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. 💊

Of course you could and there is no excuse for the way some people treat receptionists - but do you honestly think they are the only people who get spoken to rudely?

Yet there's no stereotype of "why are all nurses rude" "why are all shop staff rude" "why are all call centre staff rude" "why are all police officers rude" (hotel receptionists, benefit officers etc)

I used to be a police civilian investigator which involved reviewing custody CCTV/body cam footage etc. One of my very first cases absolutely horrified me - a detainee had heard the custody sergant talking about his 5 year olds bday party while he was waiting to get booked in, so when he refused him something threatened him. "I know your name now, when I get out I'm going to rape your daughter". Same detainee was HIV positive and was trying to bite the arresting officers shouting he was going to infect them. When I spoke to the officers about it none of them could remember the specific incident because that sort of thing was a daily occurrence to them, it didn't even stand out in their memory.

I donk think many gp receptionists get that level of abuse?

Even a librarian, which everyone thinks of as a cushy softly spoken type job, has to deal with people watching porn on the library computers, drug addicts having to be moved on when they want to sleep there, etc. I did work experience at one when I was 14 and was told I could "shove my archives up my arse" when I explained you could only access old newspaper records online and not in print.

Receptionists don't have a monopoly on rude customers.

Edit - that was supposed to be a response to @Parker231 (phone removed the embedded quote when it refreshed itself) but equally to anyone else making the same argument

I wouldn't do their job for all the tea in China. You only need to sit in a GPs surgery for 20 minutes to hear the absolutely nonsense they have to put up with.

My GP practice has retained the plastic screens that went up during Covid. The noise in the waiting room means that you can't hear the receptionist, and you have to shout personal details so that they can hear you. I think they quite like sitting in sanitised silence whilst we, the great unwashed it seems, sit in a sea of noise and disease.

I’ve noticed they’ve been a lot better in recent years at my surgery, very helpful and polite but year’s ago (80s/90s) they were truly awful, you’d think it was part if the job spec. I did have a particularly unpleasant receptionist at my local hospital a couple of year’s ago, that whole thing upset me all day.

My sister worked in one a few years ago (first time in that environment) and left a few months later saying it was the worst job she’d had and she’d been working thirty years.

The receptionists at my surgery are as helpful as they can be i suppose but they are not rude. Sometimes there's not much they can do. I do feel for them as they are on the front line and have to toe their employers poxy policies. I bet they hate having to be at the receiving end and get paid close to minimum wage for it , whereas those making the surgery policies drive around in expensive cars with personalised number plates and dont have to deal with disgruntled and abusive patients. Because their hands are tied by their employers policies they then get abused by patients for being unhelpful.

Ours are nice. You just can't get a doctor's appointment! I encountered a very rude till assistant in Dunelm though. She was also rude to DH though he never uttered a word!!! Not worth complaining though.

My current GP practice are wonderful, they are a busy 5GP practice and it is a breath of fresh air dealing with them.
Prior to this my GP practice had the most awful reception staff - but they also had a 2 tier system of dealing with people on the phone, or at the reception desk.
I worked at an opticians and when I rang from there in a professional capacity they were nice as pie and very helpful, ringing from my private phone had a complete different effect.

And there will be more rude patients. A friend of mine got a GP receptionist job. She only lasted a few days because of some patients behaviour. It’s not the receptionists fault you can’t get an app for a few weeks. By if it’s urgent they can usually get you in same day or within a few days.

Tbh I work in the NHS, and you get a lot of entitled pricks ranting and raving at you. I suspect GP receptionists get abused day in day out, which makes them hostile. They're probably on edge waiting to be yelled at themselves.

It's the system. Everyone would be a big nicer if it wasn't an 8am lottery to try for an appointment.

After a change in the surgery management, the new practice manager had replaced the previous surly-but-competent receptionists with a team of rude, incompetent morons
I have, for example, tried to ring to chase a non-reissued prescription
After being on hold - in 'position number one in the queue' - for almost an hour, my gf drove me to the surgery, where I stood at the desk, waiting for them to finish whatever paperwork they were looking at, and could hear the phone ringing
I asked to speak to the practice manager, and the (worst of the three) receptionists said "Why?"
"To arrange for your dismissal"
Out came the manager, all steam and shouting "How dare you threaten my staff"
I held up my phone, showed her the 68 minute call length and said "Is this how you want your staff to treat your patients?"
I then told her I had been waiting six days for a repeat prescription, and had not succeeded in getting anyone to answer the phone for three
I also pointed out that I knew the doctor had signed it off, because their system told me so three days after I submitted it
I then offered to take a seat and wait while she got someone to answer the phone, and show them how to process repeat prescriptions that needed to have the code sent by text
The shouting subsided to grumbles, and (while phone continued to ring) she had a conversation with the receptionist
After about fifteen minutes she came storming out again, with a triumphant gleeful grin
"Your prescription WAS sent to your nominated pharmacy three days ago"
"But I don't have a nominated pharmacy. This is noted on my records, and I always say that and supply my number when I request a repeat prescription"
"Yes you do, we sent the prescription to it"
"Really? Which pharmacy?"
Big huff and puff, stomp back to receptionist, grumbles and sotto voce discussion
Stomp back again
"Why don't you have a nominated pharmacy?"
"I'm sorry? You just told me the reason I have run out of meds is because I do have one|"
"Well, you'll have to put in a new request then"
"Which will take three days and I am out of my life-required medication"
"You should have ordered it in advance"
"I did, nine days ago. Six days ago a GP signed it off"
"Well, there's nothing I can do"
"OK, I shall dial 111 from the surgery, and explain my life-threatening problem to them, and see how they tell me to proceed"
"Well, you could wait until a GP comes out and can sign a new prescription"
"Or you could go back to the desk, and click on the re-issue button and select the phone number you've already been given, and reflect how poor it looks that I know better than you do how your system works"
Stomp stomp stomp grumble grumble grumble click click
Beep beep from my phone
Manager slinks off to her office
I went up to the receptionist, asked if she had ever been taught how to issue a prescription via SMS, she silently shook her head, and I left, after pointing out that the phone was still ringing
In the end after about ten more lost / never issued prescriptions I submitted a formal complaint to the local NHS board
They introduced me to a 'healthcare advocate' who pursued my complaint which resulted in the surgery firing the practice manager and all three of her acolytes
The new staff are very much more competent, efficient, and polite

So my advice is to make a formal complaint if you have a genuine issue

It's their job isn't it? The whole thing is to protect the too few doctors from the too many patients. It's gatekeeping rather than welcoming. It's the lack of doctors to blame for that in general.

Having said that, the last two surgeries I went to in Wales had nice and friendly receptionist, even if I disagree with their insistence that I have to should what's wrong with me through their bullet proof glass window meaning everyone in the surgery can hear.

"I was 14 and was told I could "shove my archives up my arse" when I explained you could only access old newspaper records online and not in print."

I remember a library worker just being ignored when she told a reader he should make a photocopy of the crossword and fill that in rather than fill it in the actual paper so nobody else could do it!

I'd imagine though that most library customers are nice and polite, whereas in an overloaded GP surgery, most patients are wanting something they can't have i.e. an appointment in reasonable time so GP receptionists are faced with problems all the time.

Going by the differences between the surgery I use, the one DH uses and the lovely one MIL is at I think there's a direct correlation between rudeness of receptionists and how big the surgery is/how overworked they are.

The one I'm at is good. You can use e-consult and get an appointment within a few days. If you call you tend to be number 60 in the queue and the telephone receptionists can be curt to the point of rudeness.

DH's surgery has altogether too many patients and currently only has 3 Drs due to retirements and two of the GPs being off long term sick after a car accident. The receptionists are foul. No doubt, due to the too many patients vs so few Drs.

MIL's surgery is new and has 11 GPs. Seemingly very few patients. You can ring at 8am and you'll be 7/8 in the queue. Everyone is very cheery and polite.
However the number of houses being built in their catchment area is HUGE, plus they're getting pressure to take patients from other surgeries locally. I think in a year or two when they're as busy as the other surgeries the receptionists will be rude

But surely you treat people who are polite with politeness in return? You don't speak to everyone like rubbish because you've had some rude ones during the day. I've worked in customer service all of my life and if person is polite I will always return the favour no matter how many awful ones came before...

I haven't had this experience with receptionists. I had one be a bit short with me on 3rd January last year but she sounded very stressed at the amount of calls after the festive period. I just thought oh well and phoned again few days later and all was calm again.

any job working with the general public means dealing with the unreasonable, nasty and entitled on a day to day basis. factor in ill health and it's a job that I wouldn't want to do.

There are good ones out there though. Some at my surgery are lovely.

Mine are absolutely lovely and couldn’t do enough. My previous ones were not nice.

But honestly, until you’ve done that job for a week, you can’t stand in judgement. They have pressure from their GP partners, the practice manager and abuse daily from frustrated patients. It’s utterly thankless.

No but I expect this will magically appear in a tabloid…

My GP receptionist have got better over the phone when I call, but I think that’s because I’ve pulled them up when they’ve been rude to me - I’m not rude to them so I don’t expect to be greeted with that sort of attitude. The thing that annoys me is when they know patients are standing queuing and they won’t look up to acknowledge them, a quick I’ll be with you in a moment takes seconds.

My old surgery were a nightmare. The main woman thought she was a consultant. You’d get comments like “well in my experience your condition would only require consultation once a year at most” WTF.
Anyway I’ve changed surgeries and the staff there are all lovely.

I'd love to know the answer. I know someone who was let go from her GP receptionist job for being, and I quote, "too kind for the cold, hard face of general practice."
The practice manager, backed up by the GP, said this. I wish I was joking.

Customer service skills & communication skills are just not valued by the NHS. There's no training & no incentive to improve things as it's yo their advantage if you go away or go elsewhere etc

The skills are actually very important to make sure services are used effectively. The NHS could be vastly more efficient & cost effective if they improved some of these things.

There's a level of arrogance across the NHS when it comes to communication & customer service skills & the service has to dictate & control rather than meet needs.

It's not bullet proof glass!

I have hearing loss and I've had to put up a sign stating this because I can't hear people despite the microphone so apologies if you or any other patient has to speak up to say what they want so I can hear what them.

Having worked in customer service too, I suspect there is something of a culture of being abrupt/snappy/unhelpful to patients. A lot of my colleagues used to brag about snapping at a customer and share anecdotes with each other. My industry was hospitality, for perspective.

Something I've always believed to be needed in customer service is resilience. Being able to deal with stress/rudeness and still provide great service is a true talent that goes under-appreciated I believe. It's part of being a professional. In the corporate sector, CS employees are taught in their training to never take it personally and that the customer is unhappy with the situation or product, not them as a person.

If I walk in to a GP surgery, it's not my fault that the customer before was abrupt. I expect to receive great service and professionalism. It's not my fault that the GP Practice Manager doesn't have their act together and it's causing chaos on reception. These are things that the receptionist staff should take up with their manager or HR.

People using GP surgeries or Doctors' if you are from the last century, such as I, tend to be in great distress, worry, frustration and also physical pain and discomfort. Being the first port of call for these people is a specialist role. Emergency call handlers face some might say even more challenging situations but I have always found them to be professional and polite. Is it a lack of care in the selection process or is it penny pinching that tends to bring a lower calibre of applicant?

It takes great talent to work in customer service, it takes resilience, attention to detail and a welcoming and calm manner. It also takes the ability to de-escalate highly stressful situations and seek resolutions for complainants. Not everyone has the talent required.