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.

Coffee how do you know it was a lie?

She said there were no GP's in but if the NP was concerned she was able to call one in at 4pm.

That sounds to me like those are instructions of the time a Dr would be available but not necessarily on site. Which although isn't great, would mean that adequate cover was being provided. If you need to be seen within 2 hours a GP surgery is not the place to be heading.

Perhaps bent the truth then. Appointments go live to me would indicate I can see a GP, especially if I has specifically requested I see one ASAP.

I don't think it's fair to say the receptionist bent the truth, maybe the GP was suddenly called out to a home visit?

If I were the OP, I would have skipped the GP altogether and gone straight to A&E, thus avoiding unnecessary stress when she was already concerned about her baby.

I would presume the first receptionist wasn't aware that there was no GP cover that afternoon and was just repeating the standard afternoon procedure.

The second receptionist really had no reason to be lying about there being no GP therefore no appointments with one. To expand that lie further and explain that the NP could call one in later in the afternoon if she was concerned - well that's just ridiculous.

Any complaints should be about the information receptionists have and making any time not covered by GP's common knowledge when possible along with where to signpost patients to.

It could have been a one off (GP's get sick too) and just one of those things, but the OP was offered options (although A&E should have been mentioned imo, but GP's are very reluctant to advise that these days so it could have been drilled into her not to say it unless there were chest pains/breathing difficulties/unconsciousness) and wasn't told to wait till the next day at all so she really hasn't done anything wrong other than being the person who has to relay to patients what they don't want to hear.

No I don't think you should complain.

You were offered an appointment with the nurse who would call the doctor in if necessary. That's what they do at my last 2 surgeries when they had no appointments available but wanted to squeeze in an emergency appointment for my child. In any event you were unwilling to wait 2 hours as you felt it was an emergency so A&E was the place to go.

What exactly would this receptionist be gaining for herself by lying? This has got to be the 3rd or 4th time I've seen someone accuse a GP receptionist of lying on here and I don't understand it! People do not generally lie for no reason at all! Either she's made a mistake/misunderstood what the GP has told her or she's telling the truth and something has happened such as a home visit or family emergency for the GP (they are people too!!) and there is in fact no one available. Like others have said I wouldn't of bothered with the GP and just gone to A&E, pretty surprised that as a nurse you didn't do that to be completely honest.

If you were worried about meningitis, why were you hanging around the GP? They are not an emergency service, that is what A+E is for.

Even if a GP had seen you quickly, it would all have been time wasted when your child needed to be on treatment in hospital.

I think YAB a bit U. Seeing a nurse (may have been a nurse practitioner?) was a good option if they didn't have any doctor appointments available. The nurse will always bring in a doctor if they are at all unsure.

There is always the argument that GP receptionists have 'no medical training'. That is probably true, but what they will have had is 'in -house' training, probably from the practice partners, who will have advised that what questions to ask, and what answers require immediate attention.

I was a hospital receptionist for several different consultants. Each consultant had a list of 'rules' for the clinic ,eg bleeding required immediate appointments for one particular clinic (possibly over-booking their appontments for someone to be seen). Others stuck rigidly to their appointment slots, regardless, and overbooking only to be done on their direct say-so.

I often had to ask a lot of questions (which many might think intrusive)to get to the answers I needed. I don't think receptionist mean to be obtrusive,but they have their instructions to follow. That is part of their job.They want to keep their jobs!

I really do say this on every thread about receptionists but they only follow the procedures they are given!! It's the appointment procedure you need to question, not the receptionist herself. It's highly improbable that she lied to you, she would have been severely reprimanded at best for doing so and could have lost her job, especially if meningitis was suspected.
The surgery I worked at had 2 main doctors and a couple of part time ones and at any given time one or both of the GP's would get called out to an emergency, it happened quite a few times as I recall, fortunately the patient sere generally very understanding if surgery was put back slightly because no doctor was on the premises.

Please complain. for some reason receptionists think their role is to prevent access to the service. This is why so much pressure on a & E etc. Had a similar experience myself recently and feel very cross about it. Do complain.

EnlightenedOwl I would imagine that a lack of beds and staff in A&E departments, closures of some A&E services and a lack of knowledge wrt after hours services would have more of an impact than the occasional awkward receptionist...

You explained the symptoms and she still did not act appropriately. You are absolutely correct to flag this up.The next parent who has a child with meningitis symptoms who is told they can wait 2 hours to be seen may possibly end up with a very sick or worse baby.

Yes but they don't help.

One of the issues raised with the Mid-Staffs Hospital enquiry was receptionists triaging patients! This was an area of criticism.
I don't quite know why but they seem to think they have authority beyond their role.

But they don't just do it off their own bat, they're told to and then not given the training required!
In the interests of total disclosure I did work with a woman like the type I think you mean and had to override her way too many times in order to get a patient seen (she was the one in bloody charge...) she was a pita to work with and damn lucky to have kept her job in all honesty.
I'm not saying that every single one is an angel, but the majority are just doing as they're told to do. BY THE PRACTICE MANAGER OR SENIOR PARTNER. They are the ones that should be getting the stick, not the poor bloody infantry...

YANBU. What a jobsworth.

Thing is, you were offered a nurse appointment. I know you are a nurse yourself, but a nurse practitioner is trained for those sort of things. And anything they are not sure about ,they get a doctor's opinion. She wasn't truly being obstructive, but obviously you were in a panic, and it seemed like it.
If it had been me, I would probably have asked to call you back,having gone to ask someone if it was possible for her to be seen....but you do not know what the situation at the practice was, and you put the phone down on her before she had a chance to offer that option.

It is strange that people who are just doing their job get called 'jobsworths'. If it was you on the receiving end of someone wanting you to make an exception for them, something you knew would get you into trouble if you complied, would you be happy if someone complained you were a 'jobsworth'?

If it gives you peace of mind, speak to the practice manager and ask her how it went from "ring back and get an appointment" to "there are no doctors available" within 15 minutes,but I will dare bet there is a perfectly good explanation.

one of the receptionists at our GPs has been appointed as prescribing clerk i.e she deals with all the repeat prescription issues. When she's not doing that she's a receptionist again.
Anyway one day I was waiting to be seen when an elderly gentleman came in and gave this lady his repeat slip.
"I can't issue this, its more than 5 days early."
He explained they were going on holiday for 3 weeks so wanted to put their prescriptions in early to make sure they had enough medication but she wouldn't budge. I don't know what the outcome was.
Anyway she tried it with me again i wanted a new prescription earlier than the 5 day rule for going away reasons and when she wouldn't budge I spoke to the Practice Manager and asked if there was any flexibliity on the 5 day rule.
Do you know what she didn't know anything about it? The receptionist had implemented it off her own bat! So its not entirely true they are always acting at the behest of the Practice Manager/ Senior Partner...

I'd put good money on it not being off her own back completely Owl, all it takes is one of the Dr's sending back early prescriptions for her not to put them through anymore because she's the one who has to deal with the patients face to face about why it hasn't been filled. The admin you deal with usually take their lead off the clinicians they work for.

I agree with Dobbiemum that you do get some odd admin who think their role is to 'protect' the clinicians from any type of work whatsoever, but honestly they're not that common. It's highly likely that the clerks/receptionists in these situations don't particularly enjoy being on the receiving end of patients frustrations either, it makes for a much happier job if you can fulfill a patients request straight away. The best thing to do is complain because the staff don't get listened to but an unhappy patient will.

Although imho it's important to identify what the actual problem is - blaming it on the admin when it's possible it's something further up the chain causing the issue will mean the easiest solution is to offer admin more training when really there's a failure in the organisation of other resources i.e. no Dr available to cover a session when there should be.

Thanks for all your views. What annoyed me was the fact I had been told by one receptionist to call back in 15 mins when they would be able to allocate the pm appointments. Then told by another they had no doctors in? I looked on the website today, it says they have a phone on the day system. 8 am for the morning 2pm for the afternoon.

It also says they have a duty doctor available each day for urgent appointments. I only joined the practice a few months ago so wanted to get the facts right. There are 4 full time doctors and 4 part time.

I was offered a slot with the nurse, but it was vague, she said I might be able to slot you in around 4. i felt this was too long to wait. I think I will do as someone suggested and speak to the practice manager about my experience and the fact the information I was given does not match the surgery website, rather then complaining about the individual.

At my last surgery small children/babies were always prioritised. I would say her manner was unhelpful but not really rude. I'm glad that I went to a&e anyway. Lesson learned.