AIBU to make a complaint about this g.p receptionist?

[Fandango83]

Last Friday my 15 week old baby vomited and developed a red rash all over her torso very suddenly. I had changed her completely an hour previous to this and there was no sign of the rash, so I was understandably concerned.

I have one of those meningitis symptom checker cards on my fridge so called the gp surgery as she had been sick, had the rash and was grumpy despite being fed and cuddled. I explained what had happened and her age and asked if I could see a doctor. The receptionist said of course, but you need to ring back at 2 pm when the afternoon appointments go live. It was 1:45 so I was happy to wait and called back at 1:57 to make sure I got in early.

This time I spoke to a different person. I asked if I could book an appointment for my daughter, and she said ' with a nurse?' I said no I need a doctor and explained the situation emphasising her age and the speed the symptoms came on. She then said 'we don't have any doctors in this afternoon' I said 'I find that hard to believe considering that your colleague told me I could make an appointment 15 minutes ago! She then claimed I might be able to see a nurse who could get a doctor in if she felt it necessary around 4 pm. I said I'm not going to chance it and wait I'll just go to a&e. she started to say that's up to you so I put the phone down and off we went.

To cut an already long story short, we were seen straight away by a paed registrar who called for a consultant opinion. She was examined and had some observations taken, and thank god was fine and started to perk up and smile. I felt like maybe I had over reacted but the consultant said with small babies developing rashes it's always best to act quickly.

So should I complain that due to the symptoms the receptionist should have given us an appointment? As an aside to this I myself am a qualified nurse (adult trained) I would never assess a patient with these symptoms without actually seeing them in the flesh.

Apologies for the length of this post, but the more I think about it the more pissed off I get, as this could have been life threatening.

I think yanbu. My gp practice always gives me an appt that say with a gp if it's for my baby. I thought they were obligated to with babies but I could be wrong.

I also thought that babies under the age of 1 had to be given an appointment if the parents request one.

Absolutely YANBU. The risks with a baby so young are so high that I'm so shocked that the receptionist was so idiotic as to not give you a GP appointment ASAP. Please DO complain, the receptionist needs urgent training on priorities

You need to speak to the practice manager about the rules on emergency appointments. At the practice I worked at you would have been put straight through to a doctor who would have either told you to get straight to the surgery or go straight to A&E.
YANBU to be concerned, complain if necessary but find out what the procedure is first.

I'm not sure tbh. Is it her attitude that annoyed you, or the fact that you couldn't get an appointment? If she was rude (not sure from your post if she was or not), then I can understand, but if it's the appt, then I'm not so sure, because they can't magic up an appointment that they just don't have. And realistically, if there was a concern about meningitis, surely you'd have been sent to a&e anyway?

Honestly, I don't know. I feel sorry for receptionists, loads of patients will claim its an emergency just to be seen, so cases like yours that actually are an emergency might nit get seen. But I can see why you are annoyed at not being seen.

actually, the procedures that Dobbies refers to seems like a very sensible one.

YANBU. FWIW, if my DCs (I say DCs but it's always DS!) have a bump or some other worrying symptom at any time other than first thing in the morning (only time you can get an appointment at our GP) then I don't even bother with them or the walk-in and just head straight to A&E. We are very lucky in that our local A&E has a separate paediatric section.

I would rather risk the "what are you doing here?" wrath of the triage nurse and be seen within the hour than have a worrying wait of several hours, which could be too long, for the GP to fit us in, possibly, maybe, maybe not.

I always overreacted when my two were very little thankfully I have a very sensible gp surgery but with babies that young you can never be too cautious.

well I don't know about your gp surgery treacle soda but mine always have one Dr on call for emergencies so that they can fit in urgent cases even if you have to wait a while?

ours doesn't work like that though, there are only two doctors in the entire practice so they can't have one on call for emergencies. They will leave aside a few appointments each morning and each afternoon for emergencies, but when those are gone, there is a limit to what they can do in terms of fitting you in. They will try their best, its a good practice and not generally hard to get seen, but sometimes there just isn't a slot available.

My daughters surgery is good too. DGS (6 month) was wheezy yesterday and got an emergency appointment very quickly and an inhaler. This was the OOH service but has had similar quick appointments weekdays.

Babies should be given a rapid face to face assessment by a dr as they don't do typical things when they are very unwell.

ah right mine is a medical centre with quite a few drs so they will always fit you in if necessary even if you have to sit till thee very end of surgery.

Having worked with consultants I believe it to be entirely possible for the rest of the staff team to have no idea that there was no GP cover till last minute. Some Dr's are an absolute law unto themselves when it comes to time management. Strangely it's always the one who are absolutely fantastic clinicians who have no time management/organisational skills - they never seem to grasp that it really devalues the excellent work they do to when they muck everyone around.

Anyway - even if your surgery is a tiny one with only a couple of Dr's everybody should be aware of cover and where to direct people when there are no GP's available.

Complain to the practice manager, but I would focus on the fact that there was no GP cover and the lack of information the reception staff seemed to have rather than the receptionist. What on earth would she have to gain by lying that there was only a nurse in the building?

I am surprised. Ime they see young children with these symptoms pretty quickly and always GP. You would be irresponsible not to report what happened to ensure procedures are water tight.

My GP surgery always give children a same day appointment, sometimes with GP sometimes with nurse practitioner which is entirely appropriate as if it needs escalating it will be.

I think, if you felt that you can't wait a few hours for an appointment then GP isn't your most appropriate route of care and you should be seeking A&E.The receptionist should have told you this, and if she didn't them I would definitely be complaining. As I would complain if the receptionist felt she could 'triage' you herself. This is what annoys me most, gp receptionists who think that they are qualified to do this.

Am I misunderstanding or did she say that you could see a nurse who would bring in a doctor if they thought it was warranted? Because that sounds like a reasonable solution to be honest - nurses are qualified and can at least tell when something looks like it needs further attention, and that way you would have had an appointment and been given access to a doctor if it was needed. Personally, I would have been happy with that, and would have certainly done that rather than a trip to A and E.

I find that a lot of doctors receptionists have to much power. I appreciate it's not an easy job, but they don't have any medical training and therefore have no right to decide how ill a patient is over the phone.

But the receptionist didn't diagnose. When the OP stated she wanted an emergency appointment and why (most people can remember a list of symptoms that justify an emergency appointment - the receptionist are told what constitutes this by the GP's. They don't decide themselves) the receptionist offered what was available, but made it clear there was no GP.

I don't really see what she's done wrong apart from not offer the A&E or walk-in services as an alternative. It's not like she can magic up a Dr out of thin air. If they're not there, they're not there.

You were offered to initially see a nurse and then possibly a doctor. I don't see what's wrong with that?

Why were you faffing about with the gp if you thought your baby might have meningitis?

I'm a GP.I don't think you have reason to complain except if you told the receptionist the symptoms and they failed to tell you to take your child to A&E immediately or to put you through to a GP.10mins can be the difference between life and death in meningitis and our surgery protocol for receptionists would advise the above, and I'd want to know if it wasn't follwed through. This is one of the reasons GP receptionists ask what the appointment is for.

General Practice is not an emergency service, that's what A&E is for. If you need to be seen immediately, A&E is the place. GPs will often try to fit in a phonecall or an extra urgent patient between other patients, but that either makes their surgery run late or other patients don't get their full 10 minutes slot, which makes other patients frustrated. Also at 2pm most GPs will be on home visits or out of the surgery so may not be available to see an urgent patient.

Personally I don't agree with nurses and nurse practitioners seeing undifferentiated illnesses, particularly in children under a year old, but with the current critical shortage of GPs in many parts of the country this is becoming more common.

I think GP receptionists get SO much flack for being on the frontline! If there aren't any appointments left then there aren't any! It's all well and good saying they have to fit babies in but what if all the other appointments that are already taken are young children or emergencies? They can't exactly ring a patient and cancel! GPs don't work 24/7 and can only fit a certain amount in a day. This is why there are other measures for emergencies - A&E, walk in centres etc. If my baby developed a rash suddenly it would be straight to the walk in centre, if the rash was non blanching it would be A&E.

With regards to there being no GPs in the building, they do allocate some time for home visits for people who are housebound or can't get to the surgery for some reason. Again, GP surgeries are not emergency services and it isn't the most worrying thing in the world for there to be no doctor in at a certain time as there are other options!

Make a complaint about her if she was rude but it is possible the first person you spoke to may of made a mistake or something changed in those 15 minutes (such as a home visit being booked in). They are just doing their job really, people make it a lot harder by blaming them for everything they aren't happy about.

Always take an appointment with the nurse if that is all you are offered. If they are in any doubt they get a doctor in.

The receptionist did you a favour.

You should have just gone straight to A&E anyway.

She did state the symptoms though. And the receptionist told her an outright LIE about when a GP would be available.

If this had been life threatening that could have been very dangerous.