AIBU to expect not to get an earful when phoning to cancel a doctors appointment

[thereonthestair]

I had an appointment today. Tried to phone to cancel at the beginning of the day when the phones open, but as usual could not get through before I have to leave to go to work. So do the drop off at nursery get to work and phone as soon as I get to work. I thought the doctors wanted you to tell them when you weren't going to make it, but oh no they say it is still a did not attend, and give me an earful for not telling them sooner. Well perhaps if I could get through I might of done. Also if they could guarantee not to be running late I could get there and leave when I need to, but no apparently they can't guarantee anything (fair enough) but would rather I went and ran the risk of not being seen and walking out wasting everyone's time than try to give the appointment to soemone else. AIBU to think that there is no incentive to tell them you aren't going to make it if they just shout at you when do, and tell you to come anyway when they know they reasonably can't make sure everything runs to time. Next time I think I might just as well not show up.

charlottery It's all right saying to the OP to ring earlier but if you look at her post she had tried but not got through.

And that is exactly the case at my own surgery. Phone lines open 8:30 am and unless you've got the number on speed dial it can be over an hour before you can get through.

And we don't all have the time to sit around waiting for the line to become free. I have always tried to cancel in plenty of time, but I rarely book appts let alone cancel them.

OK Back again.

I had prebooked the appointment as I knew I would need to discuss something after a paed appointment given it would be for the GP to sort the funding issues out. I accept that I should in an ideal world phoned as early as I could have done. I tried to but could not get through. As I did not need anything there and then I decide NOT to be late for work in order to get through on the phone. I then phoned again when I got into work.

I do not mind that the receptionist told me they may not have been able to give the appointment to someone else. I am genuinely sorry for that. They could however have given it to the many phone consults they do as and when. (Many of which I have taken in order not to take valuable time up).

I do mind being shouted at for trying to do the right thing. For trying to let them know and I am now wondering if there is any incentive given this treatment for me to try to do the right thing again.

In respect of the leave on time issue I have generally found this GP to be excellent, and until today had no issues with the receptionists. But I have never been seen on time, even for the first appointment of the day. Again I do not generally mind that generally speaking I do not go to the GP with an emergency, I go because I need to see a GP. Other patients needs may well be more urgent if for example the GP is called out for a house visit or similar. If I want to be seen when I need something urgently I accept I may need to wait if someone else's needs are more important.

I may well have anger issues I may have a short fuse on occasion, but I do have a very busy life with an SN child (hence the paed, and the GP appointment in the first place). I was however polite, and trying to be helpful until the receptionist started to shout at me down the phone and I reiterate I was trying to do the right thing. I was just curious as to whether I should still try to ring even if that may mean I get shouted at for my efforts, or just not show up, which I thought was surely worse.

I don't think it's right that the receptionist shouted at you. It's unprofessional and unnecessary. Perhaps speak to the practice manager about what happened?

I don't think you should allow the receptionist's behaviour to influence yours though, you should still try, for the sake of other patients, to make reasonable efforts to cancel your appointment in good time, as you did today.

Why didn't you phone yesterday? Why did you decide not to go ahead with the appointment?

If you cancel on the day for one of my clinics (community nhs service) you will count as a DNA, has to be a minimum of 24 hrs to be a cancellation as realistically it takes a lot of effort to find a replacement for such short notice spaces.
It was wrong of her to be unprofessional, but I suppose if she had spent the last hour telling people she was very sorry, but there were no available appointments today you can see why she might be a bit peeved. Why didn't you call yesterday, or the day before? Thoughtless.

marypoppins perhaps one of those old women was like my mother. She doesn't show many signs of having had many very serious illnesses through her age. She is well-preserved, well-dressed and slim. As she is my father's carer she is seen pretty quickly. Or else they might have two elderly people in hospital. Blood pressure can't be seen by looking at someone but could cause a stroke.

I had similar with a receptionist the other day. I rang to speak to a doctor, which you can do between 8.30 & 9.30. It took me until 9.40 to get through - I only kept trying as it was urgent and I really needed to get a prescription that day for a condition I have that had c

Why didn't I cancel yesterday is a good question. And a fair one that I would perhaps have expected the receptionist to ask.

In all honesty because I didn't know I wasn't going to be able to make it until last night, because I had to rearrange my diary to deal with my work commitments, which had got thrown out by the previously mentioned Paed appointment overunning dramatically. I therefore had to change a very important work commitment of my own (think court deadline looming) as I couldn't be in two places at once and I prioritised my time and work over the GPs. Now I do accept that this may be unreasonable, and may legitimately be seen as being unreasonable by some or even most people. However I made that decision and I stand by it. I have to be available for my clients, just like GPs have to be available for their patients. There is a question of balance, and it may be I got it wrong on this occasion but in this case I did not think I could run the risk of being late once the meeting had been rearranged because of a personal appointment with the NHS not happening when it should have done (I am talking hours here btw). Now if I got that wrong it it was unreasonable to prioritise my time over the GP and no-one else would do the same then maybe IABU.

I do wonder whether it matters or not as to the reason why I didn't do so earlier though- which may be why I didn't say why earlier. I could be very selfish, very forgetful, very busy, very disorganised, or i could just have done my best and had a difficulty today.

The receptionist didn't know why I couldn't make it, nor what it was for in the first place. It must surely happen that some people don't make appointments for good reasons (better than mine on occasion- for example I have once cancelled a GP appointment because I was in hospital, I still phoned to tell them though). It must also happen that some people don't make appointments because they forget and although I don't think I have ever done that I may have done at some point in the last 20 years. I think I am quite organised, but maybe I am not as organised as i think I am. I am sorry that I couldn't make the appointment, and I don't intend to complain to the practice manager as one poster suggested as I do accept that the receptionist could well have had the last hour fielding the calls asking for the appointments and if so I do get why she was shirty with me, but I did at least call and I will do so again if this ever happens again (which I hope it won't).

No, she shouldn't have shouted at you. She has no idea why you had to cancel the appointment today.

I received a very nasty letter from the Practice Manager of my old GP's surgery, telling me off for 'missing' an appointment with the midwife as I had wasted a professional person's time and kept an appointment from someone else who might have needed it. They quoted the number of missed appointments they had had in the previous month and how much each missed appointment cost the surgery and the NHS. It went on to say that I must ring the surgery ASAP as if I didn't respond to the letter they might decide to strike me off their register.

I rang up in tears and the receptionist was quite sharp with me, until I apologised for missing my appointment but I hadn't known it was still on their system to have it, given that my baby had died six weeks earlier when I was five months pregnant with him. And that since he died I had seen both my GP and the midwife whose appointment I had 'missed' for a check-up and medication but been told they didn't need to see me again unless I felt I needed to go and see them. I thought the appointment had been cancelled by the midwife.

We also lost our daughter in my second pregnancy, she was premature and she died and the surgery wrote to me again to tell me I had missed an appointment at baby clinic, which I didn't know they had booked but obviously couldn't attend.

Then in my third pregnancy my DH rang the surgery to cancel an appointment for me and they proceeded to give him an ear-bashing, until he explained that I was already in hospital, having been admitted as an emergency with complications following the removal of my cervical stitch.

I appreciate that missed appointments don't help anyone, that this can be a hard and stressful job and that last minute cancellations are not ideal, but sometimes they can't be helped and it is just a last minute thing that stops you from getting there.

I know not everyone's circumstances for missing an appointment are as extreme as ours were, but the point is, they have no idea what the circumstances are for the person calling to cancel, and shouldn't assume it's not a good enough reason for cancelling or calling late.

A cancellation within less than 24 hours is classed as a DNA

The receptionist was just informing you of this

You did the right thing to cancel as soon as you could and the receptionist had no right to say it's still classed as a DNA unless by the time you got through it was virtually the time for your appointment - however you did explain you had been trying to get through. There should be a seperate line for cancellations so that people can get through quicker and free up appointments they don't need. For all the receptionist knew someone was going to walk in 5 seconds after you hung up and ask for an appointment asap and she would now be able to provide one.

I got an ear bashing from the hospital for missing an appointment I didn't even know I had as THEY had forgotten to send the original appointment letter!
I've also ' missed' an appointment because the receptionist put one date in the computer and a totally different one on my card. Each time I got shouted at and once they stopped shouting and I managed to explain it wasn't my mistake but theirs, it amazing how non existent the apology was!

Abrald - I hope that those older ladies were indeed like your mother who sounds lively and lovely. Working in the caring industry myself puts me in the tricky situation of working to timely appointments whilst still giving a personal and caring service. Chatty oldies are sometimes a pain, but hey ho, that's just the way in dentistry. I just give 'em another shot if they keep talking too much.

There will be surely some happy person who rings now and can get to see the doctor right away today due to you cancelling

We're lucky at ours - we can cancel by email on their website.

This was what I did after ringing to ask about an appointment I'd been sent, not requested and didn't think I needed, and got a really rude receptionist (unusual for our practice) so I just said, Ok, I'll call back later, hung up and cancelled it online. It was weeks ahead anyway.

yabu

LOL at willesden

I used to live there (your username)

I'm a Doctor's Receptionist and DNA's are only recorded one minute after the appointment time. It is annoying when someone cancels 10 mins before their appointment because we cannot book anyone else in. Our Practice Nurses get booked up really quickly in advance and it is not ideal when someone needs dressings changed and wounds checked following a hospital visit the previous day. However, we are grateful that people do phone to cancel their appointments as it is good manners. It's the people who just don't turn up for appointments are our bugbear.

They don't get paid if you don't show - they get paid per patient, not per hour. The ten minutes thing is a national target because the DoH thinks an appointment only needs to be that long.

So I have sympathy for their annoyance.

But nothing excuses abusing a customer on the phone, ever. Very unprofessional.

I think OP you need to have sympathy for the people that are REALLY ill and cant get an appointment? and now wont as its too last minute!

rather than berate them, put it down to experience?????

marypoppins Sometimes it is tempting even if you aren't a healthcare professional. My mother can talk and talk.

fakeplastic that is awful. How very upsetting.

YABU

Fake - that's awful. Extra upset when you least need it.

My last GP practice was almost impossible to get through to. You needed to be unemployed realistically to be with them as it usually took up to 2 hours doing redial to get through - even in the afternoon - and any appointment I had ran 1.5 to 2.5 hours late. Unacceptable to any employer.

My current practice is much better. I don't understand why all practices don't have automated telephone options for cancellations etc.

I don't think YWBU, you tried to phone early and their phone system was overloaded, it's not reasonable to expect you to just redial for hours.

I agree that it is annoying but I still think that in future if you cannot attend you should cancel the appointment, no matter how annoying that receptionist is.

At one surgery where I used to be registered, the receptionist used to be very annoying when you phoned to cancel an appointment. It turned out she was very much lacking in IT skills and struggled taking an appointment out of the system without messing up all subsequent appointments ...

My last surgery in the UK was much better (in every sense) and they always thanked you for cancelling, even if it was at relatively short notice, as the appointments were very much in demand.