Rude gps

"Untruthful" I suspect is more a matter of opinion than fact.

Most people don't use their real name on the internet and you shouldn't be wasting your time stalking them.

You really need to stop reading these reviews.

So it's ok to leave an negative untruthful review naming someone because you can? The last negative review I read about myself, having done some internet digging, the person isn't even a patient so I don't know what her narrative is.

I don't agree. Making official complaints is much more time consuming than leaving a review and there is no moral obligation to take that route.

Totally agree. It’s like another layer of distance has been added between the patient and an actual dr.
What was wrong with phoning up or even walking into your surgery to make an appointment? A bit of human contact , easier for the non tech savvy or just very ill people sometimes and can often get a problem sorted more quickly.
I was a named carer for an LO with dementia with permission to spk to gp for them, running around in circles wfh going backwards and forwards between uk and France. It was nigh in impossible to arrange an appointment to course coincide with when I was there ( which was very very often) and was told gp couldn’t phone me cos my number was french and I couldn’t fix a time time to phone them either arghhhh

The correct procedure is to raise a complaint with the surgery not post it on Google where you can't respond. It's no better than an anonymous letter if you put a nickname to it. I'm not rude, obstructive, answer the phone - constantly, I rarely make mistakes but if I do I apologise straight away, own it and resolve it. They may not want to harm someone's mental health but they are doing it indirectly. Patients may want to vent their frustrations but to single out one Receptionist, name them with your perceived slights is not on.

Same. Which was doubly sad because I'm a gp receptionist 🙈

What really hacks me off is how our local surgeries (they are all linked) have completely switched over to online booking and triage for appointments. I’m run a home care service for the elderly. The vast majority of which don’t use the internet or use technology. Some of my clients have dementia but not all. And whilst yes I can do it for them that relies on me being with them at the time and doesn’t offer them any privacy. The phone line no longer connects at all if you select the appointment extension - it just gives a message about how all appointments are now triaged online and directs you to their website.

When I raised it with the surgery. The attitude I got from some of the reception team was frankly disgusting. Telling me that it was mine and my clients responsibility to use the system as stated. When pressed on it they said that you could get through to thr reception team by selecting one of the other options - which is true. But that relies on those people knowing that and remembering that it is ok to do that. Which is not a given amongst the elderly demographic. For a lot of my clients it takes a lot for them to even call the GP in the first place as they are so worried about wasting the GPs time as all they ever hear in the media is how swamped GPs are. So getting them to ignore the instructions on the automated message is a non starter.

I have now had to complain to the practice management and if I do not get a good response then I will go to CQC.

Funnily enough I read Google reviews for my surgery this week when I searched to make sure I had the right number (as it rang for just over nine minutes with nobody picking up, after they issued an incorrect prescription without my insulin). I was intrigued as the average review score was 1.2/5.

I didn't see cowards wanting to harm someone's mental health. I saw incredible frustration and a running theme of rude receptionists, nobody answering the phone, and admin mistakes. Quite a few said they had tried to complain to the practice manager but been ignored.

Google seems to be one of the few places patients can have a say and vent their frustrations. I'm quite sure staff would find it even worse if patients vented to their faces.

I'll tell you what is upsetting being named negatively in a Google Review by cowardly people who don't put their proper name to it and you have no idea what has caused their vitriol. They have no idea of the effect they cause to your mental health and having been named I really don't want to go to work anymore. I have worked out 2 of the people who mentioned me, one transferred out 2 months prior to her review. She was having a mental health crisis at the time and I was trying to help. However the one posted today I have no idea as I haven't been in work for a week.

Exactly this! You are spot on and I really don’t want to discuss personal matters with reception, I’d rather speak to a professional. I attend an amazing practice however there are a couple of ladies that answer the phones who are truly awful.

Quite honestly if you find 85% of GP receptionists to be rude I would wonder more about what you are doing which is pissing them off. Receptionists know who is a pain in the arse to deal with and who is not.

Agree completely. It’s so depressing

Me neither. Perhaps they won’t or can’t do exactly what OP wants, or she speaks rudely to them.

I think it is one of those things where reputations are such that potentially good receptionists never consider it as a job. Then you add in the way the NHS has been run down over the years, the people who won't take basic steps to help their own health, those whose issues are self inflicted, and it all adds up.

As long as everyone can work out how to use patch especially the elderly.

And how do you know what their job is?

Given Youre not their boss, or ever seem to have considered applying for the role.

Wonder if you're at the same one as me! Or if OP is right and it's just the norm. Now everywhere is getting something like Patchs this might change. But there needs to be more change of the whole system. There's so many more people in my area yet fewer doctors than ever here.

Ive never had a rude receptionist at my practice.

It’s not just receptionists. I had a GP write on my notes a couple of weeks ago that I was ‘paranoid’ about a type of cancer returning when my oncologist has thought it has at least 3 times and is the process of ruling it out again at the moment! I phoned and complained saying this needed to be removed from said notes. The surgery took it seriously enough they made him call me. He genuinely said to me that if he had to remove this he would have to explain why. I think he wanted me to feel sorry and say it wasn’t necessary. Unfortunately for him my response was ‘Well yes I would expect nothing less and maybe you won’t be so insulting again’. (Sorry, absolutely not sorry).

I understand triaging and I imagine they are trained to triage - great. However, our GP’s never know why you are there despite telling the receptionist 😂

Most of the receptionists at my surgery are rude. I go to a few different surgeries with my son for occupational appts and often stand there waiting to ask a question or let them know we have arrived while they type something and it takes them a minute or two to even look up. I think that it is rude and it wouldn’t hurt them to say ‘I will be with you in a moment, I’m just doing x.y,z’ they have these automated recordings now about how they will not tolerate abuse etc (quite right) and I believe it makes them feel invincible, I think they consider it abuse when someone quite rightly is annoyed that their prescription wasn’t processed as promised or something along those lines when actually we have every right to be annoyed by that and vocalise that. Like you say, there are plenty of jobs where you have to deal with rude customers and remain polite and professional, I don’t know why they feel they are exempt from that. I think because it is the NHS they believe it’s not a paid service but most of us are paying our taxes and NI so whilst we are lucky to have a NHS it isn’t entirely free. I have complained to the surgery manager before and received an apology about a rude GP so I would complain if they were definitely out of order. As a previous poster said our surgery has 1 star on Google reviews 😂 you’re always going to get people saying that the receptionists are abused but assuming you’re like me - completely polite the we don’t deserve to be treated poorly just because the receptionists are disillusioned.

The GP staff at my group have been amazing in the last 6 months or so, dealing with 5 requests for a flu jab, prescription requests, immunisation requests, sharps collection etc. it's almost like they listened when I reported the practice group to the care quality commission for one of them having a huffy tantrum last year rather than explain nicely. (I've seen the lady since and she couldn't have been more lovely, personable and smiley)

I’m in France so would go straight to gynecologist ( need to book a month or two in advance)

You will need to be referred to the specialist via GP so they have to assess whether you meet the referral criteria. I don't think gynea fit coils at all nowadays. Your local sexual clinic might but not always. But the issue is that you can't self-refer to specialty and also there are lengthy waiting lists so GPs are very busy indeed.