to think that doctors' receptionists are hated on here?

[lemontwist]

Okay so I may be a little biased (because I am one) but generally we work hard, often bend over backwards to juggle the needs of the patients with the demands of the doctors and other surgery staff and have to be constantly polite despite often being looked down on and spoken to like crap.
Certainly in my surgery we do everything we can to fit people in if they feel they need an urgent appointment. Yesterday the phone never stopped and there was standing room only in the waiting area at times. My colleague had a patient shout at her while doing everything she could to help him and remaining polite.
We get ridiculously busy at this time of year because we close for a whole twodays. AIBU just to ask you to cut us some slack and be polite back?

Ours are lovely. Most jobs that bring you into contact with the public get slated on here don't they?

The receptionists at my current GP surgery are lovely. I really appreciate the fact I can call for a same-day appointment if needed without being grilled about the reason.

Sadly I have personally found them to be the exception, not the rule, as I have encountered some awfully shirty jobsworths in the past.

Ha I am not best pleased with mine as I hve been unable to get through for the past 2 days-took time to go down which I can ill afford to spare-they have changed their surgery number without telling the patients!!

I am then informed that the doctor has not requested repeat prescription for my ds-even though he has been on this medication for 3 months and I have to make an appointment. No appointments for the next 2 days and I am to phone first thing on xmas eve and she "might" be able to fit me in!!

Aye right!-wasting the doctors time on what is probably one of their busiest days for a bloody prescription! I am planning on setting my dh on them-the worlds best complainer!-I bet I get a prescription quick smart then!!

I always give GP receptionists chocolates at Christmas; they have a particularly hard job around this time of year.
I do find some lovely (really miss the incredibly nice ones at the surgery where we used to live), some terrifying and some confusing.

I guess different surgeries seem to have different systems - one I think told the receptionists to act as 'gatekeepers' and decide whether the patient merited an appointment. This put them under unnecessary pressure (= grumpy receptionists), confused whoever was ringing up (= grumpy patients) and didn't really work anyway - it ended up being a 'whoever shouts loudest gets the appointment" sort of system that made everyone miserable.

The one I moved to recently has a Byzantine system that meant three seperate appointments for me to be put on the register and none at all for DD. The appointments had to be spaced in a particular order and had to be taken on a specific day of the week, but I had to call on that day of the week to see if an appointment was available. The receptionist did laugh at my ineptitude when I tried to book two appointments at once - how silly of me!

UK bureaucracy seems to stem from people having to 'just know' things without being told what they are, and being treated like eejits when they don't - seems to be a cultural thing.

It works both ways.

I had the most hideous experience with a receptionist and my complaint was just swept under the carpet by the practice manager and I got no apology from the receptionist herself because 'that would mean admitting fault' (she was at fault).

All the recptionists I have encountered have been power mad, jumped up and ignorant. :(

Mine are lovely but I phoned a month ago with a boob problem, receptionist wanted to know everything including where on my boob and whether it was the left or the right!! Bizzare..

Yeah, worra, I know plenty of people in other jobs get bashings too. Probably far worse too. Just wanted a rant.
Thanks for the support evryone. Glad to know some of us are well thought of. I guess its hard to judge for the patients when they do't know the appointment systems. We might say to one person the next routine appointment is a week away. The next call could be a cancellation so another person could get one the next day.

The receptionists at our surgery are excellent - very helpful and polite - as are all the GPs, nurses etc. We are very lucky. Previous surgery was horrendous. Rude receptionists, doc couldn't care less.

Mines are polite and I do talk to one of them quite a lot.

It takes forever to get through though and when you do, you have to give a detailed explanation of your problem for them to decide if they will get the Dr to call you back. They are not medically trained and I have had to give very detailed descriptions of embarrassing gynae problems.

I have a problem with that. Then they get a Locum to call you back, who has no idea of your medical history (mines is quite complex) and it works out crap.

For instance, last week I had to call and tell them I was really thirsty and couldn't stop drinking, not normal thirsty and drinking over 4 litres a day. Locum called me back and told me "your body knows very well how to tell you when you are thirsty, just drink more".

Drink more than 4 litres of water a day!?

I'm not allowed to ask what an appointment is for though some people delight in going into great detail except for nurses appointments so that I can book the correct length of time and the most appropriate nurse. It sounds like some places work very differently though. Maybe I am lucky in that I work for a fairly nice practice.

I work with deaf people and the experience of my clients is that receptionists (and medical staff in general) are by and large hopeless at dealing with patients with sensory impairment and utterly lacking in deaf awareness. Not necessarily always the staff's fault, they may not have had proper training.

Lemon We didn't used to have to tell them, we do now and it is humiliating. I had to describe in great detail cysts I had found on my cervix and my possible prolapsing bladder and bowel! The worst of that is that the surgery is packed and reception in the middle and they repeat everything you say to note it down including your full name, very loudly!

They don't seem to have any idea of being discreet or confidentiality. :(

Your surgery sounds better.

I had such atrocious treatment at the hands of the receptionists at my old surgery. I cannot even begin to understand how any human being can be as horrible as they were to me. I am very quietly and prone to shyness, but I am always polite to everyone I interact with, so they had no excuse. The doctors we no better (dismissed my months of stomach pain - ended up being a tumour). It got to the point where I had had enough. One visit I ended up so humiliated by the receptionist in front of other waiting patients I burst into tears (I was so ill and in pain - not ill enough for A&E, I figured), I did ask her why she did the job she did when she clearly hated people. She ignored me. That is the last time I went there. I decided to use a private practise a family member rated highly and I have not looked back since. It does get busy but I am treated so well and there is a lovely courtesy and empathy amongst all the staff at the practice. They have looked after me and my family so well. DC and I took over a lovely christmas hamper we had made up for them all earlier this week, as a token of our gratitude.

So OP yes, as some people have said there are receptionists who have earned being disliked, but like you there are some who are really lovely and I consider myself very lucky to be dealing with the latter group.

Ours are great. If ever I ring up to get my son to see someone, they always fit him in on the same day, and they are friendly, helpful and polite.

I have been with surgeries in the past where it wasn't such plain sailing but that was pretty much always to do with having stupid appointment systems which is not something receptionists have control over. Also, some doctors put immense pressure on receptionists to screen appointments which again isn't something that receptionists have control over. So I would say that whenever there are problems with a surgery, it's usually down to either the system or the culture which the doctors themselves create. I can understand why people get frustrated though.

I don't hate receptionists, but I haven't found them very helpful.

Over a period of 15 years, ever time I wanted to see a doctor, the process went like this...

1. I phone the receptionist and ask for an appointment.
2. She tells me I can have one in two weeks time.
3. I think that by then I will either have died or recovered without medical help, so i decline.
4. I don't die.

I understand that this keeps costs down, but it left me wondering who Doctors did see.

After the 24-hour rule came in, I phone for an appointment and was given one next day, the shock nearly killed me...

Now I'm a parent and have learned that you're not allowed to take a sick child to the doctor, in case she's contagious, which reinforces my general impression that Britsh doctors would rather not deal with sick people.

(I say British because I don't think this problem exists in other countries.)

I don't really like my doctor's receptionists, or some of my doctors.

Not sure if this happens everywhere but the only way you can get an appointment is to book ON THE DAY at 8.30 am. If you ring any later they won't fit you in. So if you're working then you don't know what day to take off as you have to book the appointment on the day and there's a chance you might not even get one.

They also often ask me if it is an emergency, when I asked what constitutes and emergency, she gave me a list of things that I personally would go to Accident and EMERGENCY for.

Apparently bleeding through a night time pad in less than an hour, after having the implant put in, is not enough to be able to see your GP and I should go to the walk in center at the local hospital (??).

I also haven't seen "my" doctor in over two years yet she keeps quite happily rejecting my repeat prescription for the pill and requests to "see patient" yet never does I really do hate going to the doctors.

Mine always ask who's your Dr and when I say "Dr X, please can I see any one except DR X, please"

They never query it. For that alone they get a thumbs up from me.

(Dr X always says there is nothing wrong with you or your DC without bothering to examine you. He is not reassuring)

I was thinking my previous post was a bit tangental to this thread, but actually it isn't. My guess is that Doctors do not play golf 7 days a week, they do see patients, the ones they see are the ones who abuse the receptionist when she offers them an appointment in two weeks time...

I'm always really nice to them. My mum was one for a while, and I know it's a shit job at times and they get a lot more flack than most of us realise.

The only time I have trouble is when the one at our surgery forgets to log people in, so they end up waiting an hour or two for an appointment despite being on time. She's a bit dippy - she managedto lose a repeat prescription request I handed in as well. I'm a bit careful with her now!

But most are very pleasant and very efficient.

^the only way you can get an appointment is to book ON THE DAY at 8.30 am.

Grrr. This is what I mean about some of the ridiculous appointment systems. I used to be with a surgery that did this, except you had to ring up at 9. At the time I was living an hour's journey away from work (not exactly unusual I would say) which meant that I would have to take the morning off work because if I did manage to get an appointment then I wouldn't have time to get there if I went to work. So I would dutifully squander my precious annual leave on the off-chance that I would be able to get an appointment that day and of course quite a few times I would end up doing that an not even getting an appointment. It was truly shit.

YANBU to ask that people be polite to doctors receptionists.

I am polite to all people including doctors receptionists - however - EVERY SINGLE doctors receptionist I have ever come across has had an attitude problem. That is at 2 different surgeries as well. I always find them to be unnecessarily rude, abrupt and to be honest, downright unpleasant.

I guess judging from your post, you take abuse from time to time - which leads me to think that a lot of receptionists tar all patients with the same brush and treat us like crap.

GP receptionists have a reputation, definitely, and they wouldn't have one if it wasn't partly true!

Most I've come across are friendly and do a great job. But there's one at my local surgery who is deliberately obstructive and once refused to answer a basic question in a jobsworth "oh I couldn't possibly tell you, that's not my job" way. It was a simple question about a repeat prescription expiry date.

Stupid cow also refused to change my title from Miss to Ms without my marriage certificate, despite the fact I WASN'T CHANGING MY SURNAME! Aaaaand relax.

There is no need to be so obstructive. She isn't "just doing her job", I suspect she just can't be arsed.

Is it just me that has the automated appointment booking service? It's fabulous, you can make, change or cancel an appointment 24/7 just by button pressing on the phone. I love it.

I've given up with mine and the nhs. Will only go private from now on. Which is seriously pricey but worth every penny. This ring up at 8am business is ridiculous. It's like trying to gwt tickets for a rihanna concert on the day of the concert! Phones jammed and no gurantees. I'm sick to death of rude gp receptionists. Some if who i've headd loudly discussing patients in front of the waiting room. Unbelieveable. I notice a lot of healthcare threada recently it's all vwry upsetting. The nhs has no budget and is falling apart. If you can afford private or can get some inaurance and do it that way. You won't regret it. It's like being treated as if you were a human being again.