To think all GP support staff are rude and evil!

[higgle]

Grr. Just come back from my GPs. On Monday I telephoned to ask for a GP apointment before Friday, the receptionist gleefully told me there were none. She then insisted there was only one nurse's appointment all week free and that was in my working day. When I said that was not convenient she moaned and groaned and fond me another at 6pm today. When I go;t there the nurse told me the receptionist should have asked me to make a AP's appointment, then proceeded to give me advice which contravenes the NICE guidance on the subject. When I pointed this out she was very stroppy with me. Why are receptionsists so rude and unhelpful? and why do nurses, who want to assume a professonal role never have up to date clinical evidence to support the nonsense they spout at you! And lastly why did they tell me they had no appointments when one of the lovely GPs came out ofhis room and announced to the receptionist that he was pleased he could go home early as it was quiet!!!

Just scrolled up from the typing box - gosh, I'd only read the first couple of posts before adding my own...

I see my reported posts are still standing

what a surprise

Lady
Newly qualified Dr's in hospital--yes by quite a bit. I am probably at level of a specialist registrar. That's as much as l will say.
What is often overlooked is that Gp's are run as businesses and as a practice nurse l am employed by the GP's not the NHS. Wages for us are at the GP's discretsion and vary from surgery to surgery and country to country. Likewise the reception staff are paid at a rate agreed by the gP's. I am well paid for what l do.
However the GP partners and qualified GP's get paid significantly more than l do and that's fair ( except when l am left to do all the work)

AF....hiya..

l love AF she talks so much sense...

hi, reeling

for those interested in money, I am a HCP (not saying which profession) who earns more than the doctors I work with, except the consultants

does that satisfy you "degree and above" snobs ?

and yes, I have, thanks

not that I have ever said that on here before

it appears to be important though, to some, today

and doha

Aw AF ...i am going to bed.

G'night,

good night

Sorry to go back to the start, the OP says she's a HCP but never explained exactly what that was, clearly not a nurse or a doctor so what?

Sorry haven't had time to read all the posts but think a point that hasn't been raised so far is that all this seems to have stemmed from some anger at the appointment system. Sounds like there was a timescale of 4 days the op wanted the appointment in but possibly not all the 4 days as she was working? There are a lot of areas where you can't necessary get appointments so quickly like at the hairdressers, dentist, optician... Not sure why a routine type GP appointment should be different. Sounds like the op was looking for a way round this by booking with a nurse for something usually handled by a GP in that practice, and was actually informed of that by the nurse. May explain why the nurse might not have been as up to date as you would have hoped? Sorry you felt you had a bad experience though I along with many others can't see what all the fuss was about in this case. Maybe it would help if you could lower your expectations a little as to what an NHS GP practice might reasonably provide you with in terms of timescales for appointments. I wonder if there is no equivalent private service available to you is because it would be very much more expensive and we would go back to the days pre NHS of people with illnesses (let alone on HRT) not being able to afford to go and get these illnesses treated.

TTT I wanted a Doctor's appointment - I explained why. The receptionist - with her inimitable "charm" told me there was not a single one available at any time any day Monday to Friday inc. She said that anyway I did not need a doctors appointment, only a nurses one. She then proceeded to tell me there was only one nurses appointment available - bang slap in the middle of the working day on Thursday. When I said that surely there must be something else free she barked "6pm, Tuesday" and put the phone down.

When I arrived the nurse asked why I had gone to see her as I needed a doctors appointment - and not in a nice way, more of a "why are you wasting my time". She was just totally rude throughtout. As I've mentioned we hardly ever go to the surgery and since my last visit my usual GP has retired. I asked her if I was allocated to anyone else and who would be the best person to see she just barked "any of them" like I was an idiot, on top of everything else. When the GP came out as I was waiting to go in an told the receptionist he was going home early as there were no patients booked for him - total experience very much justifies a rant....and this is AIBU not Health.

higgle I agree that you had a bad experience, and you are perfectly entitled to rant about it (and complain too - your complaint would be taken seriously). However, you were unreasonable in your early posts to generalise that receptionists and nurses are rude, unhelpful and spout rubbish and that they have lesser qualifications. If you had posted your last post originally I think that this thread would have gone very differently and you would have had far more positive responses.

Spot on, Tina

Thanks AF

I'm still not clear op why the appointment was only wanted for Monday to Friday the same week? Why could you have not made an appointment for a GP the next week? Did you try and push at all for an earlier appointment? Perhaps the receptionist might have been feeling pushed into accomodating you? It's just that when you said you explained to the receptionist why you needed an appointment it just sounds odd. Surely you should be able to just phone for an appointment not have to say to the recptionist why you needed it except if it was an emergency or is this another vagary of this particular GP practice?

perhaps the op is just a rude and obnoxious person who should change gp if she is so terribly unhappy. im sure her practice can live with that as an option.