Ask my anything - I’m a nhs gp receptionist

[Sunnydays999]

Thought this might help having seen the other thread !

The only go experience I've had during covid is when my 15 yr old DD bent her finger back in pe and it was still swollen the next morning.
Called gp, told receptionist the issue, without being asked and she arranged a call back for my dd and because of her age they needed to speak to her not me.

During the same day call back we had to text a photo over, which was quite simple.

Turned out to be a fracture and spent a couple of hours in a and e.

Fabulous service from the first call and to the hospital treating her.

Thank you 💐

We can only socially distance on rare occasions. We have to wipe down telephones, keyboards, mouse, desks, staplers before moving onto a different desk. Absolutely crap, office too small, not enough staff, too much work, stupid time the script desk phone is on. The first person's lunch break is 11.20, second one finishes 1.20. Script desk on 11.30 to 3.15. People coming to the door for scrips and appointments, main telephone doesn't stop. Only 3 members of staff in a morning, one person scanning which is on a rota basis. Then lunches for the 2 members of staff in all day. 3rd person goes home at 1.30 so just 2 members of staff in the afternoon. It's crap or as I say - frustrating.

We haven't worked from home and no routine testing. Luckily no one has had it. A GP and Nurse had to self isolate because of family members but touch wood we've been ok. We've had our first jab a month ago.

One of the local surgeries had a positive case and had to close down and all the staff had to self isolate. After a deep clean I volunteered to work there for a session. Seeing how they did things I couldn't work there as I felt there was so much improvement to make things more organised 😀. It was tidier than our shit hole of an office though.

@seepingweeping that is ridiculous. We had something similar with a school child needing 2 epi pens( policy apparently) . Took me 2 hours to sort it out going between the /school doctors and chemist . I’m still not sure why it was such a nightmare!

@seepingweeping it’s the case with all medication - it’s in case your hoarding it!

@TroysMammy our office is also a total mess 🤣everything gets dumped there as we are right at the back away from the public

@TopBitchoftheWitches good that’s how it should be . I find it every difficult with the age thing . Sometimes it’s far easier to talk to the parent as some kids are nervous . It’s a funny one

@TroysMammy that does sound frustrating.

I don't get why anyone wouldn't tell the receptionist what the symptoms are. Surely this can help get you triaged to be seen at the appropriate time? I guess if it's mental health you may feel very fragile but you have to let them know to be helped.The receptionists are trained and contracted to work confidentially. At my GP I fill in an online form and have received calls the same day or next. I had a significant health scare in Autumn and GP could have not been more vigilant.

I don't get why anyone wouldn't tell the receptionist what the symptoms are.
in my case? because it was extremely personal and in a reception area full of people and apparently it didn't occur to her that i didn't want all my neighbours knowing about my personal medical details.

What i wonder is why given the hundreds of GP surgeries all over the country they don'T seem to adopt any kind of best practice and spread the best ways of handling things like the above (eg, offer to go into a side room quickly, or have a different entry set up)

ironically with it all being by phone now it's a lot easier

Do Dr's receptionists understand that GP practices are run as small businesses and that the NHS is not free but free at the point of delivery.

Do any GPS actually work full-time nowadays?

When dd smashed her leg and we had to cancel a holiday I had to ask the GP to complete an insurance claim form which I dealt with as much as possible and put stickies on the pages she needed to complete. I was charged £30.00 with the cheque payable to the GP personally, ie, Dr Mary Jones, and was asked to come back for it after 4pm. Which I did, with a 9 year old in a wheelchair - so get her out of house into car and chair in boot, etc. The form was not ready after 4 and I was told to come back the next day. I asked for it to be posted and was told the practice didn't have budget for stamps! Why would a receptionist then get terse when I said if the GP had taken a cheque from me personally for £30 for 5/6 minutes work, she could deliver it herself on her way home as she didn't have a child in a wheelchair. I made an appointment with the GP the next day and explained what happened and was told the receptionists should have behaved better and should have interrupted her between patients.

Whose side of the story do you believe? The GP was polite, apologetic and professional whereas the receptionist was all that was wrong with Vicki Pollard.

We never asked patients what it was regarding until covid lockdown. Obviously we needed to ask patients so no-one with covid symptoms got through the door and passed on infection. Some people do have a don't care attitude. With the online consultation they now have to tell us briefly bad back, pain relief not effective, earache, thrush but don't tell the Receptionist you have an UTI when you really are not coping with mental health. It makes us look like twats when passing on information to the GP. Without sounding uncaring we don't care what problems people have, some of us have our own.

Bearing in mind how restrictive the phone requirements are, for example, start dialling at 8.29 and hang on for 20 minutes or more, do Drs receptionists understand that many people phoning will be at work in open plan offices, and cannot divulge confidential info down the phone? It's all very well if one is acutely ill and at home but often people are managing chronic conditions.

@CarolVordermansBum

"Did you need any qualifications to get the job? I notice your grammar is terrible, are you just being sloppy because its mumsnet or is this genuinely how you spell/type?"

How ironic that you don't see your own grammatical error...

No complaints about the receptionists at my practice. However some of my friends have strange expectations like:

One who demanded a home visit because the two different appointment times offered clashed with the baby's nap time. Made a stinker of a complaint.

Another spent months on social media badmouthing a practice because her mum had phoned the GP to ask for an urgent appointment (or home visit) because he was having a heart attack. The receptionist told her to immediately hang up and ring 999 or offered to ring for her. Her DM spent ages arguing and calling the receptionist names. Receptionist hung up and called 999. When the ambulance turned up patient wasn't having a heart attack or symptoms close. They thought it was probably indigestion.

OK, so thanks for explaining the reasons behind being obstructive. But, why do reception staff take their frustrations out on the patients. I mean, I understand how difficult it is to help someone when your hands are tied, but why is it deemed acceptable to be horrible to the patients.

I was in my surgery a while back and a lady turned up for her appointment. The receptionist shouted at the lady because she'd been trying to ring her to tell her the appointment was cancelled. The patient hadn't been difficult at all, she just explained that she hadn't received the call as she'd been out shopping. The receptionist went out of her way to belittle the woman. It was very unpleasant to watch

No question just a thank you.
The receptionists at my GP practice are absolutely lovely, helpful and kind.

You do a very difficult job dealing with the very unpleasant public, I expect that you deal with abuse hourly, I would just like to say a thank you.

Our receptionist is lovely. Sad they get such bad press.

I don't have any complaints about my GP o the receptionists in normal or Covid times!
I was worried about some symptoms, did telephone consultation, dr booked me in for blood tests, went & saw nurse for blood tests, made appt to see GO in person a week later!
All good, all done safely!

@bloodywhitecat

We have a lovely receptionist and an awful one, DP phoned for an appointment when he was bright yellow with painless jaundice, she told him he could have an appointment in a week as it wasn't an emergency. Is that kind of thing outside of a receptionists remit? We are in two minds as to whether or not to add it to the list of complaints we have about how his case was managed.

Would one of you please be able to answer my question or is it wrong to ask?

bloodywhitecat if someone had telephoned me and said that they had gone yellow I would have referred that to the GP immediately and the GP would probably have rung back as soon as they could or instructed me to ring you to advise of the best course of action. No way would I decide what is an emergency or not but with common sense and 11 years Receptionist experience I know it's not something that could wait.

@RosesAndHellebores

Bearing in mind how restrictive the phone requirements are, for example, start dialling at 8.29 and hang on for 20 minutes or more, do Drs receptionists understand that many people phoning will be at work in open plan offices, and cannot divulge confidential info down the phone? It's all very well if one is acutely ill and at home but often people are managing chronic conditions.

I work in a GP surgery & in a lot of situations “ongoing issue” is all you need say. Or “the issue I saw Dr about in October”. We can see your consultations so can see what that is without you needing to say the words. If you need to chat about the antidepressants you’re taking or problems with your contraceptive pill “it’s about my meds” will do.

We have to ask as the Drs want to know. We also have to divert certain issues to the ANP lists & others to pharmacies. A brief idea is all that’s needed though.

Two things, firstly new jaundice would be an emergency to me.

Secondly, if the patient says it’s an emergency you have to treat it as one. If the emergency Dr calls & feels it isn’t urgent it’s their place to say so, not mine.