GP receptionists?

Hmm
I changed GP practices about two years ago.

The receptionists at the original practice were obstructive and about half of them were extremely rude and dismissive. The practice made a number of errors: not submitting a referral, prescriptions that were not done, done in error or sent to the wrong place. On one occasion I even received the paperwork relating to another patient's diagnosis and containing all their personal details. The cherry on the cake was when they sent me a fit note signing me off work for two weeks for "surgical recovery". I hadn't had surgery! Someone else had the same dob as me and the fit note was sent in error.

This was a very big practice, 34,000 patients, that had gobbled up the little local practices when the GPs retired. Their operations had not caught up with their size. There were one or two excellent partners, sadly two or three who were not excellent, didn't care and were arrogant/rude to boot. Some of the salaried drs were OK, some were not. The practice was badly run and this impacted on the attitudes and performance of the suppprt/admin staff. It was truly horrendous. I'll also add that about half the partners were involved with lucrative external medico/business interests - directors of private groups, skincare providers and three of the partners also did private GP work through our local private hospitals. I do not think their patients were their priority.

I have since changed to a smaller practice with 8000 patients. The receptionists are polite and helpful. The doctors are polite and helpful. Appointments are available and any on-line requests are promptly and helpfully dealt with. It is honestly like a different world.

It seems to vary and it might be worth changing practices. It is notable that not all practices pay their receptionists NMW - some pay a little more.

I've also not had bad experience with our GP receptionist. Even if ive rang for triage and they've asked if its urgent, I have told them I work and this is the only time I can come, not that its necessarily urgent. They have then added me to the list.

Yup, no information to us and clearly no information to the admin staff either!

OP, if you voted Tory at any time in the last 20 years or did not vote, you have contributed to the problem.

I think it is a vicious cycle that is not easy to break. People calling when they are ill are probably on the whole even more rude than they are normally say to shop workers, bad receptionists exist, the system for the mass phoning at 8am is awful, and there are many people whose ill health is self inflicted.

The GP receptionists at my surgery are lovely. They have changed the team, the prescription line is also amazing, and really efficient. I can't imagine it is easy for them, given the abuse they'll tolerate on a daily basis from disgruntled patients.
I'm please they got rid of one of the awkward ones, as she reduced me to tears once, and would sit on prescription requests for weeks. Since she is no longer there, it's been great.

Do they have telephone appointments, and an econsult system at your gp surgery?

OFCOM estimates that 5% of the UK doesn’t have home internet access. That doesn’t include people who have limited phone data packages who may not be able to afford extra data if they run out so only have partial access. If you are sick, you can’t just pop to the library to use the internet to get a GP appointment 🙄

OFCOM digital disadvantage

Add to that all those who struggle to navigate the internet successfully because of disabilities, learning difficulties or illiteracy, or age. 1 in 3 over 65s lack the skills required to use the internet successfully.

Age UK survey

Now consider which groups are more likely to have health issues. How about the elderly, disabled and those living in poverty?

As for GP receptionists, their job is a non clinical role, they shouldn’t be taking on clinical tasks like triage. They aren’t qualified. Some surgeries have triage software, they may have sent their receptionists on a short training course or given them in house training but the reality is patients aren’t great at giving the relevant information (especially if they aren’t comfortable discussing it with a non medical professional) and receptionists lack the knowledge and experience to know what questions to ask. It is not fair on the patients or the receptionists or entirely safe to give them that responsibility, certainly not without the support of triage software.

I think you've misread what I wrote, I wasn't slagging off GP receptionists

My dh. Yes we have Internet and I can do it but he has mild cognitive impairment and cannot navigate these things. We can ring our surgery early and the receptionist will fill the form in for you. But what happens if I die first? Our children live too far away to do it for him as the patient has to be with you for the call and they work. I don't imagine carers will do it if that's where he ends up. He's not unwell enough to need a care home at the moment. It's on his records that I can speak for him so this works for now.

Twice I have been given the wrong information by the receptionists. Once over a kidney infection when the receptionist wouldn’t give me an appointment because I had symptoms of a UTI and severe back pain. They told me to go the pharmacy. So I did, but as soon as I mentioned back pain to the pharmacist, they told me they couldn’t help with that as it was pointing to a kidney infection (I did tell the receptionist this!) so to call the GP. By the time I rang back there were no appointments left. You can imagine how annoyed I was!
Another time they told me to email the GP an image of something and I’d have an xray arranged. The GP received my image and rang me and said they can’t arrange X-rays and to go to A+E. It wasn’t an emergency.

My GP requests a regular review of my contraception before reissuing my repeat prescription. Normally I ring up, they book a telephone consultation and we're all good. This time the receptionist says "we no longer book appointments. You have to call back at 8am tomorrow".
I explained it's not urgent or an ailment, it's basically admin, and that
a) I don't want to be desperately competing with all the ill people at 8am only to find I can't get through and I have to try again tomorrow and
b) I can't take time off work on the strength of "there's nothing wrong with me, but I won't be in today as I have to sit on hold at 8am in the hope I get an appointment later today for a very routine admin call. If I can't get through before the slots are filled up, I will repeat this tomorrow and the day after until I finally get my 10 min call with the doctor." What employer is cool with that?
I asked the receptionist if she could see that this is not an ailment, that the GP has requested it and maybe in this case the GP could just quickly call me to advise a better way to arrange this. I was very nice and calm because I know she is the difference between me being seen and not. She just got angry and said "THIS IS THE WAY WE DO IT NOW. CALL BACK TOMORROW AT 8AM".
I appreciate the difficulty of the role but some people's nastiness comes out as soon as anything is questioned. It's ludicrous.
I called back and asked could one of the nurses please do it instead, because you can book with them in advance. She wasn't sure, so they clearly haven't trained her properly, because it turned out the nurse can do this now and has taken over from the GP. What a mess.

In this situation I would wait till the surgery has closed and go to 111 - explain to them what the text from the surgery advised but that, when you tried to book any urgent appointment they told you a 2 weeks later follow up is acceptable.

111 will then send a message to your surgery telling them to book you in on the next available day for a GP - this is what happened with me when one of my twins was unwell and the other developed similar symptoms - illness not covered by Pharmacy First protocols so couldn’t go there, GP receptionist said not a GP matter and to apply ‘self-care’ treatments! However, 111 disagreed and said needed seeing appropriately and, come Monday morning, surgery called to say they’d received the 111 referral and needed to see child same day!! Was an in life riots condition until 48 hours after starting antibiotics which was why I wanted him seen on the Friday so he could start meds and wouldn’t miss school!! Ended up being off for 5 days waiting for swabs before surgery would prescribe the same meds as his twin was on!!

Most sensible people realise this. Not to mention the wasted appointments from people who DNA.

There aren’t enough appointments. Our Gp has 7000 patients. This isn’t new information.

I’m the same. Just moved house and was worried that no GP practice would be as good as the last one. Turns out that the new one is just as good, if not slightly better in some areas. The receptionists are knowledgeable and helpful, and know exactly how to find the most appropriate care for what I need.

I'm a gp receptionist so hard hat on. I can tell you about how our practice works.

We have around 6000 patients. Most days there are 4 to 6 doctors appointments available to book over the phone for emergencies. We are told to use them for under4's or things that sound like dire emergencies only so yes we are gatekeeping those appointments, we have no choice.

There are then around 10-15 same day appointments we can book with the clinician. These are booked if you ring up with anything from rashes, lumps, headaches, pains. The clinician will either treat you or get advice from the doctor who will then book you in with themselves.

Most appointments are done via the online form, these are not same day appointments. The form goes to Dr for triage who forwards it to us with the instruction of who to book in with, themselves, clinician, physio, nurse. We don't choose who you see, we can't book with the Dr if he has instructed another professional.

The rest of the Dr's appointments are taken up with follow ups and reviews, the Dr books these or instructs us to.

There are also a few telephone appointments, we use these if someone has rang and we can't fit them in anywhere else, Dr will ring and if he decides he needs to see them he'll bring them in.

So in short yes we are gatekeeping, no we don't want to be, we're stuck. Any yes we get shouted at, abused, threatened daily. Such fun.
But then there are lovely patients who know we're doing our best and we do really try to get you in with somebody.

Partners give them authority do certain. Many people get angry with receptionist but sometimes it is the GP who has sent the patient away. For example, a patient request to see a specific doctor, they receptionist might ask the GP and the GP will tell the patient they are not available.

I think it is gate-keeping. My Dr's surgery, which has been lovely and helpful is now overwhelmed and getting an appointment can be challenging. I didn't even need an appointment, just a quick conversation about some blood test results and a regular check up for something. A two minute chat. I couldn't book it, had to fill in an on line form for the check up question. Waited a week, no answer, then out of the blue got a text saying I had an appointment that afternoon. Went to surgery and it turned out to be a phone appointment. Sorted now but what an unnecessary palaver.

The second question was about some results in a test that came back 'no action needed' but I needed clarification/understanding. receptionist just kept saying tests were fine. Really annoying. I persisted but she really didn't like it. Another on line form here I come. Doctor's receptionists can be really annoying.

The receptionist at my mums surgery refused to give her an appointment because she’d had one two weeks prior and they were busy. Mum is never ill. Turns out mum has terminal liver cancer ( she called 111 in the end and they wanted her straight to hospital) . But they just don’t care enough about people. They are just on a power trip for the most part. Nothing caring about them AT All.

should say here , my surgery is ace. But it’s a lottery.

Receptionists at our GP surgery are awesome

But it's a worry that so many people gave difficulty accessing a GP