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. 💊

I was waiting to check in at our doctors. I could hear one side of a conversation with a patient. The receptionist must have had the patience of a saint the way the conversation went. I think they have a lot to put up with. I couldn’t do their job.

Mixed bag at our surgery. I have a chronic condition so need to go in to reorder meds each month. Sometimes there’s a mix-up and they always blame me and try to make me feel really small.

Their whole system is flawed, for instance, I had appt with GP she wants to see me again in a month’s time, I’m on new meds it’s important, I go tell receptionist who then tells me they don’t book that far in advance phone up in a week or so, so I do and can’t get an appt. I’ve also been standing in the surgery and been told to go outside and phone them. It’s all very stressful when you need meds to live.

I’ve always been super polite and respectful to the receptionists at our GP surgery but I have just remembered how appallingly rude they were to my dad…

My mum had just died very suddenly and unexpectedly. Purely coincidentally, a few weeks later, Dad was hospitalised and became very ill. Fortunately, he pulled through but was housebound so a nurse was supposed to come to the house to administer treatment but no one turned up.

Next day, Ddad called the surgery and they were vile to him. Truly vile. Dismissed him, patronised him & told him he needed to come to the surgery (he couldn’t walk at that point. His leg was still very swollen as he had nearly died from sepsis the week before. He’d been discharged from hospital once he was out of imminent danger of death but was still very vulnerable)

Then he mentioned my mum - he had some of her medication and wondered what to safely do with it. They snapped at him and told him off for not informing them of her death!!! He apologised that he’d been slightly busy trying not to die just a week before…

I don’t really complain much but I sent a blistering email to the practice manager about how appallingly the receptionist had treated a very vulnerable, ill man in the early stages of grief. And that some training in empathy wouldn’t go amiss.

To their credit, they apologised and a nurse turned up later that day to change his dressing. I was astonished at their absolute lack of kindness or compassion, however. Im still with that surgery but the way they treated my dad was despicable.

Your poor dad. I hope he is better now xxx

Thankyou @notanothersummercold
He’s much better now!

We will always encounter different people, some with good attitudes and some with bad attitudes.

I would say all staff are wonderful at the health centre I go to .They must get a lot of hassle from demanding patients. I give them boxes of wrapped chocolates now and then and for the pharmacy staff and I know they look forward to that. Is it a co-incidence that staff in both places treat DH and myself nicely all the time.? You could see if it makes a difference I always say to them that we appreciate them as I hand over the chocs.

I think the point of this post is that normal respectful behaviour has never been available from most GP receptionists, being on minimum wage is no excuse you don't get attitude like a GP receptionist from assistants at checkouts or even delivery drivers- both are on minimum wage or worse (zero hours contracts) so there is obviously a power play. don't blame GP's for trying to keep costs down (unless they keep the money that could go to receptionists), but they should sack or reassign receptions who have an attitude problem. after all why does anyone chose to be a GP receptionist if it is minimum wage and you can't be polite shack selves instead.

Extreme response! the receptionists working at DH’s surgery and those at the practice I attend have always been polite and helpful.

Not everyone can afford bribery. (Not that you should feel like you have to, to get decent service)
Also a lot of medical staff are given tonnes of sugar in a year as 'thank you's'. Doesn't help their own health!

I agree, you shouldn't have to bribe staff to get a decent level of service, and if lots of people are doing similar, it helps to explain why so many NHS staff are obese!

If only you faced the daily abuse and strain they do!! my god!

My brother's GP has no respect for his patients or the profession. My brother is on an alarming number of medications for anxiety/mental issues that makes him "zombified" and he just keeps subscribing them. It causes him all kinds of behavioural problems and I believe it's ultimately the reason he can't see his children at the moment. I raised a concern by emailing the practice, saying I know they can't respond due to confidentiality but I am concerned about my brother and the affects of all of his medication, this was after he was arrested for the umpteenth time. They stopped his meds' pending review but he's now back on them. A different GP, who's not a practice shareholder but works there said she was "disturbed" by the amount of medication he's on.

The GP practice used to be very efficient. Appointments, whilst not always readily available, were reasonable accessible. We had a great GP growing up who knew us from when we were babies and was compassionate and had a great rapport with his patients. Sadly, he left and a new GP bought in to the practice and that's where the rot set in. It's now almost impossible to get appointments, the receptionists refuse to make appointments at the desk, all has to be done online within a time frame of a couple of hours in the morning, you request and appointment and they call you back some time later, but the portal, called "Klink" not a typo, they deliberately spelt it wrong, often closes early, so effectively, you have 2 hours a day, weekdays only to make an appointment and can often be waiting a month for an appointment.

They also push for telephone appointments which is ridiculous and completely useless for examining lumps or managing chronic conditions such as diabetes.

The coronavirus narrative has made some* health care workers feel as though they are some sort of God that can disregard the welfare of patients and also made them very lazy. I would be very surprised if any of the GPs at my practice did a 40 hour week. Again, this mentality passes down to receptionists who are obnoxious and refuse to help with making appointments. My surgery now has a huge glass screen in front of the desk which also makes hearing the receptionists and being heard by them difficult. This was put in around the time of the coronavirus agenda being pushed and has remained there since. So much for making things accessible for those who are hard of hearing or have communication difficulties! That strangely was disregarded circa 2020, along with the anti-litter/single use plastic brigade who were then quite happy to disregard their face nappies on the streets/in rivers. Wokeness is perplexing to say the least.

As do retail workers, restaurant staff Airline cabin crew or anyone who works with the public have to put up with, it's not just GPs receptionists...

I have encountered some really awful ones in the past but my now local one has very nice receptionists and I can normally get appts on the same day if I don’t specify a particular doctor (unless they’re available). It makes such a difference having polite desk staff. I did encounter a dreadful one at my local hospital a couple of year’s ago, an absolute cow who can still make my blood boil.

I've worked in retail and been cabin crew on a train. Abuse isn't as rife as people make out. I used to get around one rude customer a day but rudeness isn't abuse and ultimately, I was there to serve them, not the other way around. I've served drunk football fans, hen parties, stag parties, etc. The rudest people were probably grumpy business commuters early in the morning that hadn't had their caffeine fix yet. My job was to turn their mood around and make them happier than before I served them.

Being a GP receptionist comes with the condition that some customers/patients/clients, whatever you want to call them will be in distress, anxious, nervous, panicking and basic manners may not be at the forefront of their mind. If you were worried you may have cancer for example or had a chronic condition such as HIV and were calling by the surgery for viral load results, the last thing on your mind would be "does the receptionist think I'm rude?".

I was told by a careers advisor at school, when I mentioned a possible interest in working in healthcare, that a drama qualification would be beneficial, because healthcare staff have to deal with people facing trauma and need to know how to calm stressful situations.

Ofcourse, the situations such as threats of violence, abusive behaviour etc shouldn't be tolerated, and as the lady upthread said, there is the option to report this to law enforcement. Rightly so. But these instances are rare. My local hospital emergency room is situated in a very rough area and sadly I've had cause to visit it on a number of occasions at different times of day and found that even the riff raff families are respectful and calm. People may not say please or thank you but if you think your appendix is going to burst, then why would that be at the front of your mind?

It tends to be the shops with the rudest, most unprofessional staff members that have signs saying "abuse will not be tolerated" which I think is very telling.

GP receptionists should be paid above minimum wage because they have to undergo confidentiality training and know the protocols of the surgery but that is a matter for them to take up with their employer, not for them to take out on the service users.

Abuse isn't as rife as people make out
Ex cabin crew here, I did it for 18 years and sorry you're wrong there's alot of abuse, we got special training on from the Met police on how to deal with these situations as they were beoming a regular occurance, we had CCTV on all of our planes, we were taught how to restrain a passenger in their seat, people can be really entitled when they step on to a plane for some reason, you say that abuse isn't the same as rudeness then the GPs receptionists are experiencing rudeness then? I think it's a very fine line between the two as you can be verbally and physically abusive, none of which are acceptable of course.

It depends how you define abuse. Acting entitled isn't abuse. Being demanding, isn't abuse. Calling someone a f b* is abuse.

If it's a situation where the police can be called, because an offence has been committed, then it's abuse but the server doesn't have to tolerate that and any good employer would back their employee on that.

When working as cabin crew, retail worker, barmaid and other roles, I found most people to be respectful. But then again, I am very passionate about great customer service and tended to be in control of the situation by setting the right tone. I believe that as humans, we copy the tone and attitude of those speaking to us. When I am a customer, if I go to a shop and say hello to the cashier and get ignored, no please or thank you, then I definitely won't say thank you as I take my change and leave, I will just walk away, treating the server with the insignificance that they treated me with.

There were instances of revenue protection staff being assaulted, which is wholly unacceptable but there is an element of confrontation to that role and similarly to you receiving police training, they were trained in avoiding the situation escalating to violence and how to remain in control of the situation.

GP surgeries tend to be calm places, despite the stress that customers/service users are under. I could hear a pin drop in my GP practice waiting room. It's not like an emergency room where there are people who may be drunk/on drugs etc.

I even find receptionists at maternity hospitals to have an essence of rudeness about them.

It's an NHS thing I believe, as private hospitals know that each patient is a customer and ultimately keeps them in a job, so behave accordingly. I cringe with embarrassment when someone appears on a quiz show and they are asked to state their occupation and they say "I work in the NHS....as an administrator"...as though that makes them the pinnacle of high society. We need to stop all of this hero worshipping the NHS and ignoring their failings. They do make failings and they do neglect patients, I have first hand experience of this. We need to stop this "hero-worshiping" delusion of anyone who has an NHS lanyard (notice how they wear it, even when not at work?) and "Key workers" (bawk). No one is more important than anyone else because they work for a certain organisation.

@Jenna2212

It depends how you define abuse. Acting entitled isn't abuse. Being demanding, isn't abuse. Calling someone a f b* is abuse.

I agree. And being assertive isn't "abuse" either. Unfortunately the likes of GP receptionists seem to regard anything other then the patient being a complete pushover as being "abuse" even where they've not been rude etc. They hate patients who are "assertive" but not "abusive" as they know they can't pull the "abuse" card, although many still try!

My OH is "assertive" in that he researches, keeps records and notes, etc., and the receptionists absolutely hate it. He's the most calm and pleasant guy, never raises his voice, never rude, but he is very "assertive". When he gets told a load of crap, he has the "evidence" to tell them they're wrong and they hate it.

Only last week, he checked some GP blood test results on the NHS app. He has regular bloods done re his cancer so the GP can check the relevant results for the drugs that the GP prescribes, for his diabetes, and various vitamins etc (for iron deficiency caused by the cancer treatments!). The GP had marked "acceptable patient can be informed" but one of the tests was way out of acceptable range and massively different from previous results, potentially harmful. So he rang the surgery to query it and couldn't get past the receptionist at all - she just kept parroting if the GP says is OK, then it's OK, and just wouldn't believe him when he said he knew it wasn't acceptable - when he kept repeating and being assertive, she started down the "I'm trying to help you, don't be abusive" route, so he pointed out that nothing he'd said was insulting nor abusing and reiterated what he had already said, asking her what she thought was insulting or abusive - of course, she couldn't answer! It wasn't until he told her the previous test results for that particular test, and quoted a webpage from the NHS website that she finally accepted he was right and reluctantly agreed to pass a message to the GP asking him to check again. Had OH not been so engaged with his health record and had he not persisted with her, yes, being assertive, he'd have been fobbed off. As it turns out, he was right and the GP got the receptionist to phone him back to tell him one of his drugs was being changed and pinged a new prescription to the pharmacy - of course, no apology from either the GP nor receptionist.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I wholly agree. Being assertive isn't abuse and when it comes to our healthcare, then we must assert our needs and ensure we get the best possible standards of care.

Sending best wishes to yourself, your husband and your family and hoping that next time, your husband gets a thorough investigation in to his results. We know our own bodies and we know when something is wrong.

When my brother had pyloric stenosis, back in the 1990s mind, a GP came out and examined him and said to my mother "What do you want me to do?" in a flippant tone, not genuinely offering to help, basically saying "not my problem". My mother and grandmother were appalled and they were very reasonable people, not at all demanding.

People seem to go off on one these days with no real reason, erupting into toddler tantrums, especially mouthing off at public servants. I was on a bus the other day and a woman wanted to get off before the stop. The drivers are not allowed to do this for safety reasons. She then started shouting: do not judge meeee! And said a racist expletive to the driver who was black. It's jaw dropping, the lack of self control these people have.

Yep agreed, I remember the poor supermarket workers during lockdown getting mouthfuls, they were not being 'assertive' they were fucking rude and demanding

It's strange how when you take away people's rights to have their airways clear of obstruction and to be able to integrate as normal human beings that people get their backs up....isn't it?!!

Not the workers fault though is it? Blame the government for that

Some workers chose to take it upon themselves to force mask wearing on people, which is surely outside of their job description.