I upset a lady at GP surgery today

Ugh, a pet hate. Ours have a screen check in for appts as well now likely for this reason.

had it in the pharmacy the other week though, got there 20 mins before it closed to pick up my scripts, I have a pre payment so it takes two mins. Older lady at the one till querying paying as she already paid last time (for a different item), which was painfully explained to her, then she paid and asked for her son’s, queried paying for that for another full 5 mins but eventually did. THEN started asking for canesten but saying it was too expensive what do you have off brand etc etc. queue was out the door by this point and I decided I’d rather have thrush than listen to her any longer and left 🤣

I think you were in the right, I'd have done same thing, the receptionist should of told the woman to stand to the side while people check in, then carry on with her repetitive questions

I do think the receptionist should have asked the lady to step aside whilst she dealt with check ins but I don't think you should have got involved. The gp would have come in and asked for his patient if none appeared.
I had a similar situation with getting a train ticket recently but thankfully I didn't miss my train. I assume the ticket officer would have known if there was one imminently.

Until you get stuck behind the bloke checking his partner in and asking what’s you birthday, what’s your surname here - stuffing it up and starting over 4 times.

I had plenty of time to practise my calming breathing exercises 🤪

If everyone puts her needs first and expects others to 'suck it' there will be mayhem 😂.

I don’t understand why the receptionist just didn’t say to the lady if you take a seat I will get the patients waiting behind you and I will find out what’s happened with your medication the receptionist could of then got everyone else seen to and then spoke to the lady or even found a Nurse or GP to explain to her why her meds had been changed.

I know!
I won't explain the point I was making again because it really doesn't matter if some random person on the internet doesn't get it.

Not really the point 🙄

Which is exactly the issue!!! If the lady in question was just thinking 'yeah, I make you uncomfortable, suck it' then this confirms OP was right to speak up!

You just need to own that you are the cartoon villain in these scenarios. Just have the attitude of "yeah, I make you uncomfortable, suck it".

Indeed.
And continue on like that and in 10/20/30 years you'll be the one being described as the "confused elderly person" or the "weird old fart" or whatever.
I expect the lady asking about her prescription was thinking, "yeah, I make you uncomfortable, suck it" too.

There is something in that, but waiting 25 minutes to be the cartoon villain is definitely the worst of both worlds 😂

Look, you can live your life always being polite and people pleasing and never saying what you think and getting a hernia from the stress of it, or you can open your mouth, say what everyone else is thinking and let them look at you like a crazy woman. I'd rather be the crazy woman than the woman with the hernia personally. You just need to own that you are the cartoon villain in these scenarios. Just have the attitude of "yeah, I make you uncomfortable, suck it".

Missed it if she was in the surgery picking up a prescription, so yes makes sense to ask there. Thought/assumed repeats will all automated directly to pharmacy nowadays.

How is it difficult to politely ask for what you want (if you can get checked in as your appointment is due) instead of performantly ranting?

It is not a coming up with the words issue it is an attitude issue.

But she was in the GP surgery (presumably collecting a prescription she needed). Pharmacies don't always answer the phone and in my experience the pharmacist themselves rarely takes calls immediately - might call back. While they could help if the generic labelling was the problem, they don't know the doctor's thought process if it was anything else. GP prescribes and is responsible for deciding and explaining the prescription. They are the right people to ask in this scenario.

Unkind. It wasn't the elderly person's fault she was dealt with badly. If you want to blame anyone, blame the surgery. A polite, 'excuse me, could I just check in for my appointment' would have been the best option.

Pharmacist will be able to tell you over phone immediately if it is a generic drug change, a change due to medication shortages, or a completely different medication. Then if it looks like an error you need to speak to "source"/GP.

It would delay speaking to the GP by say 5 minutes and potentially negate the need to speak to the GP at all - "easier" is dependent on the pharmacists answer.

Come on now. This is hardly a challenging scenario. I would expect a grown adult to be able to talk to someone holding up a queue in a polite fashion.

The OP apparently had 15 minutes to construct a sentence.

Just leaving the woman alone and asking to check in could be said in a hundred different ways. The point is that there was never any need to upset her or get involved in her business.

I agree OP may have stumbled out of frustration and impatience and of course that's human. But she's come here asking if it was reasonable to criticise this woman publicly and the answer is no, it wasn't. So better to think first next time.

This is literally what I would have said but I spent many years working in customer facing roles. Perhaps that's why - I also firmly believe in the old adage 'you catch more flies with honey' 🤷🏻‍♀️

It's very easy to come up with the ideal words AFTER the event!

It's not unreasonable to get a bit annoyed at the situation, but you can deal with it politely rather than so passively-aggressively.

Just go up to the receptionist and say "sorry, excuse me, can you just check me in please while you deal with this lady". Easy.

Yep.

'Sorry to interrupt but is there anyone else available who could check us all in? Thanks.'

Why not say to the receptionist 'Is it just you on this morning or can you ask a colleague to help?'