide, the call recording.