Ask my anything - I’m a nhs gp receptionist

[Sunnydays999]

Thought this might help having seen the other thread !

No question for you but I do want to say "thank you" to you and everyone else who works for the NHS.

You are all fabulous.

İ once called when my child was quite ill... And the receptionist recommended İ go to the pharmacy instead of seeking an appointment... Do you do this too? My child had a bad case of tonsilitis that required antibiotics...

@SidSparrow we also have favourite gps who we know will go the extra mile for patients and we tend to go to them for help for patients . You know which doctor will say yes to a home visit and which will say no .

I don’t or try not to , but sometimes gps will say no more unless absolute emergencies. It also depends which doctor is on . I know ones that would say yes it’s fine and others will say come back Monday.

Does your surgery answer the phone, if so, can I register?

Mine has given up. I'm thinking of sending a smoke signal to see if they answer back.

Do you have your regulars ? The ones that treat the surgery like the weekly shop ? My MIL works in a busy surgery and she said there are the same people who go weekly, sometimes twice, for basically no good reason (she obviously don't tell me details) .

I do respect GP receptionist and I'm always polite and understanding. Have only had to raise my voice once to the well known rude one when she refused to check if my DH blood results had come in from the hospital because there was 'no point in checking, they don't come in yet' ( he had just been discharged from hospital and was still poorly and needed to see GP to get medication) . Low and behold the results were there and she got in a sulk and then said all appointments have gone ...whilst her colleagues next to her were booking people in. That's when I got a bit stern.

@hopsalong we don’t allow people to do that . If patients book lots of online appointments they have a block put on the booking system.
Not really ,we have people who are ill , scared or angry .
I’m not easily intimidated.some colleagues find it hard tho and will ask someone else to do a difficult call

@ExplodingCarrots yes you do but it tends to be because people have a lot of health issues

Oh, I have one more question.

How have the staff at your practice justified not seeing more patients in person this year, when many of us have been required to do jobs that involve a higher level of interaction (eg university teaching in my case) for less benefit? I know some practices are different but yours sounds like mine?

After all, it isn't OK to diagnose moles by phone, is it? When I had a rash earlier in the year I got so fed up of being fobbed off my the GP that I forked out £250 to see a dermatologist. While I was there she noticed a very very early stage basal cell carcinoma which was removed and biopsied. All rather expensive, and I'm very lucky to have been able to pay.

Do you only have access to the records of people registered in your practice or is it a wider range than that?

Thanks. And is the longterm aim to have everyone doing everything online as much as possible, so that personal visits to the practice are minimised, even before and after covid?

Are you in a position to help less computer-savvy patients to get to grips with online appointments? Can you think of a way to help people register without having to print out a pdf and leave home to deliver it by hand?

@PhilCornwall1 less so at the moment. We have pages and pages of covid jabs to book in .There is maybe 1 person answering the phone as someone has to book them , another code them . No extra staff

@hopsalong I'm not sure that the OP can be blamed for your experience.

Why do you do what you do and put up with all the crap and abuse that you do when you could get paid the same working on the cheese counter at Sainsbury's? Not goady at all I genuinely am interested how they manage to recruit gp receptionists. It looks to me as it's so tough and unrewarding. I saw a bloke in my local practice absolutely tear into the receptionist for his appointment being late. He then looked at his diary and realised he got the wrong week. Didn't even apologise!
An advert I saw was offering a whopping £8.50 per hour for a receptionist. I used to get the same and my only responsibility was making sure milk was heated to the right temperature and consistency to be considered froth.
I have a million thank yous and massive respect for all gp receptionists.

@hopsalong I don’t know how they justify it .

If you told the GPs you were unhappy about the way your role was perceived by patients what would they say?

@ZowieHendrix Thankyou . It’s hard to recruit . I have young children and they work around my hours. Reception desk is a small part . We do a lot of admin as well . I actually find it hugely rewarding when you can make someone’s life easier . I have had mental health / physical problems myself and go out of my way to Help make life easier in a difficult system. The biggest pull is my immediate team . We are alway there for each other.

@PurplePlain probably say “oh we love you “ jokingly - bring in chocolates . Then ask have your booked in and coded the 50 million covid jabs , oh and can you see when the midwife surgery is , am I down for next Friday ? And please can you ring cardiology about the echo

@turnthebiglightoff

I agree. What on earth made you think I was blaming the OP? I'm not even blaming mine, who is only following practice protocol. I am interested if there's internal disagreement in the practice about these policies though. My workplace divides pretty sharply into those keen never to teach again in person and those who were teaching in person for all of last term and have a low view of the quality of Zoom lectures etc.

@MrsTidyHouse

Can you shed light on the phone systems and online booking? The phone system at ours used to have ringback. Several years ago this stopped, and now we have to dial and redial many times, sometimes getting the engaged tone, but more often getting a recorded message which I'm assuming I then pay for. What is the sense behind this change?

My record redial was 142 times in 20 minutes but I had to keep going as I was desperate for one of the elusive appointments.

As for the @Sunnydays999 Is this just a goady thread as it seems like it? I told the receptionist at least 5 times that my epileptic brother had an ear infection and that this had brought on seizures before and he needed penicillin (I think) She point blank even let me speak to the doctor and surprise surprise, he had a seizure plus an agonisingly sore ear for days. Why do GP receptionists think they know best?

*wouldn't let me

@Sunnydays999 kudos! I moved from dental receptionist to nhs admin and I never regretted it. The NHS is a pretty good employer (my experience!) and it's flexible too. I'm sure it is rewarding at times but when I was a receptionist I found the bad times left more of a mark. One woman called stupid on nearly every interaction, and I started believing it!

@MrsTidyHouse yes it’s all going on line . We can but there is never time . I tend to just do it for them . Doesn’t solve the problem but makes life easier

That’s awful . Iv not had anything like that .

Also I'd love to see anyone on here do a better job. If there's a problem then it's the system that's broken, not the individuals. Maybe we shouldn't let private companies take over parts of our medical care?