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!!!

My GP's receptionists are lovely. Really nice and sympathetic and very accommodating. I've been with them for 10 years. The only time I had a moment was when I accidentally pressed the wrong option and went through on the emergency line. It was answered after about 3 minutes with a frosty "this is the emergency line, for people having heart attacks and the like" to which my response was "well if I was having a heart attack (a) I'd be dead given how long it's taken you to answer it and (b) I'd probably have called 999 instead." This did actually get me a laugh and turns out the receptionist was new and has since received some training on people skills. She is now as lovely as the rest of them - which given some of the abuse I've seen them take is pretty amazing TBH.

I think the OP needs to be clear about her healthcare qualifications and experience. Healthcare manager involved in some trials into Alzheimer medications doesn't give a clear indication that she actually has clinical qualifications and experience.

Nurses do not want to assume a professional role - we are professionals. There are thousands of qualified nurses in the UK and it is far fetched to say that every single one of them fails to keep up to date with latest clinical evidence and guidelines, particularly as there are nurses who are involved in research and forming guidelines themselves. As someone involved in research yourself OP, you should know that clinical best practice moves fast and it is not simply a case of 'well thank fuck we've answered that one, home for tea then', there are opposing viewpoints and different forms and qualities of evidence to weigh up. Even the NICE guidelines can become out of date quickly, which is why they get reviewed so often. There is also something called individualised care.

I suspect you think your GPs are 'lovely' because you think they are worthy of your admiration simply for being doctors. You value what they have to say because of this and it probably comes across in your attitude to them. Your attitude to others who are not up on that pedestal is probably quite snooty.

You come across as touchy and paranoid. I hope they gave you the repeat for the HRT.

We have online booking at our surgery.

Is that unusual?

What a ridiculous thread title.

no, mc, we have it too

well i always wondered why i was rude and evil.

now i know. it was the job that did it. those fucking doctors....they made me do it.

I agree, the practice nurse told me, after making me bleed during a smear, that it was my fault because I was "obviously deformed". Yes I have a retroverted cervix but as far as I know I was born with it so can't really be blamed.

One bad experience prudence does not mean that all receptionists and nurses are rude, unhelpful and out of date with lesser qualifications. I bet your gp is lovely though isn't she/he?!
Why is it suddenly ok to bash nursing staff? I'm sick of surgeons cancelling operations and nurses getting yelled at for that, then the surgeon who actually made the decision getting "yes sir no sir 3 bags full sir" and eyelashes fluttered at him or her!

I'm a nurse too and you're right I spout lots of nonsense all the time and I never ever know what I'm talking about. Strangely though I'm yet to be struck off it's patients like you that make my working life great fun

So we're unqualified and dangerous now too?

sultan, you can have my first ever

And I'll remember what people think of myself and my colleagues tonight when I'm at work looking after too many patients with not enough staff spouting dangerous rubbish at people!

If you can't cope with your workload, you should change the organisational set-up, not take it out on the patients.

I'm afraid in rural Gloucestershire there is no private GP service - if there was I'd be off like a flash - I did once menage to get a private prescrioption off a doctor who ran a care home, but I was out of hisusual age profile!. I do get my smear and mamograms done privately though - unhappy memories of another nasty nurse hurting me quite badly and commenting that she didn't know how I managed to have sex anyway. The practice nurses also don't like it when they see you go elsewhere for the services they are delegated to carry out - but after yesterday there is no way she is ever getting near my bits with a speculum!

You will have to move, higgle. My experiences and that of my extended family are similar to yours. Don't let them near you.

I think the attitudes of all the nurses on this thread speak for themselves.

How exactly do you want me to get things changed sultan? If my employer fails to listen to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists on safe neonatal staffing levels I don't think they'll listen to me! Or perhaps I should go on strike? I'm sure that would please the general population! No, I'll just continue to do the job to the best of my ability with a lot of abuse towards the patients as you point out

What exactly would your attitude be if I insulted your profession as a whole?

sultan and higgle - next time you have health problem requiring urgent treatment, or that can't be sorted privately- maybe have a think about your vile attitudes and consider how you may well be perceiving that artifices of nurses to be 'rude' or whatever precisely because of your own behaviour and the response the abuse, rude and patronising patients rightly receive.

Try living ONE shift as a nurse in cancer care or a&e. You'd be legging it out the door after 3 hours.

Attitudes not artifices... Bloody iphone

Well, I have just this minute accidentally rung up my GP's emergency line (because I put the wrong number in my phone ) only to be told calmly and politely that it was the emergency line and I should call appointments.

Rang appointments, they answered within 3 rings, the receptionist made me an appointment with a woman doctor, didn't ask what was wrong, repeated the dr's name and appt time so I could write it down, and said 'thanks' at the end.

Am I a fucking minor miracle or what???

(Or wait... maybe this is just actually completely normal because people only pipe up after a bad experience....)

Inflames hit the nail on the head.

I usually find if I speak to people in a polite, cheerful, non-patronising way that I get the same back. If your GP's staff are unpleasant to you then perhaps you should look to yourself OP.

I must live in a parallel world where the vast majority of the time doctor's receptionists, school receptionists, teachers, supermarket staff and old ladies are actually nice normal people.

Or perhaps it is because I am polite and articulate myself, and don't get into apoplectic rages about fuck all and put their backs up.

OP - if you are nice to someone, a lot of the time they are nice back.

Yes, there are some arseholes, but there are arseholes in all walks of life. You cannot say categorically ALL support staff are evil. Do you not realise how stupid you sound?