To be annoyed at the GP receptionist for being arsey about this?

They have absolutely no right to treat you like you missed the appointment if they overran. They behave as though patients exist in a state of permanent availability as if no one in the world has a job with demands other than a GP. It's ridiculous.

Before I retired I worked as a nurse on a day case unit. Phones had to be left in your locker.

I work in a nursery. We're not allowed phones on the floor for safeguarding reasons. All phones are on silent, in a phone cabinet in the office. We can use them in the office or the staffroom.

We're also ratio'd in, so it's not fair or practical for someone to just disappear for 30 minutes without notice.

Im encountering more and more GPs who seem to think the world revolves around them. They want this, they expect that...they cant do the next thing. They only want to work 2 days because they've got other more lucrative private things to do. The list goes on. It makes you wonder why any of.them bothered to become doctors in the first place. They want all the big rewards without breaking a sweat, as if the world owes them a living or something. A GP in my sister's town owns one of the biggest houses in the are... it's massive in a very vulgar, ' non-doctor' sort if way, and there are always flash cars outside.....I think they've all been watching too many American medical dramas. The days of the lovely, caring GP whonknows your name are well and truly gone. Some GPs arecstill brilliant, but I think a lot ofvthrm are taking the piss. I wonder whose taxes they think paid for all the hospitals that they trained in so that they could one day hrlp the public.......or not.

When I make an appointment for a phone interview the receptionist gives me a 4 hour window. However if I go on the NHS app it will tell me the approx time its scheduled for. It doesnt always come at that exact moment but is a better guide. Doctors are a bit likes tradespeople in the sense that they cant always say how long an appointment their end will take. Or an unexpected emergency can arise. So a phone appointment overruns. However there needs to be some appreciation that other people may also not be in a position to sit by the phone.

Again in the days before telephone appointments it was expected to attend the surgery in the same way you would for a hospital appointment. This would inevitably mean time either off work or away from work, including a wait when there. If during the telephone appointment the Doctor decided your symptoms justified a face to face to face appointment this would mean more time away from work. Im not sure what the expectations are here when it comes to patients consultations with a GP.

The way they do this and the appointment system seems to be just for the unemployed.

All driving jobs in cars and vans and trucks and lorries
All cycling and biking jobs
Medical doctor / nurse / HCP
Therapist / counsellor
Teaching and school jobs when on duty
Nursery / childcare jobs around children with a mobile phone bar
Hospitality / catering jobs with safety regs
Lecturing / tutoring / teaching professorial roles when in class
Roofers / on-site tradies with safety regs
Field workers eg engineers with safety regs
Military personnel
Lawyers when with a client or in court
Any job when interviewing or conducting a meeting
Shop workers because they’re not allowed
Prison officers because they are not allowed
Emergency Services where they are not allowed
Any job where confidential time 1:1 with others is necessary, eg with a client

And hundreds of others

The receptionist at our doctors is so awful that DH and I have moved to a different practice. I used to dread having to call.

I understand your frustration OP. I would add in the days before phone appointments were available you could easily sit in a Doctors waiting room for 30 or 40 mins past the appointment time. It's the nature of a Doctors work. As far as considering the workload of patients. If every patient was given that consideration & Doctors adhered to every individuals timescales it would never work. Thankfully you did receive your call & hopefully with a good outcome. Do I think this story deserves a complaint, I'm sorry but no.

When I first started working in prison, it felt odd, but very liberating, to be without my phone. We could go and check our phones at lunch time if we wanted, but we only get 30 minutes and it takes that to get out and back in sometimes, so no one bothers. Family have my desk number for emergencies so I’m not completely non contactable.

I actually work in prison healthcare, and part of my job is sitting in with prisoners on telephone consultations. We have to call the prisoners over from their cells, and they have to be back for roll call so they can’t sit around waiting all day. I often have to phone consultants or their secretaries to chase and remind them that prisoners can’t sit and wait all day for their call.

Well, what else have you got to do? Work, looking after kids/ageing parents? Not important. I have turned up at the surgery for booked appointments to be told they've been cancelled (they didn't phone to say, and when investigated, their staff cancelled by mistake, which would be fine if they just apologised and got me in as soon as possible) and that I need to make another appointment. So take another day off work, then? It's not like we have to pay tax and should have the right to be seen, is it?
Do complain, because the AE nurse told me everyone turns up at hospital just because they can't get help from the GP, and that literally can kill people because urgent cases aren't being helped soon enough.

I remember a time (some 10 years ago) when they would send letters out to people with a username and a code to get into an appointments page online, and you could select an appointment. WTF happened to this system?!

What happened in my NHS Trust, @BatchCookBabe, is that there was a suggested appointment on the screen; and if you clicked on ‘reschedule’ (because you couldn’t make it to that suggested time & date) and got the ‘the team will contact you’ message, that (a) the message wasn’t passed on, so (b) nobody contacted you, and so (c) you got a DNA letter.

And of course the team were left twiddling their fingers at the suggested appointment time, while the patient knew nothing about it.

I raised it with PALS repeatedly. It’s a Trust-wide error. Must be costing ££millions.

Yes I’d contact practice manager. There’s lots of jobs where people can’t have a personal phone so schedule call for a break.

Our GP always rings on a withheld number. On an iPhone you can block withheld numbers, also block calls when driving. Also at certain times of the day my phone will not connect as the network is too busy. Some parts of the house have no signal. Some parts of our village have no signal. My annual medication review has taken 3 months and counting.

I don’t understand those saying to keep your phone on you. How can anyone in a customer facing role do this? Imagine you’re half way though getting your shopping scanned at Tesco? The checkout assistant gets a call and what? Has to scream “sorry gotta leave” and sprint to the staff room leaving you half way through getting served?

Because you only have a few seconds to answer. Definitely not enough time to explain the customer, excuse yourself, go and tell your manager and hope someone can come and take over.

What if you’re on the phone to a customer? Do you hang up on them? Because again there wouldn’t be time to explain and have a back and forth especially as the customer is likely to be unhappy at being told you’re about to hang up on them to have a personal appointment.

What about teachers? They can’t leave the classroom alone? Do they just have the appointment in front of the class? Or do they answer and tell the gp to wait on the line for ten minutes (likely more) while someone (who?) comes and takes over?

Being expected to drop everything and take a very private call at a moments notice, with only a few seconds to answer is not reasonable.

I think your missing the point not everyone can have there phone next to them to be ready to take the call. The dr slots the time in so they should try to stick to that appointment or text to say running late a f2f isn’t the same as you well know it. It’s so frustrating sitting next to your phone but not everyone is this fortunate so op isn’t in the wrong to complain also if your a shop assistant and serving on a till do you think it’s easy to have a call about private medical issues whilst serving on the till staff are not allowed to be on there phones it’s not black and white.

Interesting crossover between this thread and another I'm on about a teen being gifted a phone. There seems to be a definite divide between those who can't imagine a world in which you can possibly exist without a phone in hand at all times and those whose jobs mean they are separated from them for hours at a time and seem to survive. The incredulity from some that a manager wouldn't allow an exception or that you cant just listen out for the call...its really interesting.

@Jk987 And to all those others asking what job you do that you can’t have your phone on you.

I work in a prison. My phone isn’t allowed in the building with me. It has to stay in my car. It takes at least 10/15 minutes to get out of the building and the same again to get back in.

So whilst we can take a gp call during the day, it would need to be pretty timely. And I work in admin. Prison Officers would have a hope of getting off shift to go out to their car and take a call.

@SneakyGremlin is a receptionist in a hotel, the same as the GP receptionist really. How many of you would honestly be ok with a receptionist cutting you off mid conversation / obviously being on their phone when you arrived at reception. You wouldn't be happy and would say it was unacceptable and receptionists know they are front facing and so should do these things on their breaks. There's many roles where you can't just swan off to take a call - any cashiering role for example.

@SneakyGremlin by missing the call you helped the doctor get back closer to schedule. That's a plus for her. I agree you should complain to the practise manager.

What planet are you on?

No way are f2f appointments the same as telephone appts.

For a start, if op was in the surgery waiting for her appt, she is physically there, so no receptionist can make it out to be a ‘missed appointment’.

And seriously do you not get that any role where you are customer facing or work with people, you can just say ‘oh sorry i’m going to stop talking to you/serving you as i have a call’.

I'm a lecturer and can't take calls when teaching, or in a meeting/tutorial/supervision e.g. most of my working hours.

Look I'm sure health care workers are doing their best, but I have had to raise and escalate complaints to PHSO twice in the past year just to get basic healthcare for myself and my child. Investigations into my own chronic illness are still to be escalated to a hospital six years after I first presented with symptoms. My child has only got treatment for a severe ongoing health concern because of my willingness to escalate complaints and ability to pay private drs to confirm the severity of the condition. NHS is in an appalling state, and the appointments system is a clear example. What happened to 'come to the surgery at 2pm and you will be seen within the hour' as a system it is unreasonable to want back?