Fucking gp receptionist....

[Hellbentwellwent]

I’m livid.

Just called in the surgery to get a repeat prescription and while I was there thought I’d ask if my blood results had come back. So I asked the receptionist.... for clarity there is a desk in the waiting room which is the only place to speak to the receptionist. There were other patients sitting waiting, easily in earshot, 8 foot away, and it was quiet. All I wanted to know was if I had to speak to the gp or if there was nothing to note on the results. Instead however the receptionist thought it was appropriate to announce to us all in the waiting room that my hormone profile was in line with a hysterectomy. Thanks very fucking much, I’ve just had a hugely traumatic surgery, very recently, I’m in my mid thirties so young to have had it done and feeling pretty bloody emotional over the whole thing in the first place and this this silly bint decides to share it with a room full of patients.

I said thank you, she smiled and said you’re welcome, then I said, no, thank you for sharing that with everyone, and the smile melted of her face as I looked around at a room full of people looking at us.

I walked out on the verge of tears. Just got home furious.

What the fuck ever happened to patient confidentiality???

I shall be emailing the practice manager after a glass of wine to complain.

OP I am completely bewildered about the responses you're getting which say you're over-reacting.

Patient confidentiality is a fundamental right.

This receptionist does need more training and you need to have your feelings validated.

I hope you get an unreserved apology. This really isn't good enough. PP saying this has happened because the NHS is under pressure are wrong.

You did the right thing in raising it with the surgery, so long as you weren't aggressive about it, which you've made clear you weren't.

The NHS (and other places) are only able to improve practice when people point out what's gone wrong. It doesn't need to be about angrily getting someone in trouble as some seem to think the OP was doing, but about bettering service provision. Unless she's a repeat offender and terrible receptionist then she'll be fine and the OPs feedback will make sure it doesn't happen again. This happens at levels of patient care (complaints and things going wrong being used to improve things rather than get people in trouble), as it should.

Sorry you had it happen though OP

I'm sorry you're upset but I don't think the receptionist is at fault here. I've moved around quite a bit and at all of the different surgeries I've been at, the receptionist has always given out the blood results - unless it's bad news.

If you'd asked me that, I would have assumed you were asking me what the results were. I think it's a simple misunderstanding, especially if receptionists would normally give out the blood results. I think her response is entirely understandable.

Also, that doesn't sound like a typical receptionist phrase. Every surgery I've been at they've been a real stickler for not interpreting anything, even when it's obvious. It sounds as if that's something that was written down and was intended for you to be passed on to you. I would seriously doubt that she would conjure that phrase up herself.

On a personal note, I really couldn't summon the energy to be worried that other patients waiting in the room overheard that I'd had a hysterectomy. I agree with PP that you sound disproportionately angry about this.

You humiliated the receptionist deliberately in anger and you seem quite pleased about this. I feel sorry for her - in your own words, the own surgery overheard you making her feel silly - and she's now got to sit in front of them all at work and try to stay professional. If she'd been rude, sarcastic or unpleasant to you then fair enough but your reaction was grossly unfair.

Where I do think you have a point however is the layout of the surgery. It's commonplace for receptionists to read out results or messages from doctors - and this makes sense, rather than taking up an appointment for something simple that could just be passed on. While I personally wouldn't have been bothered, and I absolutely maintain what she did was fine in the circumstances, I do accept that some patients cringe at the idea of being overheard. And of course, there may be times when a patient wants to pass sensitive information to the receptionist.

In light of this, my complaint wouldn't have been about the receptionist but the fact that there was nowhere for the information to be passed over privately, without being overheard. That's entirely valid and something I'd be pushing the GP surgery to resolve.

I appreciate you won't agree with my opinion, nor I with yours. Nevertheless I am still sorry you've been upset by the experience and I hope you're feeling a bit better now. I also hope you're recovering OK from your hysterectomy, that's an enormous procedure and really takes its toll emotionally and physically.

At our doctors you can't be referred to the midwife unless they have sent a urine test off to the lab. So I popped in to do it, took it to the counter and said quietly what it needed to be tested for. Receptionist then turned around to her colleague and bellowed in front of the packed waiting room "have we got any of them green pregnancy notes back there, the lady needs to fill one in before her first midwife appointment". They probs heard her from space. I wouldn't care but so many people we know go to the same surgery, I usually see someone I know. Thankfully not that day but I think sometimes they just don't think. I think she should have grasped from the fact I pretty much whispered that I was trying not to inform the room I was pregnant!

If I wanted anything private relaying I usually do it via phone for this very reason though, they don't appear to be able to whisper. It's just unfortunate you can't deliver a urine sample via phone!

Definitely complain, she'll never learn otherwise.

can i say you were a bit daft asking, you asked, you wanted the answer, she gave it

Again this is a breech of confidentiality and needs to be reported. Confidentiality is crucial to the dr patient relationships and should be treated as such.

I think in general reception areas in drs shouldn't be in the waiting room.
Its horrible trying to have a discreet conversation with a dozen people sitting 4 foot away. Our doctors has just been refitted and seems to make the reception more central to the waiting room which is shit for privacy.

An urgent training need

This is one of those threads where the answer is completely obviously YANBU but the people on here who have no other outlet for their own negativity all pile on with the YABUs just for the sake of spreading their shitty days onto someone else. They talk about you projecting onto the receptionist when in reality they are projecting onto you.

The receptionist did a shitty job.

It seems obvious to me that people working at any level in certain jobs such as medical, financial or legal to name a few should know never to discuss anything in a public part of the office/building.
I have had experience of breaches of confidentiality in medical situations only.

In a bank I asked for my up to date balance on an account I rarely use and the bank employee asked if I wanted a last 6 transaction slip or want it written on a slip of paper. That way my balance was not spoken out loud.
Lack of money in the NHS is not an excuse for lack of decency

can i say you were a bit daft asking, you asked, you wanted the answer, she gave it

She didn't. She asked if the results were back. That is a yes/no question. She didn't ask for her results and her medical history to be broadcast to the waiting room.

Sorry OP. I had a medically necessary abortion a few years ago, and had the same. The receptionist was shouting (actually shouting) at me that I'd arrived the wrong day for a termination (I'd been given an appointment). Turned round to see a load of slack jawed pregnant couples who were waiting for their scan. Some who I knew

Please complain. This is a common problem in doctors surgeries and they need to be much more careful about patient confidentiality in a waiting room full of people. Private medical information should not be requested or given out in that setting. It's completely inappropriate. And can lead to the situation you have experienced.

I work for an advice organisation and we are not permitted to even call out the client's name in the waiting area let alone their private information. They are given a number instead.

CochonDinde that is truly awful. Bad enough to go through what you had to go through but to be treated like that is absolutely unforgivable.

CochonDinde

Care opinion. leave a review.

I've done this about a callous receptionist before and the practice manager sent me an apology. And sent the receptionist off for additional training.

She could have said results in line with your recent surgery/procedure which is much vaguer/more discreet.
Sounds thoughtless, can see why you're annoyed.

So sorry op, I work a similar job and we never give these results ever, only the doctor, I hope your okay

I think the receptionist could have been more discreet when telling you the news - but am I the only one to find it odd that you complained about her announcing your results to people in the waiting room when you have just posted the same thing on a forum to hundreds of complete strangers?

but am I the only one to find it odd that you complained about her announcing your results to people in the waiting room when you have just posted the same thing on a forum to hundreds of complete strangers?

You are probably not the only one as I expect there are other people on here who are unable to grasp that one aspect of privacy is identification. An anonymous post on an Internet forum is entirely different from having the news associated with your face - which is not anonymous.

As someone who works in health care this is indeed a breech of confidentiality. Regardless if she was just reading a comment from the gp, she could easily see it had confidential information pertaining to op. Well done for calling her out on it. She probably did read it out ad verbatim, not realising, and the penny only dropped with your comment. Your complaint has every right to be upheld.

Agreed there is no excuse for the "NHS being under pressure"

I'm sorry you've been through this horrible ordeal and now have had to deal with this. You have every right to be upset.

I don't know if this is a thing or not. In my doc's office I can ask for the inhouse nurse. In a private room and ask for results there.

((((Madd Hugs))) OP.🌺🍷🧀
Had my emergency Hysto at 32. we had wanted more children

• Aust

YANBU At all
Please do write to the practice manager and make a formal complaint.
The receptionist should have been aware that this was sensitive information and to place her in such a position was unacceptable unless she had already had training emphasising the utmost importance of handling private information and records. Unforgivable if she has had training. If not then the surgery and health should be ashamed and remove the receptionist because even without training, she just clearly doesn't have any aptitude for the role and needs to go and work elsewhere where indiscretion doesn't really matter ( e.g. a car showroom or repair shop/public library?)

Op you are definitely not overeacting and I'm glad you complained. I hope it was a wake up call for her, such a lack of tact, and breach of confidentiality. I work in healthcare and she was out of line.