Receptionist insisted I wait four weeks for high blood pressure appointment

[Arimatata]

I was told by my GP practice to periodically check my BP. I did a week of readings and it was on average 163/99. I know this is too high, especially for home readings.

I filled in the online referral form and subsequently had a text with an appointment for four weeks on with a nurse. I have previously had blood clots in my eye, so I felt it was too long to wait, so I called them. When I got through I tried to explain to the receptionist that I should be seen sooner. He interrupted me to patronisingly explain that there weren’t any appointments sooner. When I tried to speak he told me off for interrupting him. This is a receptionist who isn’t medically trained deciding how soon I should be seen. No one medically trained was involved thus far.

I then asked for a GP appointment but he said no, I have to see a nurse. Anyway, I held my nerve and repeated that my BP was too high to wait four weeks.

An hour later he rang with an appointment at 3pm with the nurse. I’m now on medication.

It was a traumatic experience. I felt humiliated to be told off and it was hard to stick to my guns. This was someone not medically trained explaining to me that I had to wait because there weren’t any appointments before four weeks time. It was said as if that was ok and I was being troublesome for wanting something sooner.

Thanks for allowing me to rant.

Good for you for holding your nerve. You knew it was too high. Hopefully the meds will help.

Thanks, I’ve been tempted to complain but nothing would change. I’m sure some people would have just waited the four weeks. It’s an appalling service.

It sounds to me as though the real mistake was that the online form should have been assessed by someone medically qualified eg a triage nurse - is that not what your GP practice does? The receptionist wasn’t deciding when you should be seen, he was just going on whatever had already been (mistakenly) deemed appropriate. He didn’t handle the call well but it sounds to me like the triage system isn’t working properly.

I did not have to wait 4 weeks but i was sent to the hospital and had to have a machine to were sp over night that takes your blood pressure every few hours before being put on proper meds

You need to write to the practice manager about this. Detail it all while it’s still fresh and let her know that the receptionist’s behaviour is inappropriate and has the potential to put lives at risk.

Yes the receptionists do the triage. They call them especially trained care navigators. The one I spoke to quite obviously knew nothing about high blood pressure.

The e-consult will have appeared directly on your notes and a task should have been sent to the GP to review it. They would normally come back to the admin team and advise them to arrange a routine, soon, or same day appointment for you - or at least that’s how it works where I am.

I expect, in this case, that no instructions were given re timescale, so the team really did book the first available appointment, rather than a sooner (embargoed) one.

I’m assuming you let them have your week’s HBPM for nurses to average out, or perhaps something was lost in translation and they assumed that was a spurious result?

Did anyone actually confirm that no medically trained person was involved in the decision making? With our GP practice, the e-consult forms are cued up for a triage GP to look through but all they do is a single click categorisation for whether the patient should have a routine appointment (in 3-4 weeks) an urgent appointment (same day or next day) or other options like nurse/practitioner appointments or directed to pharmacy/self-care. The receptionists are then responsible for communicating and organising these outcomes, so the GP gets to maximise the utilisation of their clinical training and minimise the time spent on non-clinical tasks. I obviously don't know how every GP surgery is structured but I don't think you can know this was the receptionist's decision unless this was confirmed explicitly. But I think.yabu because you got the appointment you wanted once you had communicated that the situation was making you unusually anxious. Of course it's fine to give them feedback that you found the process difficult, but the GP practice is orchestrating an immensely complex system and will not always be able to achieve everything that they are asked for without any patient experiencing occasional moments of difficulty.

It's shitty service but I do wonder why it was 'traumatic' and 'humiliating'.

Feed that back to the practice then as it sounds a rubbish system. He obviously did something though to escalate it if he rang you back an hour so sounds like he was trying to take on board what you said? Ultimately if at the time you rang there were no appointments then there weren’t. I’d have gone to an urgent care treatment centre if worried and no sooner appointment.

Gp surgeries rely far too much on triage at reception. Too few Drs appts scheduled far too late. Either way it doesn’t work. Easier to book an appointment with a hairdresser for several weeks time. Very poor really. And it can be humiliating as I have been in the surgery when people come in and have to openly explain in front of all and sundry listening why they need an appointment. It has gone too far. This needs to change.

This happened to me. Receptionist told me suffering excruciating headaches for 6 weeks (I’d been constantly trying to get an appointment during that time) wasn’t a medical emergency as I’d had it for 6 weeks and to just keep trying for routine appointments.

She then said if I felt it was urgent to ring 111.

I pointed she was no more medically trained than me but clearly has less awareness of NICE guidelines than me.

I rang 111. They contacted my surgery immediately and suggested I was referred to neurology with diagnosis of suspected cluster headaches.

Turns out I was experiencing one of the most painful conditions known to the medical world.

Well down for holding firm. It’s scary how much the NHS is changing and you can’t be seen easily anymore for things that become far more complex when left untreated.

It's shocking isn't it. My daughter has ongoing health problems, and the result of one of these forms was that she could wait 5 days for a phone consult. She was in A&E resus when they phoned.
We don't even bother with the GP anymore and just go and take a pew at A&E for the day.
Hope the meds do the trick, and well done for challenging them.

Because firstly op shouldn't have had any experience that may raise her BP ,she is likely very worried about herself already and secondly this is her personal medical details she shouldn't have to disclose it have to push this with a random receptiosnist

I don't disagree that OP should have been seen promptly but GP receptionists are not random. They usually are given clear guidelines on what to do and as PP said the triage would have said " routine appt" which in this surgery was 4 weeks away. The receptionist was doing what thsy were told. OP explained so the receptionist got them a sooner appt. These poor receptionists are incredibly busy, often abused because people take out their frustrations with the NHS on them. But they are only doing the job they've been told to do. Complaints should go to practice manager if there's been an issue.

How can the surgery prioritise appointments without the receptionist asking why the appointment is needed? And traumatic is still not a word I'd use for it being tricky to book a GP appointment.

I was already worrying about my BP and the attitude of the receptionist really upset me.

They can’t offer you appointments they haven’t got.

They can’t override embargoed appointments without permission.

A clinician will have triaged the appointment and marked it as same day, soon or routine. The receptionist/care navigator just follows instructions.

Feel free to complain to the practice manager regarding how you were spoken to. They can review the call and see if there was room for improvement.

My surgery issued medication via e consult, there’s no actual need for in person if they have the readings from a home monitor. I had to do follow up readings one month after I started the meds and it had come down I was then offered a face to face with the nurse practitioner to offer “lifestyle advice” to reduce my blood pressure with a view to stopping the meds, I declined as every female in my family is on bp pills even the skinny ones.

Triage on the e consult is a go, I’ve corresponded with a gp, no in person required as i have a monitor at home. I don’t understand you would need an urgent appointment for routine raised blood pressure

I have high BP too. It’s always been taken seriously by the medical and admin staff and have managed to get appointments quite quickly, I’d complain about them.

Of course receptionists don’t triage… they take the information and pass it along to a medic who triages.

Don’t be so stupid ! Receptionists do not triage - why on earth do you think that they do? They pass the info onto the GP team who then assign an appropriate appointment.

The NHS is a complete shit show.

it won’t be this receptionist fault. The receptionist will be under instruction to behave this way.

Do try harder not to be rude. So unnecessary, it really is. Life is better if you are nice to people rather than not.
They most certainly do where I live. They may well do both actually.
They ask what the problem is. One woman when I was in the surgery came in asking for an appointment had to reveal she wanted to see someone for mental health issues. I felt so sorry for her. They then decided to give her an appointment. I have been refused appointments until I follow up and explain the problem in more detail. Then get an appointment often with a nurse rather than a doctor.
Either way, it is unsatisfactory.