in thinking the GP receptionist was out of order?

[RalphGnu]

DS has had a bad cold for the last few days and it sounds like he's got a chest infection (very wheezy, rattly chest, short of breath). He's had this a couple of times so I know he needs antibiotics.

Phoned the health centre this morning and while describing my son's symptoms with the receptionist was halfway through a sentence when she barked "Hang on!" and had a muffled discussion with someone about how much milk and sugar she wanted and in which mug, does anyone have a paracetamol etc.

Carried on describing the symptoms and she again interrupted me to say "You know you don't need to bring your child in every time he coughs, don't you?"
I told her yes, I was aware of that and if she'd let me finish a sentence I could tell her about his previous history of chest infections and that I thought it was important he be seen today.

After a long-suffering sigh she said he could be seen at 9:00 at the surgery 2 miles up the road (this was at 8:45). When I explained I wouldn't be able to get there for that time she very sarcastically said "If it's soooo serious, you'll get there, won't you?"

At this point I snapped and asked to speak to the practice manager, was told she would be in at 9am and did I want the appointment or not? I said again it wouldn't be possible to make it at that time (I don't have a car and DS was still in his pj's). She told me that was all they had and I would have to ring back tomorrow morning to make another appointment that fitted in with my schedule!

I actually can't believe the way I was spoken to, I am fucking fuming. I've spoken to this woman before at reception, she's very rude. Should I report her?

Good idea clam. GP's don't want the receptionists being rude to the patients and potentially depriving a sick child of necessary medical attention.

Practice manager sounds just as rubbish. Go higher! (always my motto when complaining). I wouldn't bother engaging with the receptionist who was rude to you, not beyond the basics anyway. I certainly wouldn't confront her about her rudeness. Do it through the correct channels and firmly but civilly and keep it impersonal. Then you look like the most professional, rational person involved and have got the moral high ground. Well, you've got it already, but you know what I mean.

She was quite rude.

However, as a dental receptionist I get a lot of people phoning demanding immediate emergency appointments as they are in deathly agony then they turn down all possible appointments for a week and make one for 10 days later.

Lorelai... You say 'yes', ring local taxi, coat on DS over pyjamas, you go. Even if you get there in 20 minutes, you are there and you get the prescription.

No doctor will turn away a patient who is ill. If the thought of the Hypocratic Oath doesn't do it, the possibility of litigation will, so back at you.

report her and follow it up with an e mail to pracrice manager and the PCT

Agree with Clam. Make your letter to the senior partner in the practice if the manager was crap.

Agree with poster saying no need to talk to receptionist about symptoms. They aren't trained.

Also agree you should have taken the appointment - even if you turned up late they'd prob still slot you in. Just turning up is also a good policy.

Lying Actually, that is not true. In our surgery there are big signs everywhere saying that if you are more than 5 minutes late, you can't see the doctor and have to make a new appointment and that it is the doctors who have ordered this system. I guess they've had a history of a lot a people turning up late and so see it as a way of stamping it out. It does make me very annoyed, though, that I still end up waiting for 30 minutes or more in the waiting room for my appointment. If they are going to have rules like that, I think it should work both ways.

If it is the case that they would slot you in, even if you turned up after the appointment time, the receptionist should have explained that. The party line at my GPs is that if you're more than 10 minutes late you won't be seen and will have to rebook; I'd assume that that was an immutable rule unless the receptionist told me otherwise.

Bloody receptionists!

refusing to talk to the receptionist so they can't triage you (which will be thepractice policy set by the GPs to manage appointments better) is selfish as emergency appointments need to go to people who really need them.

Just turning up is also selfish, so that they feel they have to fit you in and everyone else waits.

These are "good policies" if you think you are more important than everyone else.

gingercurl... Obviously I don't know the arrangements in every surgery but ours is that you can turn up between X and Y time and you'll be slotted in around those with appointments. Everybody is seen. I've not heard of any surgery that couldn't accommodate seeing somebody in an 'emergency'. I would change surgeries, quite honestly.

I'm sorry to labour the point too but the last thing I would have been doing is posting on MN about the rudeness of the receptionist when the priority was getting my son seen and treated if I were that sure it was so serious. :(

Fanjo - an ill little one does count as an emergency and so if my little one was ill and I was getting no help I would just go down there.
Would not do these things for myself with a cold or something though obviously.

Why are you describing symptoms to a receptionist?

pomme -well, if they have a decent triage system (designed by GPs) and they think an ill little one is an emergency then you should get an appointment or the system is at fault. If the receptionist asks the symptoms its because they have a triage system in place, I assume.

AtYourCervix, so you think the receptionist should just invent appointments for everyone who says its an emergency when there are none there? There probably aren't enough hours in the day so they would have been ASKED to triage.

i hate these threads, they always go the same way."don't speak to a mere inferior receptionist".."she was slightly abrupt (probably dealing with 5 people at same time) get her sacked and give her a good beating while you are at it"

goes and leaves it to someone else to explain about Triage

No - I'd expect to be triaged by someone with some sort of medical or nursing training. I don't think a receptionist is qualified to decide from a telephone conversation if someone deserves a GP appointment.

Do you think that maybe being patronising and saying you were aware of that and asking to let you finish a sentence, just took her over the edge? She obviously shouldn't have come in (needing a paracetamol first thing) and had maybe 10 phonecalls like yours, all claiming an emergency appointment. I know it's her job but a modicum of empathy from the customers sometimes helps diffuse a situation and gets a better result. Hope your ds is ok though.

Fanjo I appreciate that patients ringing for emergency appointments and then refusing all options is irritating but this does not seem relevant to OP.

Lying OP should have said yes to appointment in 15 minutes knowing she couldn't possibly make it??? So when she had finally made it to surgery [after walking or waiting for taxi] she would probably have been told sorry but too late for appointment now or would have been squeezed in and inconvenienced other patients waiting for their prebooked appointments?

And then she would have also taken up the 8am appointment knowing she had no way of making it, which is selfish and unreasonable imo - this could have possibly been used by someone else who could have made it to the surgery in 15 minutes!

OP - YANBU. Definitely complain re receptionist's bad attitude - and also re the breaking off mid sentence to order her tea ! She sounds very rude and judgemental. Not a professional image for the surgery and the practice manager needs to be informed.

My surgery always fits children in as emergencies. And wouldn't try and squeeze you in in 15 minutes time. Often not possible with poorly little one anyway. And I also don't drive so at least 15 minutes walk. The couple of times I have tried to call for a taxi last minute they have always said would be at least 15 minutes to get to me - so no guarantee you could have made it with a taxi ride anyway.

well I assume the GP has written some kind of triage chart. It's not ideal I agree, but there are probably way more patients than there are emergency appointments, and all will claim its an emergency, sometimes when it's something very minor.

my surgery are very good actually, if there are no appointments a GP phones you and if they think they child needs seen you get fitted in.

This is probably a better system,..but its the system not the "uppity receptionist" who is at fault if they ask for symptoms

But the receptionist wasn't dealing with 5 people at once - she was talking to another staff member about how she wanted her tea instead of listening to the OP describe her child's symptoms.

She was also chippy regarding the OP's inability to walk 2 miles in 15 minutes. Her sick child was still wearing his pjs, which is not U when a child is ill.

I don't think any excuse can be made for that level of rudeness from a receptionist.

BootyMum... She was 2 miles away, not 20. Yes, if it was genuinely urgent and not a regular thing, then yes. I've never been to our surgery - even with an appointment - and seen a doctor at the appointed time. I certainly wouldn't have minded an ill child nipping in in front of me, if necessary anyway.