I upset a lady at GP surgery today

I’m with you on this.
So what happened next did she leave or did she still try to keep repeating herself.

Our large health centre practice doesn't allow prescription queries at reception. You have to call the prescription line which is open for very limited hours each day. It can be v annoying as the pharmacy is on the same site.

You will be an older person at some point in your future. That poor lady could have been ignored for months, with no kindness or back up! I think you're being quite unkind.

My drs electric check in has been broken for months

i was actuality at drs this week, patient thought her appointment was 2 pm system said 1.45. As she checked in at 1.50 she was sent a message saying she had missed her appointment by being late and it was cancelled

she ended up begging and pleading for medicine and mental health reasons so she could keep appointment

the woman in front of you should have been moved to the side

If it's actually true that the conversation was going on for 25 minutes, how were people with an appointment getting in to see the doctor?

Not many people turn up 25 minutes early for their appointment, so how was their names getting called out if they hadn't checked in?

Either way, my gripe would've been with the extremely unprofessional receptionist who allowed it to continue for so long, whilst ignoring all the other patients in the queue.

Why is her age relevant?

I don’t think you were rude at all. You were quite patient.

The receptionist should have booked an appointment or phone call from the doctor rather than just stand there for ages listening to the woman saying the same thing over and over again.

The woman perhaps was delirious or had cognitive impairment so difficult for reception

Wot no electronic check in?!

You wanted to check in and be able to sit down, and that's ok.

But I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt that you're a reasonably intelligent person and don't really think that the doctors were just sitting in back in empty rooms while a bunch of patients who were mysteriously delayed in the waiting room because they couldn't check in. If the nurses were ready to bring another patient back then they'd come up, at which point the receptionist would have someone to help sort out the issue.

The only thing actually at stake was you and the others waiting before you checked in vs checking in then waiting. The situation didn't call for a stroppy approach, just a polite catching of the receptionist's eye.

Same!

Although complaining person wasn’t going to get anywhere with reception- she or they should have suggested a (very) non-urgent appointment

I have, once or twice, asked people in front of me in the supermarket if they would mind stopping chatting with the cashier, then another time, there was a queue going back up along the aisle and a customer was talking away to someone next to her, hadn’t started unloading her trolley despite the customer in front having left lots of room.

I think it’s fair to ask people to stop if they’re going round in circles. The receptionist wasn’t going to be able to resolve the issue/explain why the meds had been changed. But yes, why don’t you have the check in screen yet?!

YANBU because at our surgery the system doesn’t let you or the receptionist check you in for an appointment if it’s 6 mins past the appointment time so you all really would have been stuffed if it continued.

25 minutes repeating this same exchange? Really?

Setting that aside, you seem to have expressed yourself in an unnecessarily stroppy way: "this is reception, not a consultation. Just repeating that she wasn't told her medication would be changed is getting us no where. This could go on forever".

Would have been more acceptable just to say to the receptionist "Any chance we could just quickly check-in before you finish resolving this?"

Good on you, OP. It's one thing to be patient, another to be ridiculous and not intervene when her behaviour is delaying everyone and after 25 minutes derailing the working day. They should've been more assertive with her after she was repeatedly told what happened and ask her to book an appointment if she still has any questions.

Had the actual medication changed was it generic drugs given rather than brand names?

They don’t have a self check in? Reception should have called more staff but I think you were rude. If you need extra time for a problem you probably don’t consider the line behind you.

You might have been ‘right’ in that she was taking up too much time if it is was truly a total of 25 minutes (which I’m sorry but sounds totally implausible) but you could have been politer. Something like ‘I’m sorry to interrupt but I’ve been waiting a long time, can I just check in quickly so I don’t miss my appointment’.

I'm amazed the elderly lady didn't get short- shrift from the receptionist- I've just changed doctor's because of the rude, unhelpful receptionists.

I think you were right to say something OP and I wouldn't worry about it.

Thats very unusual from a doctors receptionist? They usually flatten people in seconds.