Ask my anything - I’m a nhs gp receptionist

[Sunnydays999]

Thought this might help having seen the other thread !

Sunnydays999 he had been removed the week before for causing a rumpus and when I phoned I politely advised him that he was no longer a patient and had been sent a letter that he had to register elsewhere.

Funnily enough his brother, who had been removed a few months ago because he had been rude to a Receptionist and sent a letter to register elsewhere telephoned the surgery last week. He was advised by a colleague he was no longer a patient and needed to find a surgery near to where he lived when he called my colleague a fucking cunt. Even though the phone call was recorded Management and the GP's haven't called the Police!

@Sunnydays999 I am on a strict time schedule and my time is every bit as valuable as a GP's. You haven't however answered the question. If I was 5 minutes late once in five years and apologised why did the receptionist:

a. Bark at me
b. Say I could sit down and the GP would decide if I,'d be seen when the GP was 20 minutes late in any event and the fact that I was late once made not a jot of difference.
c. Why does any Dr or receptionist think their time is more valuable than mine?

Thank you.

Why does any Dr or receptionist think their time is more valuable than mine?

It's not GPs who are inconvenienced when you are late; it's other patients. GPs typically see 15 patients back to back, at 10 minute intervals, in each half-day surgery , immediately followed by home visits. If each patient is 5 minutes late/runs 5 minutes over, by the end of the surgery, the GP will be running 75 minutes behind, and the poor patients at the end of the surgery- and those awaiting home visits- have a massive wait.

Obviously it's not common for every patient to be late, but it's very common for every patient to require more than 10 minutes. And late patients still expect their full appointment time - which means everyone else in the waiting room is inconvenienced. Your question should really be why you think your time is more valuable than that of other patients?

GPs could opt to see fewer patients, of course, but then it would be even harder to get an appointment. There is no slack in a GP day at all - on top of the things already mentioned, they will have phone calls to make, tests & letters to review and prescriptions to sign.

@RosesAndHellebores if you want to see a gp you have to wait . That’s how it works - up to you

@TroysMammy that’s disgusting they should of

@RosesAndHellebores you seem quite angry in general . Maybe this was picked up on . She should of been polite but it’s difficult when people rant on .
If your late you also inconvenience other people

@Sunnydays999 if I want to see a GP I make an appointment. 99.9% of the time I have been early; once I was 5 minutes late. With all due respect if I have an appointment at 8.40, I expect to be seen by 9am. If not, I expect an apology.

It is so different on the Continent where money changes hands.

I'm not angry but I do notice you don't appear to be directly answering questions.

I am sorry if your job is difficult and if some people are rude. I am not but now I am 60 I will call out the eyeroll and I will call out poor service. I think it's wrong the public should have to be grateful for sloppy service.

FWIW since my GP went pretty much on-line due to Covid services are so much better and so much more efficient and it is frankly a relief not to have to interact orally with the switch team at my surgery. Most of the receptionists at my surgery are very pleasant, one or two are utterly vile. If they were my staff it wouldn't be tolerated. Although to be fair at the surgery over the road where we initially were going to register the women were so utterly vile as we went in with the registration forms we walked back out again.

@RosesAndHellebores you aren’t going to get what you want . Gps are very busy . If you want to go private that’s fine . They often have emergencies and just don’t have the time to pander .

@RosesAndHellebores which specific questions did you want answering ? Iv answered the majority .

@RosesAndHellebores it really does seem that you're taking your anger at one particular GP receptionist out on the OP. I have no idea why.

Your tone is. (to put it in a mumsnetty way) 'raging'. How is OP supposed to know why this receptionist got angry with you about those five minutes?

If you meet someone who's a shopworker, do you demand to know why one in a different shop at the other end of the country was grumpy with you?

If you wanted a reason why that particular person was so unpleasant, then asking the practice manager might have been a better idea than taking it out (repeatedly) on an anonymous receptionist who put herself out here on MN.

My apologies that wasn't my intention. It just seems a common sort of theme so I thought I would ask. It's the theme that irks not one particular receptionist. No offence meant and don't wish to be at all ragey.

@Sunnydays999. Morning. Has your surgery put the Covid injection group number on each patients records? If you pulled up a particular patients re offs would you be able to tell which group they're in?

Thanks.

@WitchesBritchesPumpkinPants it has on up until certain groups . It’s quite labour intensive tho . We have also been told not to be discussing it with patients

@ I think the reason we are told not to get in the discussion about it is because it can change . The latter groups aren’t set in stone yet . Also we are struggling to book covid jabs in as people are constantly ringing about them . Unfortunately there is no extra staff to book them .

@Sunnydays999

@ I think the reason we are told not to get in the discussion about it is because it can change . The latter groups aren’t set in stone yet . Also we are struggling to book covid jabs in as people are constantly ringing about them . Unfortunately there is no extra staff to book them .

Yeah. I've sat on my hands so far!!

I should be G6. It would be great to have it confirmed with some rough estimation of when they expect to be injecting us!

G6 is huge it'll be interesting to see how they call people up for it & when they'll be starting.

Sunny do you know of people who've had Covid relapse after a few weeks of being well / have got it twice / are you seeing the same number of patients with other viruses?

@WitchesBritchesPumpkinPants so as I know group 6 is for people with conditions that make them vulnerable. We haven’t yet been told who is in it exactly. Presuming diabetes copd type illness and asthma to be in there . We are thinking we will hit that group April ( but that’s approximately)

@WitchesBritchesPumpkinPants hope that gives you a rough idea
Clinically vulnerable is group 4 ( transplants are etc )

@colouringindoors not people being infected twice no. We have seen people with long covid for last march tho .

I have to say that everytime I go to my GP practice, im always early and every time my appointment is never on time.

Do you not think its abit hypocritical to have patients make sure they are on time but GPS are late and no announcements made informing you that there is say a 20min wait because of an emergency.

I think its quite rude to leave patients waiting with no idea of how long that wait it.

Basically as a patient you have to allow for an hour for what should be a 10min appointment. I think better communication on waiting times would be better.

I went a few weeks ago there were only 2 people in the waiting room and none were seeing the same GP as I, yet I still had to wait 20mins past my appointment time. Its pretty ridiculous in covid times for people to be waiting that long when we should be minimising exposure.

And there was no patient ahead of me because I could see my GPs room and when I was called noone had walked out.

I just think if you expect us to be on time some courtesy should go the other way.

@cyclingmad gps often do phone calls before appointments. It may of been an emergency, there might of been a urge situation regarding lab reports . It’s a bit like when you go to A & E they prioritise and There could be someone in a much worse situation who Is put in front of you

@Sunnydays999, having provided a reason for potential delays, please could you answer the part of the question about why there is no communication about the potential delay and why there doesn't seem to be mutuality of respect for the patient's and the Dr's time.

Also, if the Dr has to make a call at 10am, (for example) and has a patient booked at 10am who physically booked in before 10am why not see the patient first and make the telephone call afterwards?

RosesAndHellebores please stop hectoring the OP. GP's may have received an urgent report from a patient's scan, usually cancer, which has to be acted on immediately or the patient before needed more than 10 mins. Believe it or not GP's don't use timers. Receptionists would not know unless advised by the GP they are running massively late. The GPs wouldn't be so rude to stop the consultation to ring the Receptionist to tell them to advise the patients waiting.

Didn't you used to be OhTheRoses because your style of writing and demands for answers from someone who doesn't work at your GP practice is very familiar.

I'm very sorry Troysmammy but asking for a full answer rather than a partial answer is a request for further information, not hectoring. I am sorry if you think it so. It is perfectly reasonable in my opinion to ask why there isn't mutuality of respect for GP and patient time, especially when there are big notices up in capital letters which I think are rather rude.

Do receptionists get any mental health first aid training, do you think they should?
The reason I ask is when my sister had PND she almost went out and took an overdose because a GP receptionist wouldn’t give her an appointment and was very abrasive (saying she didn’t need an urgent appointment). I get chills thinking about what could have been sometimes. The GP receptionist would probably have no idea how serious their ‘professional’ lack of compassion almost was.