Gp Receptionist

[Sloneranger97]

I work as a gp receptionist . AMA

As a retired GP can I just say how wonderful a supportive reception team is. You do a fantastic job.

If a patient makes a complaint against the practice is it held against them and they are seen as difficult?

hi ,so sorry I missed your post x

I would say the show is a general idea of how surgeries are, however, every surgery is different. When it comes to emergency / immediate mental health problems, I always book the patient the same day with the duty dr and/or call 999. Sometimes patients may want to follow up regarding their mental health issues and will tell me when they want the appointment for. Doctors and other clinicians often tell patients to ring back and book an appointment for a specific day, however, what they fail to forget is that they are already booked up for routine appointments and can only add on extra slots ON THE DAY/TIME of an emergency. I often have patients tell me the doctor told them to call them back if they have any queries , but what that means is minor queries, and it may not be with that specific doctor😊. I always remind clinicians to use direct words with patients as mixed messages and confusion makes things worse for everyone . Mental health problems have gotten worse since the pandemic definitely, thankfully the Practice I work offers a lot of routine appointments for patients to give dr’s updates and actually so does my personal practice.

I don’t know any of the older patients personally, but I find they always speak to receptionist in a personal manner(nice or mean😂), and if you’re not familiar with working with them, sometimes you may actually think you know them personally and may have forgotten!

Hi .
Absolutely not , and if anybody ever did, that would suggest to me you’re in the wrong sector. Everybody has the right to raise a complaint, even staff. Whatever the outcome is, should be settled, and shouldn’t be held against them , as this would affect the treatment of the patient.

Sometimes patients aren’t happy with the resolution of the complaint, and want to escalate it. As long as the practice has taken all the correct and necessary steps with the initial complaint and followed procedure then , it’s up to the patient from there. 😊

there have been times where patients have had issues with staff and when they come in or call , you remind yourself of the situation. This helps me to protect not only the patients but myself ! One example of this is a patient who constantly pushed with their complaint , to the point It had a horrible effect on all the receptionists mental health, and this lead to staffing issues ! They had to be made aware of how their behaviour was impacting the staff .

However , again no , a patient making a complaint has every right to , and I wouldn’t see them as difficult . Xx

We had a lovely receptionist at my surgery who was very friendly and helpful, but recently looking at the website she has left 😔 if I got her on the phone I knew she’d get me an appointment or sort out a problem.
My question is - does your surgery do e-consults and has that affected your job in a negative or positive way?

Hi !

oh no it’s horrible when the nice ones leave ! You’ll find we often do because of workplace bullying , not sure what it is about being the nice receptionist that’s pisses other receptionists off😬. E consult hasn’t really affected my role as I still have to do a lot of the admin side of e-consult. We still book appointments the traditional way, especially for the elderly. I would say a positive is that appointments are now being distributed evenly. A negative is that patients are becoming more abusive as they aren’t getting same-day appointments the way they used to it all depends on the urgency.