to be possibly upset by the doctors/receptionists take on mental health issues?

[LifeIsButtercream]

I'm having a hard time with some mental health issues, depression based.

It all came to a head this morning, I'm having a really bad episode, panicking and struggling with the nausea and have 100% had enough (I've had months of this).

I called docs to try and get an appointment (you have to call at 8.30am and cross your fingers) - called at 8:30am, answer phone, called 10 seconds later, engaged, engaged again, engaged again. Called at 8:30am and 45 seconds (don't ask how I knew that), got through to find all the appointments gone, for the whole day, apart from 'urgent emergencies', receptionist asks me if I have an emergency. I am struggling to keep my voice steady and say I feel like it is because I can't go on like things are. She tuts and asks again, whether I really think that what I need help with is urgent. I'm sobbing down the phone at this point because I can't keep my composure (pathetic I know) and say that I do. In my mind I feel like I'll be in a straight jacket by the end of the week if I can't get some help and get on top of these mysterious symptoms soon, I can't even look after my daughter properly. She says "Fine, 10.10am, bye" and hangs up.

AIBU or oversensitive?

oh babe, big hug.

i'm sorry that you got a stroppy receptionist.

well done for making the appointment.

no, you are not being unreasonable, you are being very brave in taking those steps towards getting the help you deserve.

i hope your appointment goes well x x x

She is extremely unreasonable and you are not. I can empathise totally with how you feel. Still working on coping with depression and PTSD myself.
I don't think Docs receptionists attend charm school thats for sure.
Go to your appointment and get the help that you need. Ignore the ignorant receptionist. Mental health is just as important as physical.
good luck, hope the Doc listens to you. x

She shouldn't have tutted you are not a child. But she gave you an appointment so at least she did take the issue seriously.

I hope you get the help you need.xx

You are DNBU. You could ask to have a word with the practice manager, if you feel up to it.

You are possibly being oversensitive as she has to ask if it is urgent and she does not know what the problem is. Having said that, GP receptionists are generally lacking in sensitivity or empathy IME.

Hope you feel better. Well done for getting help.

YANBU because it's understandable if you're overreacting. However, receptionists are usually very busy when the morning calls are coming in & are not in a position to offer a sympthetic ear. In future, the correct answer to the question if you have an emergency is alway 'yes'. You don't have to explain it any further than that.

I would have told her that yes in my opinion it was an emergency and left it at that - if she starts to even disagree you ask her of she has the letters GP after her name and if not she is not qualified to make a judgement call on it.

I work in the health service and think doctors recepstionists are jumped up little twats most of the time full of their own impportance. I had one tell me once after DS's 8th bought of tonsilitus that under no circumstances would I be getting a referral - I wanted to waive the letter in her bloody face when we got it about 10 minutes later from the doctor and now she is incredibly polite to me whne I see her at the school gates!

Make sure you mention her attitude to the GP when you see him/her and also if you feel that pissed off write to the practice manager complaining.

OP, so sorry for you.

The 'tut' though may have been at your situation rather than at you personally. I think that some doctor's receptionists are unnecessarily brusque and quite rude with patients, and perhaps that comes from some doctors' attitudes.

Go to your appointment, take a list with you of all the points you want to make if you think you'll get tongue-tied or forget something. Tell the doctor what you want/need. Good luck, hope it goes well for you.

its not for her to gauge whether you are an emergency or not, she gave you an appt for this morning, so you got what you required

The receptionists manner was certainly unfortunate. The good thing is she did make the appointment, not argue the toss further.

However, it seems to me a lot of the problem is the ridiculous difficulty of getting an appointment. If by 8:30am and 45 seconds all the appointments are gone, then the receptionist is - every morning - put in the impossible position of having to interrogate patients as to the urgency of their case. Her abuptness may be partly because of knowing there are more people trying to get through. There surely ought to be a better way for everyones sake.

I think our practice would in these circumstances put patients such as the OP through to a nurse who would assess urgency in a more professional manner - I know they 'triage' people ringing in on a Saturday morning anyway.

Receptionists are so often like this - they are an annoying breed.

I know it sounds personal but it really isn't I'm sure But like you I suffer from mental health issues so I do really empathise. Ignore the cowbag.

Our practice used to have a dragon receptionist. They moved her to the pharmacy, where she's less pressured and not feeling the need to guard the doctors - much better.

I sympathise with the OP here. I really do, and I hope she gets things sorted at her appointment.

She clearly, clearly needed to be seen, BUT you would not believe (former Dr's receptionist/complaints manager!) the number of times I had people tell me travel vaccs were emergencies. Or forgetten scripts, that have been on repeat for months and now need a review - that was notified on the last issue four weeks earlier. Or headlice.

That's why Dr's receptionists have to ask. Because otherwise the genuine emergencies - like the OP, like the teenage girl that's just told her mum she's been assualted four days ago, like the Little Old Lady with breathing troubles that WILL NOT go to A&E, like the Cancer Patient in serious breakthrough pain - don't get seen, because they're stuck behind feckless idiots.

Too, the lack of sympathy comes from a hugely different perspective. Your 75 year old grandad's forgotten script is urgent to you, but when this is the third month running that it's been cocked up and you're refusing all other suggestions for ways to manage it, don't use 'I'd expect a little sympathy for someone so elderly. Surely there have to be exceptions!' as a reason to queue jump. It won't work. We'd have seen five similar cases already that day - a quarter of our patients were 'so elderly'. We'd havebeen nothing but exceptions and NOTHING would have gotten done!

I'm not saying all GP's receptionists are angels, they bloody aren't - some are utter t**ts - but it's customer service when the customer is pissed off to begin with, day in and out, for crap pay. Years of that, and you get brusque. You have to, or spend half the day crying in the practice manager's office. I left precisely because I could feel myself getting short with patients who didn't deserve it but not everyone has that choice.

Worse still, attitudes like 'ask the receptionist if she has GP after her name' and 'they're all jumped up' encourages people to be even arsier than they would have been anyway, which just compounds the problem. I promise you get further if you're nice!

Sorry for the essay and good luck OP - hope you get sorted!

I will tentatively speak up for the GP receptionist as a whole (rather than this specific one IYSWIM). Some of them are just horrid (one made me cry when I tried to get an appt for an ear infection before an exam but wasn't registered - she told me it would take two weeks to decide if I was 'suitable' to join the practice) but others are working hard in really difficult situations.

Imagine being in a job where you have 45 seconds to book in all appts for the day, try and work out who really needs it, fend off the people who don't realise that their lost medication script isn't an emergency, when all the people you're dealing with are stressed, upset and ill. Then for the next 10 mins deal with the people who didn't get an appt in the first 45 secs.

FWIW I hate these appointment systems where you have to ring in the morning for routine/urgent appts. It disadvantages whole swathes of the population, especially the elderly or those with MH problems. I also cannot understand how the practice manages to look after their patients with chronic medical issues.

I really hate having to explain myself to the Dr receptionist! I find myself rambling on trying to justify to her why I need an appointment!

I changed Dr surgey recently and they have a new systen where you call and the receptionest gets a Dr or nurse (depending on the nature of problem) to call you. Usually within an hour or so and then you can have a chat and they will offer you an appointment/advise depending on the urgency.
I find this works really well, I called a few weeks ago as my ds had a recation to some bath additive (nothing serious) and I wanted something else to try, and rather that go in and take up an appointment the Dr called and gave me another percription over the phone!

Hug from me too. You must have been feeling so tender and that must have hurt.

I hope that you can get some proper help.

xx

YANBU to feel a little sensitive when you are feeling so low.

However the role of that receptionist was to establish the need for an urgent appointment (which she did, but I agree she shouldn't have tutted - you don't know whether the tut was aimed at you or her computer screen displaying a lack of free appointments but it was unnecessary though) and then to make that appointment, which she did. To be fair she doesn't have the time to offer sympathy or conversation.

Hopefully the doctor was kind to you.

YASOOONBU i infact have the same problem!

I was sectioned back in january due to a nervous breakdown (i wont bore you with the details) but it was due to untreated PND.

My doctors surgery you can never get an appointment, i spend most weeks calling from 8.55 to get through at 9.10 to be told to call back at 12 for the PM appointments. on Tuesday me and the receptionist bitch came to a head.

Every single fucking time i call she asks what the problem is and why do i need to see a doctor. on this particular occassion i did not want to tell her my reasons as i was feeling very sensitive and very low, anyways i digress our conversation went on for about an hour 10 minutes and it ended like this...

ME: "listen you fucking jobsworth i am sick and tired of you being so god dam nosey and having to know my business, you will either give me an appointment or you wont, do you have a bloody appointment or not??"

Receptionist: "you need to tell me your problem before i will tell you that"

Me: Slams phone down. and walks over to doctors surgery with screaming child on hip (i live 2 mins down the road from the surgery)

She was shocked to see me. and gave me an appointment when i threatened her with PALs

whoops sorry for the thread overtake there!

Umm boilingpoint I'm really sorry to hear about what has been going on but if I was the GP/practice manager I would be wanting to have a chat about what went on. No-one should be subject to that during their working day - perhaps speak to the practice manager about alternative booking system for yourself - booking your next appt straight after your first if able to ? Because swearing at a employee and probably scaring her is not on! Sorry sorry I know I should leave alone and I am sorry about what has been going on but I can see it from her POV. Sorry.

springbokdoc.. i was terribly ashamed of myself for swearing at her but she was being really really rude to me, and i just snapped.
I have indeed agreed with the doc that i will make appointments with him at the end of the next appt

Do what I do and say that you are in a public place and can't discuss what the problem is. Repeat that you need to see a doctor. It generally works.

I am not going to tell some grouchy receptionist that I have a rash in my fadge (or whatever it is)

I have the answer to this.

Online Booking.

Doctors receptionists seem to take this tone automatically and you have to go to great lengths to explain yourself which if you are feeling vulnerable is just adding to the stress. I dread calling the docs.

This happened to me as well- when I was really low
I think the other problem - as well as the receptionist additude - is some surgeries are too busy so the recepnists do get stressed - I moved surgeies a couple of years ago and its much quieter and never had a problem -receptionist are never horrid and can get an appoitment
However I think if you are feeling up to it a complaint to the practice manager might be inorder - I had a chat with mine and it was clear she knew who the person was and had problems with that person before