to wish the GP receptionists could manage to be civil

[emeraldgirl1]

I don't even ask for polite, or cheerful, though both would be nice.

Unfailingly they are snotty, difficult and generally behave as if dealing with patients is the most hideous task in the world.

I wouldn't moan except that I am never anything other than extremely polite (to the point of cravenness) and in addition the only thing I am ever asking them for is an appointment! I am not asking them for anything special! I accept humbly and politely that I can't see a doctor at any time vaguely convenient to me and am only ever politely and cheerfully asking them to locate the next available appointment. They ALL do it. I can only assume they must get some very difficult and angry patients and they feel the need to be on red alert? But I still don't think that has to translate to making an entirely reasonable patient feel like a latent criminal every time I call.

I am pregnant, so am ending up calling for more appointments (jabs etc) than usual. Dread it every time now.

Am sure there are many lovely receptionists out there but my surgery has hired all the stroppy and bitchy ones :(

I realise that they have a hard job and it isn't nice being shouted at/treated badly by people on a daily basis however I did a similar job for many years and was subjected to some really shocking abuse from clients. Had I been surly/rude with everyone because of this then i'd have been fired.

LurkingBeagle it's so worrying isn't it? As well as being plain annoying.

My surgery referred me to a consultant because I wasn't ovulating. It took five months to finally see him because the hospital had sent my first appointment letter to the wrong address. In the appointment it transpired that the referral letter sent by the surgery had my name, DOB and address but another woman's medical history. He thought I had two children and had had two MC so was completely confused when I told him I had no children and had never been pregnant. Such a waste of time and resources, and really upsetting after waiting so long to see him

At mine they are lovely. All the time, always. I must buy them some chocolate.

They even feed the stray cat that hangs around (they fee him outside the surgery).

Ours are lovely, but I have recently transferred there from one where they were very rude. I overheard a phonecall the other day where a patient rang at 4:15pm for an appointment and then went balistic when the receptionist said that the best they could do them 8:15am the next next day. In my last practice we'd have given an arm for an appointment within 2 weeks! If you ring in a morning you will always be seen within 2 hours and if the receptionist says she'll ring you she does so that day.

Feel very spoiled now!

I miss my old doctors, everyone there was lovely and friendly but then the doctor got struck off retired and a larger practice took over. The receptionists are downright rude most of the time, you have to wait 3 weeks for an appointment and you never see the same doctor more than once.
One day one of the receptionists rang my DH to tell him he needed to make an appointment, but wouldn't let him book the appointment there and then and told him he had to ring her back to make it.

The reason I really like my GP's surgery is that the receptionists are very friendly and pleasant if you're friendly to them. They perk right up when you go in and smile at them and ask how it's going etc. I do feel bad for them as I hear how rude other people are to them. I'm not mad keen on any of the GPs at the surgery but you can't have everything!

All I can say is that you need to go straight to the practice manager and if (as it was in the surgery that I worked at) they are totally useless and clueless and only employed there because they are married to the senior partner go to the PCT.
Being shouted at by patients is no excuse for nastiness at all, I wasn't trying to imply that it is, some people shouldn't work anywhere near the general public, especially when they're ill.

Ahhh. My GP receptionists are largely lovely. I think our practice must have them all! :)

'I asked a woman once, 'have we met?' she said no. 'do you think you could start off by being civil to me then please?'. '

I am totally nicking this!

I agree with others - complain! Don't just put up with it. There was a thread on here earlier in the week about a patronising consultant and lots of peopl were saying, oh well if he's a good consultant you should just put up with it and not make a fuss. WRONG! I work for the NHS in a frontline post and yes, some people are very rude and extremely unpleasant. However it is totally unacceptable for staff to be anything other than polite to people. Swear loudly inside your head if you need to and have an epic moan over coffee, by all means but starting off with an arsey attitude is just not on. I agree it's probably a power trip for receptionists but if that's the case, they need to be challenged on it and not just have people bow and scrape to them all the time.

I am very lucky - my local surgery are all v nice, can be a bit stony-faced sometimes but I don't blame them and they are all polite with it. It's the treating patients as a massive inconvenience that I can't be doing with.

We have lovely ones at our Dr's,that and lovely good Drs. It's lovely to finally find a surgery where you trust the people you are going to see and the admin staff are all pleasant and friendly.

But the nice receptionist at school is leaving, leaving the, erm, other one.

I had years of really awful ones at our GPs - reduced my to tears few times.

No idea what happened but few months ago - it just changed. Some of the same staff but they are polite and helpful and they have a triage phone system as well which is helpful.

I work with GP receptionists and all except one are lovely - she is fine but has a rather abrasive manner (to patients and staff alike!) which can come across badly.

I wouldn't do their job for all the tea in China; the amount of aggro and abuse they put up with is unbelievable and patients' expectations can be unrealistic and inappropriate. The pressures in primary care are phenomenal and the receptionists take the brunt of that as they are the 'face' of the practice.

I work in a GP surgery (although I am not a receptionist). The job of a GP receptionist is like no other job I have come across, and I have worked in a number of private and public sector organisations.

The reception team get grief from both sides, patients and doctors. The number of conversations we have about 'appropriate allocation of appointments'. In other words, when is a duty doctor appointment not a duty doctor appointment, when is a telephone consultation not a telephone consultation, why has Mrs X been given a double appointment. And lets not mention the 'samples' that are handed into reception in inappropriate containers....

At my old family Dr there is a lovely receptionist. I have been in before to pick up a prescription for my mum and been told how lovely my mum is .

My old job required me to run the gauntlet with receptionists as a pharma rep. I could see their attitude change when they realised I wasn't a patient and would block me from seeing Drs who had asked me to come in! That saying, there were some lovely ones once they got to know me. Now as a patient I am always as nice as possible, you never know what they have just had to deal with.

Having said that, no one should be reduced to tears by a receptionist. If you are unhappy about how you have been treated then speak to the Practice Manager.

I think it used to be part of the job description and self-important theatre that doctors wanted around them (class system anyone?).
i.e. 'Doctors are VERY busy and IMPORTANT and you are PROBABLY WASTING THEIR VALUABLE TIME with your IDIOTIC lower middle class snivels'

Now it should be seen as a service job but some of the evil gatekeepers of the wizard are not yet dead.

"OutragedAtThePriceOfFreddos Thu 25-Oct-12 11:29:04
They seem to forget that we are the taxpayers paying their wages (and those of the drs and nurses) and treat patients like we are all trying to blag something to which we are not entitled!

Like I've said, I'm no fan of GP receptionists, but it's probably attitudes like that that contribute to their need to be surly.

I work in the public sector and I pay my taxes. You don't have one over on me just because you pay taxes too. I am actually providing a service in return for my wages, and I don't owe anyone any extra favours because their taxes end up as my wages!

Patients should be treated with courtesy because they are human beings, not because they pay taxes and are entitled. "

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Of course public sector workers pay their taxes. Where did I suggest otherwise? Nor did I suggest that patients should be treated with courtesy because they pay taxes rather than because they are human beings. However, in my experience some GP receptionists seem to act like they are the appointed guardian of something I can only have access to if I meet their (unpublished) criteria and beg and plead sufficiently. Just because we pay for the NHS according to means rather than per use, they should not affect the service we receive. It clearly does though, as anyone who has experienced private medicine will be able to attest (the admin isn't always good but it is invariably politer and more patient-driven).

And now shall we have a discussion about how incompetent all primary school teachers are, or how all supermarket checkout staff are too thick to get a proper job (neither of which are my view). worriedBetty you are tarring all GP receptionists with the same brush.

Sorry, another one here who is lucky to have great receptionists at our GP surgery. I always thought they were good/it was a good surgery but once I had my DS I realised just how good they are. I've rung before at 8.01, been 40th in queue (!!) and still had an appt within a few hours so I can't complain.

I used to be a GP's receptionist, but I was told quite often I was a nice one ... I was also spat at, racially abused and called a cunt a fair few times, so I don't think those ones liked me much!

It is a job which seems to attract a lot of quite unpleasant, difficult women who like the little bit of power and become quite controlling. If you think they're horrible as receptionists, believe me they're bloody nightmares as colleagues.

I did find it hard as a job because you're dealing with people who are at their lowest ebb - in pain, worried, fearful - and it can be tough dealing with some people who have mental health difficulties. The patients want to be seen urgently. And then you're stuck between them and the GPs, who don't want emergency patients slotted in or to have longer surgery hours, because they want to get home at a reasonable time. I used to sometimes fit in patients who told me they had symptoms of strokes/heart attacks/cancer scare, only to have the GP moan at me later because the patient had lied and only needed a repeat prescription or was constipated.
The GPs told us to ask about symptoms before giving an emergency appointment, which, not unreasonably, patients didn't like telling non-clinical staff, so yet again we were stuck in the middle.

I can't believe some of the things people here have had said to them ... wow. I'll admit, I used to sometimes I used to be tired and not chatty with patients, but I wouldn't dream of being cruel or unkind. They're inhuman.

Oh, and someone earlier mentioned samples in odd containers? An ice cream tub full of diarrhoea was my best. Lovely.

AN ICE CREAM TUB OF DIARRHOEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yes, just one of the lovely things a GP receptionist has to deal with in a regular working day.

Yep, he was very annoyed when I refused to accept it. One of my colleagues had a big supermarket milk bottle almost full of wee thrown at her once. She was actually one of the really cruel, bitchy ones who took pleasure in upsetting people, not that I'm suggesting that as a soluton to nasty receptionists made me laugh though

Bailey's or Tesco el cheapo?

A big iceland neopolitan one. it was swishing around. BOAK.