Why are so many GP receptionists rude?

[Jenna2212]

I don't think I've ever heard of a surgery where people have positive things to say about the receptionists. At a time when people are most vulnerable and in need, why do GP surgeries tend to recruit such hostile people to greet sick people?

Have you had any bad experiences with your GP surgery? Feel free to post below. 💊

Some of the answers here are prob why they are rude! Minimum wage. Pressure. Chronic underfunding. As a PP said being put in their place obviously by someone who didn’t get their own way.

Bet that made you feel all big and clever

Oh what a pathetic rejoinder. How old are you, 12?

It was a very severe breach of patient confidentiality and should never happen under any circumstances. If I had wanted to, I could have instigated legal proceedings against her and the practice.

What she did was completely unprofessional and could have caused severe damage to the practice's reputation.

We do actually have a few good ones, but of course the hostility of the others tends to be what sticks in your mind. Personally I'm sure it's an NHS cost cutting exercise to stop people ever wanting to go to the GP! I've had several bad experiences.
Most notable was getting told off for not being signed in. It was during COVID and they had changed their system a few times. You couldn't use the machines and had to wait at the door to be let in. I said my name, but someone was leaving as I came in, hadn't realised they had never actually signed me in, so that was a fun 40 min wait. Especially given it wasn't even busy, I was one of I think 3 people there at that point, and sat dead opposite the receptionist who got angry with me for not being signed in!
That and going straight from work to a midwifes appointment, 9 months pregnant. Despite using the toilet immediately before leaving work I needed to go again as soon as I arrived. I wasn't allowed in the toilet she had a key for though, because again COVID related, one was for anyone's use, the other for people they categorised vulnerable. Someone was in with the person who held the key for that toilet, so I was abruptly told I would just have to wait! The amount of people who told me afterwards that I should have just left her a puddle on the floor to clean up!!

They're want to be doctors but don't have any qualifications I used to working OH, we had an administrator that used to give out clinical advice, it's dangerous and down right stupid for it to continue.

I have never came across a bad one at any practice I have been to. I always feel they try their absolute best and haven’t came across a rude one.

My dental practice also has a brilliant reception team.

In fairness the ones at my surgery are pretty good.

I guess if we put ourselves in their shoes: they're answering hundreds of calls back to back daily with the same old moans and groans and complaints and questions and I guess like everyone else, they get compassion fatigue. It doesn't make it ok to be rude and offy to people, but it's a theory of why.

Decades ago, the population was smaller. People didn't go to the drs so frequently. Since Google and the internet everyone is so aware of their bodies and signs of illness. Things like menopause and milder mental illness were just weathered out (I'm not saying that's necessarily a positive thing ) but demand for GP's time has increased greatly.

In years gone by people popped into the receptionist (there'd only be 1) chat, get to know them over the years, patients were known by name. A rapport was built. Now there's so many people on the books, it's all done via forms and phonecalls and computer systems and nobody "means anything" to the Dr/nurse or indeed receptionist. They're "NHS no: 456A 34445 13"

I think the depersonalisation plays a part and increased demands.

I wouldn’t mind being NHS No: 456A 34445 13. What I can't abide is the habit of referring to women as "darlin".

Er, not related so much to my post. But...ok. personally I love being called a warm term of endearment. But I can appreciate some people don't. I wouldn't pick that as my hill to die on though

At an accountancy where I previously worked, we had an awful receptionist who was very unhelpful (to both clients and staff), incompetent and generally a waste of space. The firm sacked her.

A few years later, she turned up working as a receptionist at our village GP surgery. Unsurprisingly, she was unhelpful, incompetent and generally a waste of space. Once I was sat in the waiting room with my infant son waiting for an appointment and she was having an argument with a patient - the patient being polite and rational, but this woman was ranting and raving. A couple of times I phoned up for repeat prescriptions (in the days before they were online) and she'd be huffing and puffing on the phone making out it was such a big deal and real problem for her to press a few keys on the keyboard. Then I phoned up to ask to book an appointment that the GP had requested me to make - she started asking why, whether I really needed one, etc - I kept repeating to her that Dr X had asked me to make an appointment, but she wasn't having any of it - told me I couldn't just make an appointment on a whim with whichever GP I felt like - I kept asking her to look at the GP notes on the system, but she was either incapable of knowing where to look or just couldn't be bothered. I eventually gave up and rang a different day, got a different receptionist who booked me in no problem at all. After that whenever I phoned and she answered, I'd just hang up and try again later in the hope of getting someone different. Eventually, they sacked her too!

Our receptionists are charming and helpful. Some os the patients though would try the patience of a saint.

Likewise some receptionists try the patience of a saint.

My OH is constantly stressed and frustrated dealing with them at his surgery. He has cancer, so needs regular blood tests, regular prescriptions, regular x-rays, MRI scans, etc., and because he's high risk due to long term chemotherapy affecting his immune system and the chemotherapy/cancer slowly destroying his bone marrow cells, he should be marked as "priority" for GP attention, etc.

But despite his records correcting showing that he's vulnerable, high risk and a priority, he really struggles to get anything past the receptionists. They're clearly not bothering to look at the screen.

Even something simple like a blood test - default response from the receptionist is that they don't do them in the surgery and to go to the hospital phlebotomists instead - every sodding time he has to ask them to check the notes to see that the GP has put a marker on his record for some specific blood tests to be done within the practice. It's like pulling teeth to get them to check the record and then they act like they're doing him a massive favour by granting him an appointment.

Same with GP appointment requests. It's like he's asking them to sacrifice their first born child when he asks for an appointment for a suspected infection. Again, it's on his record that he should be prioritised for GP appointments for suspected infections, but again, the receptionists huff and puff and try to fob him off with an appointment two weeks' away or tell him to go to A&E.

Same when the oncologist tells him to request a prescription for, say, a vitamin or supplement, from his GP surgery. Default answer from the receptionists is always "no", go to the pharmacy. They won't listen when he tells them it is the oncologist who has told him to ask the GP because the doses etc from OTC supplements are too low. Lots of too-ing and fro-ing, until the receptionist finally capitulates and pings a message to the GP requesting they issue a prescription, which is subsequently issued with no further argument.

They really take their "gate keeping" role far too seriously and need to start listening to patients rather than arrogantly assuming they're right and the patient is an idiot!

I like to think I am not one of the bad ones... In fact I spend atleast once a day having a quick cry in the staff toilets to relieve stress, Everyone thinks a GP receptionist does nothing, but what you don't understand is we get the brunt of EVERYTHING if patients are unhappy its not the Drs/Nurses/Phlebs/HCA's or managers that get it in the neck its us GP Receptionists on minimum wage, us GP receptionist that have no power that get yelled at screamed at spat at!! So yes sometimes we are blunt, sometimes we are to the point and sometimes by the time you reach our desk or phone we are fighting back tears from every other hit we have taken that day!! I have had situations where people have thrown things at us (so now we have big screens up that makes it impossible to hear you correctly) Ive been spat at, Ive been physically confronted/cornered coming out of the office, ive been called everything from a C word to a T word to just plain useless, i start my day at 7.45am ready to take your calls at 8am and yes by 8.30 all the appointments are usually gone so I have to spend the next two hours getting yelled out because I dont have an appointment to offer or because generally most Drs dont work past 5.30-6.30pm again none of this is personally my fault, I tell my callers i know how they feel, im at work too at 8am so can never ring my Drs and my Drs arent open weekends either its a nightmare that I understand but its just the way it is my hands are tied its not I who set the system but I am always the one to blame, then if not medically trained i have to ask what the appointment is regarding if i can get you in then i have to decide if you need, Acute app, routine app or anp app or clinician app and of I get it wrong you dont get the care you need and i get another bollocking from all of the above and management. Then we deal with a lot of foreign patients who are very demanding and majority of the time dont speak English so we have to try and get translators or figure out what they want its actually difficult, then we get the patients who clearly need A&E but refuse to go thinking we are being spiteful but how can a gp check for broken bones/fractures? Or signs of a stroke you need to act quick hospital is where you need to be but oh nooo thats not good enough, GP receptionist cant do anything right, and then theres all the things behind the scenes all the yellow tasks, red tasks, blue tasks, bloods and blood forms, the extra things we gave to do for say example a smear appointment, there is so much more to the job than you realise and if wer lucky we speak to 1-2 nice people a day that maybe say thank you or are just polite in general, but I see your point too ive been to my own surgery where I am a patient and met a GP with a right wicked tone and i thought wow what a b*tch especially when I am extra nice and extra sympathetic unfortunately as we all know in life some people are just mean or generally that way. I just wanted to give a perspective of what we actually go through and do day to day, Ive worked as Registered Mental Health Nurse, Ive worked as a Mental Health Care assistant and a Customer Complaints handler for Argos and hands down this is the HARDEST most MENTALLY draining job I have ever ever had its also the lowest pay I have ever had as they wont pay us by NHS banding like other jobs in the NHS we just get minimum wage!
Also before we even start our shifts we have to open all the Drs rooms and even turn their computers on for them 🤣 and at the end of our shift we have to go round close all their windows for them and clean up all their mugs and things theyve used through out the day and hand wash them? If a patient requires a chaperone that falls on us too even for home visits, we are receptionists, babysitters, cleaners, security, admin receptionists are also not medically trained yet expected to know so much all at the same time theres also all the calls we get asking us what time pharmacies open and close around th area and i want to scream how do i know? use google but i politely say no idea let me google that for you, or all the calls we get where people think we are personal PAs and a lot of people wont accept when they need to deal with a hospital or outside source and dont believe when we say we can't deal with that or that we dont have that information as a hospital etc dont send on information until theyve discharged you and they will argue this fact with you on the phone like we have some reason to lie? When all they need to do is call the number on their letter 🙈x

@Rellzo no one should be abused at work.Respect is a two way street one particular receptionist gives me anxiety as she is openly hostile.
I do appreciate that the receptionist is piggy in the middle grief from DRS, grief from patients not an easy task by any means.

There are a lot of points in your post to digest, so I will do so as accurately as possible, apologies if I miss something.

Being a customer service professional is truly a profession, not a job. A customer service professional should never take it personally. Unlike for example, socialising at a dinner party, these people are not here to be your friend. They are often frustrated, scared, in pain and suffering. The number one rule in customer service is to remember that the customer is angry with the situation, not you. It's your role to acknowledge the customer's frustrations, rise above them an apologise. Then, you have to seek to find a resolution for the customer.

There are things that you mention in your post, such as the spitting, physical abuse/threats that are not acceptable and you are absolutely within your rights to refuse to serve someone who demonstrates such behaviour.

I also appreciate that you're not happy with the salary and do agree that you should be paid above living wage, considering the confidentially training that you must undergo.

It sounds as though you take a pro-active approach to your role and it's great that you look things up on the internet for customers, your Practice Manager should be pleased with your efforts.

However, not all surgeries are as customer-friendly as yours. Some try in vain for weeks to gain appointments, flawed by silly booking systems, then there is the fact that the doctor nearly always runs late in calling you in. You may have a difficult job but so do many of your customers, someone could have been out in the baking sun all day, mixing concrete or laying bricks, or working in the army, fighting for the country, they have a right to adequate health care.

I suppose the crooks of the point is that it's not something to take personally if a customer is rude. The professional customer service agent should rise above rudeness. I've dealt with rudeness and abuse, even threats and I always shrugged it off like water off a duck's back, remembering I am the professional.

Hmmm I have one positive story involving a GP receptionist i found a lady wandering around near the Dr's she had her slippers and a fall pendant on she was adamant she had an appointment at the Dr's so I walked her across (she just seemed really unsure so I didn't want to leave her) took her in explaining to reception she believed she had an appointment "are you her carer?" No i just found her "OK lovely you get going we will look after her" and they did 😀

Which was a better response than what I was expecting to be fair as I left i could here her gently trying to figure out her name and where she lived

My partner is a GP Practice Manager. He says the completely over the top abuse both verbal and physical is off the scale in GP Practices. He's in a middle class area and even there, there's abuse. Such as the entitled woman who was in the middle of a conference call and refused to turn her phone off so the GP could carry out her consultation. After the GP asked her to turn her phone off she walked out in a huff.

There is no justification for people being rude to receptionists.
Equally there is no justification for receptionists being rude to patients.

The latter is particularly problematical as putting patients off from contacting the surgery could have serious medical consequences.

I dread contacting the surgery .... so many times they are rude. I live alone and have serious medical problems. Delaying seeking medical help is not wise. But sometimes I simply cannot bear to get in touch.

There are aspects of your post that I certainly agree with. Sounds like you've had a poor experience with your surgery, which is a shame but you're not alone. :) The difference between a customer being rude and a member of practice staff is that the latter is staff, they should be professional. It always amazes me how people in non-degree requiring roles take their work as a joke. I've waited tables, I've cleaned toilets!! I didn't get where I am today with a nonchalant attitude to my lower earning roles. Every role is a platform on to something greater and you bet your bottom dollar those greater roles will want glowing references.

I do understand how difficult it might be for them, but I spent a large chunk of my career as a social worker, as it happens in medical settings. I was often asked to deal with the patients that the medics couldn't cope with - with people whose problems meant that they behaved unacceptably at times. I was NEVER rude to them - my job was to be objective; to try and understand what motivated their behaviours and find a way through this to helping them. It was often difficult to do - but that was my job - the whole point of my existence in the role.

The whole point of a medical receptionist's job is to facilitate access to medical care; to make sure that people get what they need. And this involves understanding, patience, good manners etc.

All too often they see their role in the opposite way - to make sure that the medics do not get overloaded. So their is a basic tension before either opens their mouth. Two people with different aims.

The sad thing of course is that the patients are vulnerable. Often they are frightened and this can express itself in lots of ways, some negative.

What I find so hard with my surgery is that they can be unpleasant on a whim. The other day I rang to try and resolve an issue with one of my many meds. I had received a prescription from hospital appointment with a cardiologist which I obtained at a chemist as it needed to be started straight away. This meant that it finished up out of sync by 5 days with all my other meds which are on a monthly cycle - it is a prescribing practice, It was a simple problem and I asked whether they could please find a way for all my meds to be available on the same day each month, so that I did not have to make a special journey (70 mins round trip on country lanes) each month for this one item. I asked very politely, and was harangued by the pharmacy assistant for 10 minutes. She eventually very angrily said that she was going to put me through to the pharmacist - who came on the phone, was polite and helpful and resolved it in 2 minutes. Problem solved. But I was in tears when I came off the phone.

It is not good enough; it really isn't.

@Rellzo makes some very good points. I have retired as a GP practice manager after almost 25yrs. General practice has changed so much especially since Covid. The demands placed on surgeries is immense from top down with targets to meet (or no payment) which have got harder to achieve plus the public using staff as their complaint board as usually the first point of contact into the NHS. If patients are fed up with hospital waiting times or treatment delays it’s often the GP that takes the brunt.

I also don’t think most of the public know that GP practices aren’t employed by the nhs (gp contract to run services) so staff are not paid A4C rates. Each GP practice sets their own wage levels and for reception staff it is usually minimum wage. And the workload is off the scale. Staff retention rates are now very low due to poor wages, workload and abuse. And as funding is cut it will get worse, sadly.

No excuse for rudeness though.

@wobblywibbly I have always known that. But I guess as a GP practice manager you assume all of the public are brick thick and that's why it's OK to speak to them badly, or why your staff think it's OK.

It is not the fault of the public that GP businesses/Partners try to get reception/admin work done for minimum wage. It explains a great deal. It isn't a minimum wage job and the oractice does nothing to endear me to GPs.

Is there another side to this? Had the patient possibly been kept waiting for 30/45/60 minutes without any communication and taken a scheduled call they had been unable to rearrange?

I wouldn’t have done it BTW.

No. The patient was seen on time. The waiting time for a call to reception and seeing a doctor is quite quick. Anyhow, not seeing a patient on time is no excuse for behaving like that in a consultation. We are in an era where normal , respectful behaviour no longer exists,

I agree but I think there is so little respect for patients by some GP's and their staff that relationships have broken on both sides. The GPs and staff at my old practice were very impolite and had zero respect and I once asked a Dr who she thought she was speaking to. I have now changed practices, a couple of years ago and the new one is super across the board. The old one had 34000 patients, the new one 8000.