AIBU to think that the receptionist shouldn't be allowed to do this?

[Naysa]

I rang my doctors this morning to try and get an appointment for today. You have to ring at 8, one the day, to get an appointment.

I got through at about 8.25.

I spoke to the receptionist and she said that they had a 5 minute appointment, "for one thing only", to see a doctor. I'm not fussy about which GP I saw as although it is a problem it is something that can quickly and easily be sorted.

I'm having a problem with my implant that is resulting in very heavy, painful periods. The problem goes away completely when I'm prescribed the pill.
I've had the implant for almost a year and I'm still battling to get it taken out (this is another story) but, for now, this is working. Unfortunately if I try and put a repeat prescription in, I am told it has been rejected and I am to see my doctor. The annoying thing is, is that the doctor who rejects my request hasn't actually seen me once in the two years she's worked there.

My pill ran out on Saturday. My period started Sunday night and it has not been a problem until yesterday afternoon so I rang this morning. It is practically unbearable. I'm going through night time pads almost on the hour.

I accepted the appointment, the gave the receptionist my name and DOB. She then asked why I needed to see the doctor. I stupidly told her the reason and she then said that she couldn't give me the appointment because it's not an emergency. If it was an emergency, I would have gone to accident and emergency. She then said that I can go to the family planning clinic on Monday. This is not the first time I have had an appointment "taken away" because my condition is not serious enough.

I'm now going to have a weekend full of cramping and a very heavy period (TMI sorry!)

AIBU to email the GP and complain and AIBU to change surgery?

[marcopront]

Why didn't you make an appointment before you ran out?
You must have known you were going to run out, if you know something will happen it is not an emergency.

[Lockedout434]

Marcopront

Read the thread

[chubbymomie2012]

YANBU How dare she ask you that. if you were to see your doc he isnt allowed to discuss it as a matter of confidentiality so why the hell would u tell a receptionist! thats a disgrace and i would be making a complaint. doctors receptionosts are getting way to power happy. Its the same in our surgery with one eeceptiknost famously asking "can i help?" now u need to change ur GP!

[chubbymomie2012]

Vicarinatutu
do u not think the fact that a receptionist is the gateway to the GP is indeed Powerful?
and indeed many (im not saying all) abuse that power.

[Sirzy]

The problem is although I can understand the frustration the GP giving someone an emergency appointment because they have ran out of the pill (which could have been sorted sooner and don't forget op was 5 days into her period before deciding that it was a problem) means that someone who needs an appointment that day won't get one

The op should have booked a routine appointment when she was coming to the end of the last prescription to get it sorted then not waited like she chose to. She should also be pushing the gp to put the medication on repeat.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

Oh no, how dare she ask 'can I help'..what a power hungry witch

x 1000000

[MTSgroupie]

Sorry OP but I'm going against the flowof opinions.

Your birth control pills ran out last Saturday. It's not the surgery's fault that you waited until one week later to get the prescription refilled.

You complain that the GP insist on seeing you. You then go on about how the GP hasn't seen you in two years. Why is it unreasonable for a GP to not automatically.rerenew a prescription for a patient she hadn't seen in the last 2 years?

I agree that getting a doctor's appointment days or weeks in the future is a sad indictment on the state of the NHS. I am just trying to make the point that it is not entirely the fault of the surgery.

[SPBInDisguise]

She has tried to get a repeat prescription and failed. She managed without the pill (which is NOT her method of birth control) until yesterday.

[chubbymomie2012]

FANJO
Can I help .....the receptionist is famed to ask this as in can she give advice to the patient so the doc wasn't bothered. The same woman gave blood results over the phone to the wrong patient and caused a whole whoha. I was illustrating the fact that some Doctors receptionists are perhaps a little too eager to perform duties they aren't equipped to perform.
The issue I have with the ops story is that the receptionist asked her what was wrong with her. She so shouldn't do that it is wrong on so many levels.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

You are sadly misinformed.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

Still, I give up. People seem determined to persist in misconception that if receptionists ask out of nosiness or being power happy, rather than because they're told to.

Then they wonder why the receptionist seems pissed off after they refuse to give the info, in an insulting rude manner.

Just maybe its because you have been rude on the phone, not because she is desperate to hear about your piles or whatever.

[NotTreadingGrapes]

I thought the OP's reason for wanting to see the doc was because she was bleeding so heavily she was using 1 night-pad every hour, more than because she had run out of her pill?

[MrsKeithRichards]

I called one day asking to see the nurse regarding something I'd seen the nurse about before sw I knew she could deal with it (thrush) but was at a bus stop, not really wanting to go into details, so was refused an appointment!

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

Sounds like practice policy..you should have gone somewhere you could give details in private.

[coralanne]

Vicar is absolutely right.

I have several family members who work for GPs.

They all say that they have to put up with all the abuse from the patients when they have been told in no uncertain terms by the GP what they are to do.

My DS has worked for the same practice for 20 years.

Under no circumstances is she to put a call through to any of the Drs.

She is told to ask what the appointment is for. If she doesn't then she is berated by the GP who "Wants to know what the bloody hell does the patient wants"

Gps have come and gone from the practice over the years but basically speaking they are all the same.

Contrary to the general opinion that my DS is "only the receptionist" she does actually have a degree and 3 or 4 diplomas she has obtained over the years.

All relating to medical procedures and medical terminology. Also has had extensive training in what is regarded as an emergency.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

Coralanne, you are so right. But people with these awful views about receptionists won't listen as they think they know better iME

[coralanne]

The AIBU was actually should the OP email the GP and/or change her surgery.

I suggest if you have had the problem before then you should do both of these things.

In the grand scheme of things, it's not going to change theattitude of the practice or the receptionist.

[RedToothBrush]

When the CCGs come into force, GPS will be even more in control of whats an 'emergency' and whats not an 'emergency' - and what they can be arsed to treat and what they can't be arsed to treat. All about budget apparently apparently... though if you can't even get through the door to see a GP then the person making the decision about budget will effectively be the GP receptionist. And and god forbid you then decide to go to the Walk In centre instead. You'll get sent a shitty letter about how much its costing them for you for them being difficult to get an appointment.

I personally do not think that GP receptionists should be deciding whats an emergency or not. GPs ARE none emergency. If its that serious you can't wait, you go somewhere else.

If you refuse to tell a receptionist what it is about they can not make that call. A lot of people play down how they are if they are challenged - particularly more vulnerable people like the elderly, as they are made to feel like they are somehow being a nuisance. And sadly, its people who do tell the receptionist who are more likely to be fucked off in the system. More so than ever.

You should be able to get an appointment at least within the week at every GP surgery. If they are booked up for three weeks, that tells you one very simple thing. They have too many patients and not enough doctors. Its not acceptable.

[lustybusty]

have the depo injection. Needs repeating every 10-12 weeks. My surgery releases appointments one month in advance and on the day. For non urgent appointments, they ask you to phone after 12. so, Monday of week 6, 12:30 (when I have lunch), I phone and ask for an appointment any time between Monday of week 10 and Friday of week 12 (iyswim). Always get told that all available prebookable appts have been taken. Call back next week. Repeat until Monday week 11. that's when I start calling at 8am. If you aren't listening to the phone ring at bang on 8am, you don't get an appointment. Most recently, I dialled at 8:03, the call got answered at 8:27 and there were no appointments. So this carries on till the day I am exactly 12 weeks after last injection, when I call at 7:55, just to have the phone ringing in reception at 8, and needing an "emergency" appointment. It's not an "emergency", I'd much rather the appointment went to an ill baby or whatever, but the only family planning clinics in my area that I qualify for (lots of single parent and under-25s only clinics) are during working hours (one on a Monday 11-12, one on a Thursday 2-4). And I'm assuming there's no guarantee of being seen in them...
So basically, I DO plan to go in earlier, and I'd love to book my appointment a month in advance (in fact, I'd most like to book the appointment on my way out), but its just not do-able! (Oh, and the surgery is on an 0844 number, which I have to call from my mobile as I am in work and don't want to be dealing with the "I need to book a contraception appt" phone call in the middle of my all male open plan office...)
Grrrrr, doctors!!

[littlesos]

Are people not reading, some gp's do not do advance appointments. I can only make an appointment for the day I call. It isn't possible to make a future appointment even for repeat prescriptions.
There are no pre-bookable appointments ever.

[RedToothBrush]

GPs need a kick up the arse if they don't have advance appointments. Thats absurd. No wonder people want to change GPs (but can't).

[ananikifo]

As someone said, receptionists triaging is one of the things that happened at Mid Staffs. There is now a huge push for quality in the nhs and I think we'll see this kind of nonsense reduced in the future. A medical secretary has training in medical terminology and perhaps done further first aid or on the job training but that is NOT the same thing as being a licensed health professional. Non-licenced professionals do not have the same duties,and oversight, and triage can be more nuanced than you think. (Ie, was op bleeding heavily, which is serious, or did she just let her prescription run out?) I would also point out that even if it's your own fault that you let your prescription run out, sometimes you need it urgently and it's not a GP surgery's job to punish you by making you suffer. They have a duty of care not to leave you bleeding or suffering just to teach you a lesson.

In the end though this sounds like a terrible surgery and I would switch to another one, whilst also writing to them about why you left, and pursuing the pals complaint. Just make it clear it's the surgery's policies (receptionist triaging and no booked appointments, forcing you to go to another clinic) that you object to, rather than blaming the specific receptionist, which will likely not be taken as seriously because she was just following policies.

[Iamsparklyknickers]

In the OP's situation, I agree the receptionist was an arse.

However, she more than likely is acting under the GP's instructions to ask about the reason for urgent appointments and not book for certain things or advise to go to A&E or call 999 (as an aside it's surprising how many people are reluctant to call an ambulance thinking they're wasting time with chest pain and shortness of breath - I think some people need reassurance it's ok with all the marketing about not wasting their time). In a normal situation running out of the pill isn't urgent, it's bad planning, so I imagine a lot of urgent appointments are refused on that basis.

What makes that receptionist an arse is the fact she thought she was in a position to comment any further than 'we can't give urgent appointments for prescriptions for the pill'. She was a dick for commenting any further than that and I would complain. Any decent person would have listened further and understood it wasn't a bog standard pill prescription issue, you've been acting on the GP's advice of 'this should do the trick - keep an eye on it' = it hasn't bloody worked!

The GP is for urgent stuff that isn't quite urgent enough for a walk in centre or A&E, what's the bloody point of them otherwise - longer term conditions are getting shifted out to community specialists more and more, nevermind the fact I'm sure GP's are getting charged for their patients rocking up at A&E now. Daft buggers.

Naysa please have a look on the NHS homepage and look for any sexual health/family planning clinics near you and ring round to find out who can take out your implant. There's no reason you should have to put up with it this long and have to keep faffing with your GP when there's such a simple solution.

[Iamsparklyknickers]

ananikifo IME most GP receptionists are band 2s i.e. no medical admin training. Medical secretaries tend to be band 4s.

They might receive more training - in my trust they get one day a month - but they're highly unlikely to start being paid more for reception duties.

[ubik]

"However, she more than likely is acting under the GP's instructions to ask about the reason for urgent appointments and not book for certain things or advise to go to A&E or call 999 (as an aside it's surprising how many people are reluctant to call an ambulance thinking they're wasting time with chest pain and shortness of breath - I think some people need reassurance it's ok with all the marketing about not wasting their time). In a normal situation running out of the pill isn't urgent, it's bad planning, so I imagine a lot of urgent appointments are refused on that basis. "

^^ yy this