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.

Perhaps where you live they do. Which seems not to be everyone’s experience.

I’m amazed that reception triage? At my surgery they have nurses that do.

The ‘care navigators’ definitely do triage at the surgery I go to. It’s on the practice website that they are trained to do triage. When you consider how long doctors and nurses train for, I wonder what training a receptionist has.

I completely agree that the receptionists are only doing what they’ve been told to do.

Yes, they do. I've had appointments delayed because a receptionist deemed it non-urgent before, even though I was about to run out of my essential medication. I had to go to a pharmacy and beg!

Ugh I feel for you.

I woke up on my bathroom floor after a massive seizure really confused. Spoke to the practice nurse who advised me I must be in alcohol withdrawal (I definitely was not, and I told her I hadn't been drinking much) and to wait a week and come in for blood tests.

Luckily I also spoke to my mum who made me phone an ambulance, turns out I had a massive brain tumour.

My local pharmacy wouldn't do my prescription because "it's Christmas and we're busy"... Luckily my mum is like a wee fierce jack Russel

That's crazy. Luckily our local one is really good and will generally do whatever they can to help you but it was pretty stressful thinking I'd be without my meds over the weekend (I'd ordered well in advance, had them approved and then someone decided I needed a review appointment ).

Oh my god, that’s terrible. I hope you are recovering? 💐

That’s not triaging though - ugh - the receptionist’s job is to ascertain the problem and then feed that through to the medics. You were assigned an appointment with the nurse because that was appropriate not because the receptionist decided to block you from seeing a doctor. Do try to think more critically!

Yes this. It's rather stressful and annoying but traumatic?

"Trained care navigators!" FFS!

Make a formal complaint to the practice.

Well done for sticking to your guns.

If you have a bit more effort in you, please do write an email to the practice manager - or ask for them to call you (and follow up with an email)

The receptionists should know that if someone has a high BP having been already ask to monitor that needs a quicker referral, and if they ever aren't sure, they need to refer up, so this person has not been properly trained or not paid attention - the practice needs to know this.

Ours are absolutely awful, they've lost my meds so many times. It is indeed stressful, even just the thought of having to go there stresses me out 🤣

It's a very long process, just taking each day at a time. Thank you 😊

I was assigned a Drs appt first. Well, a not quite a Dr yet appointment.
I had cause to go back and was given a nurses appt.

I have found accessing a Dr’s appointment harder than it should be generally. And yes, reception where I live certainly have decided whether you get an appointment or not. They may change their mind later, but on the phone, or in person they decide there and then.

More often than not there is not one to be given. Regardless.

This really. Also as others have said maybe mention that the e-consult form may not have been reviewed by a doctor. Any doctor would consider blood pressure that high as a red flag.

Four weeks seems like a very long time to wait for an appointment - I’m a GP in Ireland and generally nobody has to wait longer than a few days - but the reality is that moderately raised blood pressure is not an emergency or something that needs to be seen particularly urgently. Save for the rare cases of malignant hypertension, risks from high blood pressure are long-term, not immediate, and whether you are started on medication today or in a month’s time is unlikely to have any bearing on your health a decade from now.

I work in GP surgeries, it sounds like poor communication here. A GP will have reviewed your message but hasn’t sent clear instructions back. .

Definitely need to take this back to the practice. The reception staff member has followed the instructions but done so on unclear guidance.

Because it was?

I think because I’ve had two branch vein retinal occlusions, I felt four weeks was too long to wait.

Complain to the practice manager

Ummm ok. We obviously have different definitions of those words.

Triage sometimes works & sometimes doesn’t. There are several different forms of triage too. Some asked detailed questions, some are AI based & only want one word symptoms.

What I’d put money on having happened here is a GP reading your triage form & assigning it to admin (the Receptionist) with a comment saying “soonest available nurse appointment”. Which is what you were offered. Almost everybody who isn’t offered an appointment on the exact day they want it with the exact GP they want complains. The Reception staff are taught to stick religiously to the triaging GPs decision - because they’re the medically trained person & have made a clinical decision.

That said, the Receptionist clearly did listen to you as he obviously went back to the triaging GP or nurse to pass on your concerns. Hence a more appropriate appointment being offered.

People don’t like Receptionists asking symptoms but they also don’t like the decisions GPs make after reviewing their triage forms. If only there were enough GPs around to go back to how it used to be - enough appointments to go around & sit and wait sessions for those needing to be seen more quickly.

The thing is, the receptionist may not be a nurse or GP so isn’t medically trained, but neither are you.
your online form would would have been triaged hence the appointment. A receptionist cannot override the medic who triaged you. If you did interrupt him, that’s on you.

OP, this is sadly all too typical, unfortunately. I went for a pre-op check at the hospital, where they took my blood pressure and told me to go without delay to see my doctor, preferably the same day. I phoned and was told there were no appointments that day as the doctors were in their monthly meeting (!) and to phone again the next morning. So I called and was told “well you can come and use the machine and a doctor will look at the results next week.” I said I was sorry, I had been instructed by the hospital that I HAD to see the doctor before an operation the following week. Eventually, after much insisting in my part and grumbling from the receptionist, I got my appointment, and was told by the doctor that my blood pressure was “dangerously high” and was put on blood pressure medication there and then. I did feel vindicated, but it really doesn’t do to be shy and retiring or to allow yourself to be put off by receptionists who really don’t know as much as they’d like to think.