How much do doctors receptionists get to see of our private issues

[Pinkday]

Two issues,firstly I just tried to book an appointment and the male receptionist wanted to know why I wanted the appointment..so I said gynecological reasons .
And he wanted to know exactly what that reason was .
Surely me just saying gynecological was enough ???
But he said the doctor needs to know in advance what I'm going for .
So I've written it in a letter to pop through the surgery door ,so the doctor knows why I'm going in advance....
But is my doctor going to open the letter with her name on ??
Or will one of the receptionists open and read the letter , despite it saying my doctors name on..in which case I won't pop the letter through
Unfortunately a sport I do regularly,one of the receptionists also does ,and I don't particularly like her ..so not sure I want her knowing my personal business

I’m pretty sure all letters are opened by staff prior to passing them on. I understand your reluctance.

Your letter is very unlikely to get opened by the doctor. It will be someone job to open and distribute everyone’s post. I do understand it’s uncomfortable giving out this info but your only options are to give it or not sending it via other methods is unlikely to keep it more private.

The reception will open your letter.
If you aren't happy change surgery to one your team mate doesn't work in.
Most likely she doesn't care at all about your issues. It's her job to sort a surgery. She will see a lot of patients' informations. All people working in health care do and really don't pay a lot of attention but just sort.

If someone who you dislike is working at your GP and you don’t want them to have any opportunity to validly access your information, I think you need to change surgery unfortunately.

We can see everything, but honestly we really couldn’t care less.

OP, you could try asking if you can send a direct email to your doctor. My surgery has recently done this for me for one GP.

Ok ..so the receptionist will open and read my letter,then will it at least go in my notes so the doctor will read it before seeing me ?

Yes, write it on the envelope, or put a note in so they know.

Receptionists and admin staff get to read letters first.

However, the receptionist should have respected your privacy, and ‘personal matters’ is a valid response to the question.

It wouldn’t do any harm in pinging an email to the practice manager, reminding them to respect patients privacy and if a patient doesn’t want to disclose a medical condition to a receptionist, then they shouldn’t have to.

I can't believe he actually wanted to know what gynecological issues I had

So is your issue with the male receptionist or the woman you do sports with? If you want an appointment, you need to be specific - a smear test can be performed by a specialist nurse on certain days of the week, but an endo appointment would be done by a GP - that’s why ‘gynaecological issues’ simply isn’t enough. I appreciate that people have different levels of embarrassment about this sorts of stuff but the receptionists really don’t care - it is literally their job. They will literally take someone’s stool sample off them for processing, they’ve seen / heard it all.

If your issue is purely with someone you know working there knowing your business, then you need to move surgeries and not make someone’s job difficult because of your personal issue.

If you write Private and Confidential on the envelope, do the receptionists still read letters?

They’re asked to triage for the doctors.

But if you’re a woman and have already had smear tests you know that?
My surgery never pushed for more info, so in this respect gynaecological issues would be more than enough to go on.

I have autism,I'm worried I'm going to go silent in the appointment,and I thought the doctor having the information first , before I go would help matters ,
But I hadn't expected to be asked on the phone what the issue was ,so that threw me a bit ,and after I wrote the letter I remembered she works there .
But I absolutely know she would never divulge anything,she's a straight up person..I'm just very embarrassed.
So yeah ,that's the situation

It's a triage process - you as a patient aren't expected to know which member of staff or route is most appropriate, that is the receptionist's job through the triage process, which they didn't design they are just administering. So they have to ask some basic questions, otherwise 99% of people will turn up and say "I need to see the doctor", when actually they may need to see a specific doctor who specialises in something, a practice nurse, a pharmacist, perhaps they'd be better sent to the local minor injuries unit. As a previous poster has said, if you need a smear test you would need to see a nurse at the clinic for doing that. If you need a mirena coil changing, only certain GPs are trained how to do that. If you think you have a UTI, you could potentially get treatment for that at a pharmacy and may not need to see your GP at all. "Gyno issues" could be any of those or more.

I can’t imagine someone on reception sitting there scrolling through patient history to figure out what type of gynae appointment the patient needs.

I've not been to the doctor's in 8 years ..things have definitely changed , definitely did not have to give information on the phone last time

Write a brief list of symptoms and give directly to the Dr at your appointment if you clam up. It'll be ok.

That is exactly what I am going to do ..
I've put the letter in the bin
Thanks

A neighbour of mine who was known locally to be a gossip, got a job as a receptionist at our little village doctors surgery. I felt very uncomfortable about her seeing my records, my dh and I had experienced fertility issues and had adopted our child, something I didn't want her knowing about (both of us had adoption medicals carried out by the GP). I knew she would be under strict confidentiality rules but I still didn't want her knowing medical information about me and my family. Luckily, I was moving house to another area so changed Surgeries. When I phoned to inform previous doctors of my new doctors address, so they could forward information etc she answered the phone, asking me loads of questions about why I'd moved house, why I'd moved to another town, did my mum still live with us etc, questions asked that I'm sure were just her being nosy rather than in a professional capacity. If you aren't happy then the only option is to change to another surgery.

Bring the letter with you.

If you send it in advance it could still be out at reception or read and summarised in a way that doesn't work for you.

Just hand it to the GP at the beginning of your appointment. They don't usually spend much time preparing. They check your notes while you are in with them.

I hope your appointment will go well

Next time tell him you don't know as you aren't medically trained which is why you need to see the doctor.

But I would also email the practice manager and say you felt really uncomfortable being asked to discuss personal and intimate details with a male/stranger, and to ask why just stating gynaecological wasn't enough information for him to make an appointment for you.

Thanks everyone
I have a plan now ,I'm good
Thanks for helping x

I never understand why people get so wound up about doctors receptionists asking what appointments are for. They are part of the staff: it’s their job to manage appointments and give the doctors information and giving info to them helps them book you in with the right person, summarise multiple sets of info for doctors so they can triage, etc. At our surgery, for contraception for example you are more likely to see a nurse (and can get in much faster that way), so giving a bit more info is helpful.

If there is a specific person you are worried about knowing your circumstances then I agree your best bet may be to change surgeries. But I’m sure they are able to keep things confidential and professional - it’s their job after all. And whilst as patients it can feel difficult or embarrassing to talk about our symptoms, to those in the surgery it’s professional not personal.