I work in a GP surgery AMA

[phonetedt]

healthcare role - safeguarding

AMA

I would actually say to speak to the surgery secretaries/admin team on the phone tomorrow @Cantalever to check the referral was sent, or phone dermatology at the hospital and speak to their secretary and ask how far down the list she is. Her age would not stop her being a priority.

Do all gp surgeries have one of you?
No. Not in our area anyhow.

How did you get into that job?

I worked in mental health for years and a part of the role was safeguarding, so I saw this job advertised and just went for it!

Does it take 5 weeks to get an appointment there?

contemplating moving surgeries and wondering if they're this bad everywhere.

No excuse to be vile to ppl who genuinely need help.i think that’s a piss poor attitude from health care and it’s a shame you think it’s ok to be rude to ppl.

i was asked to detail my miscarriage to a bloody receptionist and then after that she asked me if I was pregnant!

I don’t care what wage you’re on that’s unprofessional behaviour and lacking any compassion

the phone call was recorded and I got a massive apology from the manager and the receptionist was reprimanded.

Why do they use receptionists as chaperones ? I had a really intimate procedure done this week and feel so traumatized about it. I have had to make a complaint to the Practice manager but it set me thinking whether it's appropriate to have receptionists as chaperones - how much training do they get as to what is appropriate etc or whether something inappropriate has happened ?

All staff have safeguarding and chaperone training as a minimum. Any member of staff can be a chaperone for this reason. If you feel uncomfortable you can ask for a nurse but it can't be guaranteed so you may have to rebook. But they are trained to spot anything untoward

Please can we not turn this thread into a GP receptionist bashing thread when the Op is not a receptionist.
I am a receptionist and am always on pleasant and polite to patients and do my best but I can’t magic appointments out of thin air. Lots of patients thank me for being so helpful, so I must be doing something right.
Receptionists are only used as chaperones on the rare occasions there is no nurse available. We have to undergo special training for it. I’m not trained so can’t really comment further.

No, in our surgery it's within 72 hours unless completely non medically urgent (eg. They want to discuss an ADHD referral). The very elderly and very young are always seen same day.

In my own surgery where I am a patient not an employee, I struggle to get an appointment within the same week

Wow that's interesting thank you.

I still can't believe it's 5weeks for a appointment for my daughter for something really quite important that means she's missing school (but not same day urgent). I might see if I can find out if it's any different elsewhere.

What exactly do you ‘handle’? Like a PP asked.

Im only asking as I’m a social worker in an adult safeguarding and never heard of your role?

GPs just send a referral directly to us. It’s the law to send safeguarding concerns to actual safeguarding where there are trained and qualified social workers to case hold and work with these cases.

You won’t be doing that. So no home visits or anything.

Any MDTs we have the actual GPs or nurses or whoever is doing direct patient contact as need to know their professional opinion and what happened at last appointment etc.

What does your role entail with patients?

is it actually admin work where the HCP tells you about a concern they have and you fill in the referral and chase them up with social services?

Whats your job title?

I ask as I’ve never heard or come across this role and I work with GPs and nurses daily for my case load and never heard anything of this role. If your job is actually doing work with patients then it’d be useful to know and I’ll enquire at work to see if we have any in any of our city practices.

No patient contact, it's more a case of if someone has concerns they come to me or if referrals have already gone in. I also liaise with the schools, social workers and anyone else involved. I manage and review the register, so that means adding/removing safeguarding patients and keeping their notes up to date. I attend meetings if GPs can't to pass on/get any updates. I fill in the conference reports (which GPs review and sign off) and respond to enquiries. I organise health visitor meetings for the under 5s every 2 months with myself and GP, as well as a DSL meeting once a quarter where we discuss cases. I also do all the admin stuff like coding patients on the system and adding alerts. It's a relatively new role (less than 2 years I believe) and I'm sure most surgeries have the Role.

I also organise appointments and action anything the social workers request from us, or the safeguarding nurse (for example I will review the health report and forward any actions to gp or arrange appointment as required)

I'm also here for advice for the clinicians if they're unsure, as a lot of safeguarding is just a hunch sometimes (like one person has a gut feeling, and it turns out a lot of people had already raised similar concerns, when we add it all together we get the full picture).

Information sharing is one of the biggest responsibilities in the role - with education, health, social care.

Though the role will vary like most PCN roles do (for example, in my PCN social prescribers do home visits. In others it's signpost only and on the phone, in others they are nurses)

So I can't say every safeguarding coordinator does what I do. Some may do the same, some more and some less.

In charities for example there has to be safeguarding lead who keeps records and makes the referrals.
Same with schools.
The ppl doing these jobs aren't going to be Social workers - but this is something that needs to be done legally.

OPs job will be this sort of thing surely?

You don’t need to give exact numbers but what kind of salary does your job carry? (I’m looking for a change of job)

@Miley1967 you have to be trained to be a chaperone. The doctors can't just grab any Receptionist to do it.

I work in an admin role, not a Receptionist, but I have 20 years experience of working as a hospital HCA and am trained & qualified. You wouldn't necessarily know that from my uniform though.

Where I work, chaperones all have similar backgrounds no matter which department they now work in.

Hopefully the same applies at your surgery & the complaints officer (commonly not the Practice Manager by the way) can set your mind at rest.

How have things changed at the Surgery from pre-covid to now? What's worse, better, different?

Do you think GP surgeries as we know them will be very different in 5 to 10 years time (ie. Increasing role of AI, etc?).

It varies as the role is funded by PCN. Expect £12 per hour in some areas, up to £15 in others. You can negotiate depending on experience

Very different. Far more phone calls and internet stuff. Some have internet triage, some have internet booking. Some surgeries only book phone calls and it's up to the doctor if they want to see you after the call.

What's worse? Not enough capacity, people complain about the lack of appointments but trust me, there just isn't the staff. I cover multiple surgeries, and they're all the same. Since covid, there's more mental health and more sick notes

What's better? We're better at triaging and allocating appointments to the appropriate clinician.

As for AI, that scares me.

On a random note,

The work GPs and the staff do is way more than just seeing patients. I'm not sure how much the public realise this.

The GPs often work late and don't have lunch breaks.

Their slots are strictly governed - how they're filled, how many etc. Often they do the other work in their lunch hour.

There's f2f apps, phone apps, referrals, letters, meetings (this can be in house, online, phone or in person), unofficial meetings (such as contacting a social worker to discuss a patient), emergencies, home visits, sick notes, forms (eg fit to travel)? Reports (child protection etc), prescriptions, medication reviews (where pharmacists can't do this). At my practice there's also trainees so the GPs have to double check their work, give them support, mentoring etc. Then there's appraisals, even admin like filling in their CPD log takes time,.. and so much more.

It's not unusual for a GP to work from 830am-730pm, go home and continue to work.

And the reason receptionists ask why you need an app is literally for triage - to see if it's something the nurse, physio etc can deal with.

Aah working late and through lunch hours and getting admin/other work done outside “working hours”; indeed working from 8.30am to 7.30pm.

Do GPs and their practice staff realise that’s what most professionals do: solicitors, barristers, accountants, actuaries, investment bankers, and many director level posts? And some.

What training do your receptionists have for medical triage? I would expect anyone doing triage to be medically qualified in order to judge needs in a situation where you can't even see the patient.

If they don't have at least a nursing or similar qualification then they are being exploited as unqualified minimum wage medical staff.

Struggling to think of a single professional job where people don't take work home/work significantly outside of standard hours. Its the price of the high salary and the status.

The triage process doesn't necessarily need a medical professional,

It's about knowing what each does.

They are given training also.

But it isn't as detailed as you think. Eg "I've got a sore throat" - send to someone who can prescribe

"My dressing needs
Changing"- nurse or Hca

"Sprained ankle" physio

If in doubt they can ask duty doctor as can the clinician when in consultation

Thank you for doing the job you do. 🫶🏻

If a x1 parent has severe anxiety. Would their children be added to this register and the children flagged? If so does this ever get reviewed e.g. parent gets better so no longer a safegusrding concern?