Ask my anything - I’m a nhs gp receptionist

[Sunnydays999]

Thought this might help having seen the other thread !

Suedo I would have thought the answer would be to medical school yourself, surely?

Given the work’s so easy, so lucrative and you’re already doing it for these lazy useless GPs....

Thank you, he did ask for an emergency appointment and was refused hence my question.

Really intetesting thread OP. Thanks for sharing your insights and experience. I am saddened by posters who feel the need to be rude you because they've had bad experiences . You clearly show your expertise in your responses.

I think it is an important job, not easy and not paid well enough imo.

I think you're right about a lot of anger being based in fear, and also desparation of those with long term conditions for whom the NHS is often not great.

My GP receptionists are pretty good, as is the practice as a whole, for which i am very grateful.

Fellow GP Receptionist here!

I will say that with this pandemic it has been constantly changing with the do's and donts of what is doable.

My practice is doing more face to face appointments but will always initially do a telephone consultation. I didn't decide you can't see the doctor, believe it or not.

You wouldn't believe the grief we get, I don't particularly care what you want to see the doctor about, but I have to ask. We are "care navigators". Can this be something a pharmacist can assist with, direct then to the pharmacist, etc.

I really enjoy my job but the amount of times I've been told it's my fault if the patient dies is just horrific.

@Brefugee most surgeries are owned by the partners so each do as they like . It’s not like nhs hospitals

@RosesAndHellebores I don’t think it occurs to the gps to be honest

@colouringindoors I’m glad you have had good experiences, and Thankyou . Most people are lovely . We have a few old ladies that alway bring us biscuits . And it’s all worth while by the little things . When someone says you’re the only person who’s asked if they are ok , or when on the phone you chat because they are lonely or upset . At the end they Thankyou and it’s genuine.
Most people are good people .

@RosesAndHellebores.

I’m not sure what you mean by this ?

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.

@RosesAndHellebores

None of our gps work full time . I can’t speak for her attitude, but regarding stamps I would believe the receptionist.
They say we aren’t meant to use them for patients, but management is relaxed so I do anyway ! But if your somewhere where you might get a disaplinary ( this happened at a friends surgery )You wouldn’t bother .

@SpookyHalloween that’s horrendous .
Iv never had anything like that . A colleague has been told by one patient he would wait and get her . His threats where worrying as he had previous convictions for violence

The biggest myth ever tho is that we are nosey so want to know why your booking in . We really don’t care , we have heard it all before - and if we were that nosey we could just look at the file
The doctors make the rules.

Do you generally have a good relationship with the staff at your local pharmacies? I work in one and our two local surgeries have fabulous reception teams, efficient and helpful whenever we have a prescription query. In turn we are always pleased to help them out with things.

@Yogaposer yes we do . It’s nice to have joint service

In response to your answers may I ask if you genuinely believe the majority of GPS for some unfathomable reason think they are doing people a favour and have zero respect for the public who actually fund their all too often sub-optimal service?

@RosesAndHellebores do you mean the paying for letters ? You are paying the doctor a fee it’s non nhs work . Doctors earn a lot per hour .If there wasn’t a fee they would get huge amounts of extra work .
I Don’t think they disrespect the public . They have studied for years , he just are there to provide nhs care only .

@RosesAndHellebores in respect of the nhs work . Most doctors are respectful, some patients are rude to them . They can only work within the guidelines of the nhs

No I don't mean paying for letters. GPS receive NHS funding for various things and run their practices as small businesses and are ostensibly self employed are they not? Their funding arises from taxes and the service they provide is not free. It is paid for by the people for the people.

DH and I studied for years, it doesn't mean we afford our clients less respect than we expect them to afford us. Too often GP practice service appears to be can't do rather than can do and that would make them non viable as service providers in the real world.

I don't waste my GP's time and therefore I don't expect my GP practice to waste mine.

Let me give you an example: arrived five minutes late (once out of 10s of times) due to an accident en-route. Arrived and apologised profusely. Receptionist barked at me "well sit and wait, it will depend on the dr whether they are prepared to see you". Sit and wait and realise the GP is running at least 20 minutes late and therefore my late arrival was wholly irrelevant.

So, in that circumstance:

1. Why would the receptionist get arsy;
2. What difference did that 5 minutes make?
3. How about apologising for all the times I have been kept waiting or suffered a cock-up rather than used a raised voice and rough tone for one occasion of minor lateness that was wholly unavoidable?
4. Just why the attitude?

At our GPs they have a telephone triage system and have done so for the last 3-4 years
You phone up anytime between 8&10 am. Yes the receptionist will ask you what the problem is - if you say you’ve been up all night with chest pain, the GP will call you straight away, if on the other hand you say you’ve got an in growing toenail a receptionist ( on GPs say so) will phone you back with a referral or appointment for the nearest chiropodist , obviously you can always say it’s private if you want.
The receptionists are only following GPs orders and all this is explained in a Q&A sheet when you first register with the surgery. It’s an excellent idea and I feel the way forward A lot of GPs have implemented this system because of Covid

Why would you answer the phone only to say that the practice is closed? And when I explained that I didn't want an appointment I just had a question about how to change my nominated pharmacy, why was the reply 'we're closed, call tomorrow.'

WHY answer the phone if you're closed??

@MolyHolyGuacamole

Why would you answer the phone only to say that the practice is closed? And when I explained that I didn't want an appointment I just had a question about how to change my nominated pharmacy, why was the reply 'we're closed, call tomorrow.'

WHY answer the phone if you're closed??

This may be totally unrelated but recently we were open extra hours specifically to book Covid vaccine appointments.

We had sent out texts asking patients to call between certain times for this purpose only. Therefore phone lines were open, but the practice was closed to anything other than people booking a vaccine appointment.

Sunnydays999 I had a patient tell me on the phone "I'm going to come down there and rape you". The Police were involved in that one after dithering by the Practice Manager. He was charged with malicious communication and he had to pay me compensation.

It didn't frighten or upset me but I'll never forget who it was and what he said.

@RosesAndHellebores gps are often late it’s how the nhs is . You have to be on time they have a strict schedule.

@TroysMammy oh god that’s horrendous. Was the patient removed from the practice? They would of been at ours

@MolyHolyGuacamole sometimes the surgery is used for other services out of hourS . For example scanning or vaccinations . They will answer in case it’s their patient , but they can’t help you