Do GP's receptionists have ti be so bastard rude?

[OHforDUCKScake]

Ive just had some blood results for my 22 month old that was like a punch in the fucking stomach so I may well be projecting my rage on the bitch that called me.

So, she calls, is this Ducks Mum?

Yes.

We have his blood results can you pick them up?

I say yes but I have a broken so I wont be able to for a few days, can she just give me the numbers now. (Im poised with a pen)

She literally sighs a big sigh, tuts. She fucking TUTS at me, says in a huffy teenage voice "we're really busy."

I say no problem and hang up.

I call their sister surgery and ask the receptionist there if she has time to read some blood results for my son, she does it takes 20-30 seconds.

Then mrsh Huffy Puffy calls me back again, she said I didnt let her finish. i said no, she made herself quite clear and I got the results from the other surgery so its no problem now. She starts tutting and huffing and puffing again, "oh well then, ."

I told her that she was incredibly rude on the phone and hung up.

Dont they fucking know some of these results are the difference between life and death? I quality of life?

Fcking bitch.

[TheDoctrineOfSnatch]

If they didn't triage, there wouldn't be any emergency appointments left for you.

What I do think would be good is if your practice explained the rules better eg x% of appointments are on the day, otherwise average wait is two weeks, telephone appointments are/are not available etc.

[thistlelicker]

Your lucky to be given the results over
Phone due to data protection! But I so think its an unwritten rule that gp receptionist r rude! Ours thinks they r gods gift! We've sat and listened to ours call people
Of ethnicity because of language barrier, and also rang to make appt (as a test) while in the queue to check in and they have just sat there chatting?

[SomethingOnce]

There was one at my GP who was very rude indeed and she was training to be counsellor or psychotherapist or something

[thistlelicker]

When I had my mmc in December, I went for an appt and asked for Emergancy one she asked why did I need appointment so soon. Explained I needed a sick note, her response was" why do u need a sick note, we don't give em out wholly billy you know" and I replied politely the nature of me being off sick did need a sick note! Ten she went well u can't have appt! I went home and cried for three days because of her

[WynkenBlynkenandNod]

We have lovely ones at our practice and always get an appointment when needed. The ones in DD's old school however were in a league of their own however, hopefully the new Head will sort them out.

[SoupDragon]

So, you interrupted her before she'd actually finished speaking and then hung up on her? And she is the rude one?

Yes, you did take it out on her.

She is not a bitch.

[YoothaJoist]

I think it's a class thing. In the small town I grew up in, being a doctor's receptionist was quite a posh job - hugely sought after by the golf widows of the locality - whereas the working class women (like my own mother) were cashiers, or petrol pump attendants, or worked in the dry cleaners.

Forty years later, we still have the old 'twinset and pearls' brigade at the surgery, peering over their half moon glasses and tutting at the great unwashed.

[Badvoc]

Trouble is they seem to think working for a gp makes them medically trained somehow.
It's very odd.
They don't pull that shit with me anymore.
They know better now :)

[ubik]

All my GP receptionists are lovely - really nice to the kids. I doubt they enjoy the triage aspects of their job- I doubt any if them give a stuff who gets what appt but they will have processes laid down for same day/emergency appts.

[Kyyria]

Just to clarify a few things:

"They don't understand that we as tax payers indirectly pay their wages"...yes, in as much as any company you spend money at (e.g. McDonald's) you are indirectly paying staff wages. GP surgeries ARE NOT part of the bigger NHS (as are hospitals). They are small private businesses owned by the partners who contract out medical services to the NHS.

Receptionists asking about your condition - we don't like asking, but the clinical staff like us to ask so we can put patients in with the most appropriate person (as defined by the clinicians themselves). There is no need to take up a GP appt for a patient with a chest infection if the Nurse Practitioner can give the same consultation. Similarly there is no point in putting a patient who needs more contraceptive pill in with a GP when a nurse can do the consultation. Patients quite often get annoyed that they can't get an appt with a GP/Nurse for ages - it's usually a combination of problems that could have been better dealt with by another clinician and patients who don't turn up for their appointment. Yes, common sense should prevail e.g. someone phoning with a sick child should be given special consideration.

Phoning and requesting an urgent appointment means just that - you will be offered one that day at whatever time is available...although it may not be completely convenient for your schedule. A little tip - refusing a same day appt for little Johnny (or yourself) at 2pm, when you've spent 10mins convincing me just how dire the situation is and that he/you are at deaths door, because you'd have to get them out of school/leave work early DOES NOT constitute the receptionists being "fucking useless". You want a same day urgent appointment and you've been given one.

"Doctors surgeries don't need to entice people in - people have to use them" - yes we do have to entice patients in. Particularly with new guidelines that have just come out on 1st April. A lot of the services we provided and the money we get coming in for services is dependent on the number of patients using them. If you don't like how your GP surgery operates (staff included) then the best thing you can do is vote with your feet.

And I would enjoy the NHS, no matter how crappy you all think it is, whilst it lasts. As of 1st April the rules have been changed and near enough all NHS services are now open to being operated by private providers. "Goody" you may think, "it will get rid of the shifty receptionist/crap services".......it will also mean that unless you can afford health insurance or to pay for treatment you will be unable to afford your healthcare.

[sherazade]

when i joined our new gp WHO I LIVE ACROSS THE ROAD FROM the receptionist tried every trick in the book to sotp me joining (why remains a great unsolved mystery), she kept syaing you can't join us, I think you're not in the catchment area, I said you think or you know please can you find out? she said she didn't understand the catchmenet area map, and made a dozen excuses, said she'd phone back to let me know, never did, when i dropped by to ask if she'd found out she repeated the same mantra ' i think you're not in the catchment area'. i finally complained and got registered there through my primary care trust who said there was no doubt we were in the catchmenet area (by this time i was weary and hated the sodding place). Countless times she's rang me to say pick up your prescription and then it wasn't ready or lost and she flippantly says come again like I have all the time in the world.. ugh.

[lemontwist]

Well put Kyyria. This thread has got me really riled. I've been summing up the energy for a come back to some of these comments.
Bad service unfortunately happens often by the sounds of it and there is no excuse for it even if someone has been sworn at, verbally abused, threatened, talked down to while they are bending over backwards to juggle the needs of genuinly ill people and those who think its ok to phone 10 mins before close on a bank holiday when they've been ill for TWO WEEKS
The sweeping generalisations and ignorance are just getting tiresome now.

[Marmotte3]

I have found the receptionists in the 2 branches of our GP's surgeries to be consistently lovely and helpful and my GP herself is kind sympathetic and generally lovely too. I got lucky when I chose her I think.

I went to another doc when I had changed address and just become pregnant. My opinion of her after 1 visit was of a 'posh' money grabbing witch, no good vibes from her at all. Needless to say I never went back.

[magicstar1]

My gp's receptionist is great...very helpful and friendly. But DH's is a nightmare. He had blood tests and rang for weeks trying to find out when the results would be in - time kept changing. Eventually he asked me to ring as he was too busy in work to do it. This is how it went:

Me: Hi I'm ringing to find out if Mr. Magicstar's results are in yet.
Rec: And how old is Mr. Magicstar?
Me: He's 38.
Rec: So don't you think he's old enough to ring for himself?

When I picked my jaw up off the ground I managed to finish the conversation...still no sign of the results though!

[macdoodle]

Quite right too. Never mind patient confidentiality.

[starfield]

damn phone sorry for typos

[gazzalw]

Personally I do not find the receptionists in our GP Practice to be very professional, personable or friendly. Neither does my wife and it really puts her off going to see the doctor at all. However, we live in a not particularly nice area and I can't help but feel that the receptionists could possibly have morphed into their current personnae based on appalling rudeness and hostility from some of the patients ;-(...

I have in the past been registered with GPs whose receptionists have been the pinnacle of good customer care.

As someone commented upthread, there are good and bad examples of professional practice in all walks of life. Why should receptionists be any different? Although I do appreciate that their job is one where tact, kindness, patience and a full grasp of confidentiality but also the needs of the patient are tantamount.

I guess if you are faced with bad customer service skills etc...you would be within your rights to complain to the Practice Manager? Non-professional behaviour will only be addressed if it's brought to light by complaint!

[cumfy]

So she was going to read them to you.

And she rang back.

And now you're tutting about her.

[MummytoKatie]

I think that only a certain proportion of personality types can deal with the level of abuse and violence that is directed at them. One of those types are those that thrive on confrontation and rudeness so there will be a higher proportion of them being GP receptionists than in the general public.

My best friend is a GP in a very "challenging" practice. I would describe her personality as a marshmallow with a piece of steel down the middle which is probably also the perfect GP receptionist.

Interestingly my mum has the same personality - 40 years ago, at the age of 21, she ran a fraud investigation team at what was then the DHSS.....

[ISingSoprano]

All of what kyria said, and paid little more than the minimum wage.

This larticle sums things up really, it's the DM but hey ho!

[ByTheWay1]

Our receptionists must be from a different planet then, they are all totally delightful and polite and pleasant, they go out of their way to get us an appointment if we need it urgently - routine stuff gets fitted in in a couple of weeks when it is convenient to us.... routine stuff can be done on the internet booking system too, and they always seem to have a doc or nurse around to talk to if we need it.. they may phone us back if really busy.

Looking at all the posts on here it looks like we struck lucky with our doctor's surgery .

[PurpleStorm]

The vast majority of the GP receptionists I've come across have been polite, professional and helpful.

I guess it's like any job though - there'll always be a few bad ones.

[ubik]

thanks for that article Soprano
I'm decompressing after 5 bank holiday shifts on the phones for OOH. I have spoken to folk who are just bereaved/cancer pts needing morphine/distressed parents with babies showing high temp/ people with multiple chronic health probs/people with breathing difficulty/mental health problem/overdoses - and people who stubbed their toe last wednesday.

Emotionally it is demanding - but I think this is true for most frontline NHS staff.

[homelovingalme]

Having BEEN a doctors' receptionist, having worked with them (the horror), and having experienced them as a patient, I'd like to fully agree with the OP - yes, most GP receptionists ARE bastard rude.

It doesn't MATTER who pays their wages, whether the practice is a business or has to try to 'attract' patients or not.

Newsflash! Receptionists - it's not about YOU -(barring some extreme event like a brain haemorrhage your side of the counter or an act of violence on theirs) it's about the patients you are there to serve .

It is your job to be default pleasant, polite and caring and if you don't understand that then there's something wrong/a bit missing with you and you're in the wrong job.

I'd include a lot of nurses and the odd doctor in that 'wrong job' category.

Yet another disheartening and stressful experience with one of these cows led me here today. I'm typing from a phone which is tedious or I'd provide more detail!