To think this man had no right to rage at the GPs receptionist because appointment was late?

[listsandbudgets]

I had to take DS to the GP last night. The appointment was at 5.40pm. We were finally seen at 6.50pm. GP was already running late then took ages with the man who went in just before us at 6.10pm for his 5.30 apointment - I think he had to be admitted to hospital and she didn't want to leave him until arrangements were made. The last appointment was for 6pm.

The receptionist was obviously working late in order to deal with what was going on. She told us that there would be a long wait as the doctor was dealing with an emergency.

By 6.15 the person with the 5.50 appointment (the one after ours) were shouting at her and demanding she hurried everything up. She explained the sitaution again. THey started shouting at her then banging on the GPs surgery door shouting that they had to be seen. GP came out and told them to leave the premises or wait quietly. They calmed down a bit but still went up to receptionist every 2-3 minutes to insist she hurried things up.

AIBU to think that

1. They should be grateful that the GP was prepared to see them at all given how late it was and their behaviour
2. They should be bl**dy grateful it wasn't them who needed admitting to hospital they were there because they thought they had scabies according to what they were shouting
3. Banging on surgery door when you know GP is dealing with an emergency is completely beyond reason

They ranted and raged at me too trying to get me to complain and I point blank refused. I told it wasn't the receptionists fault or the doctors fault and that I didn't mind waiting because I'd rather have a GP who spent time with people and dealt with them properly then shoved them out in 5 minutes when they clearly needed help. he called me a sanctimonious busy body

DD (8) did not help when she said very loudly "mummy I think that man is very rude, I think we're lucky to live in a country were we can see a doctor and not worry about money"

Sorry epic post didn't realise how angry I was about it. Call it therapy!!

YANBU. Regardless of how late things were running it is not the fault of the recpetionist, and it is never acceptable to shout and kick/bang a door. I am surprised the GP didn't just send him on his way and refuse to see him at all tbh.

It is very frustrating when GPs run so late. Ours is always running late. But you kind of just expect that now. I am surprised if I am our within an hour of my appointent time these days/

However, I have also been the one causing the delay. I went when very ill (had pneumonia) and was kept in for a long time by the GP whilst they sorted out a hospital bed for me, got everything organised so I could be taken straight down to the hospital and onto the ward. It does take a long time. The GP and recpetionist did send out a message to those waiting to apologise for the dealy, but I did fell guilty - well, as guilty as I could when feeling so ill - about it, and knowing people were waiting because of me.

As a result I am now far more tolerant.

There is a notice up in the waiting room of our GP's surgery pointing out that if appointments are running late it may be because the doctors are / have had to deal with an emergency, or with someone needing a little extra time. Patients are asked to remember that one day it may be them needing additional attention.

It is common courtesy. I know delays are annoying, but do these ignoramuses really think that seriously ill patients should perhaps be left to drop dead or something just so that they can be seen with their probably non-urgent complaints.

My surgery has one now. Tells you how many are in front of you. But it's a fairly recent addition. Before you just turned up and checked on which of course could take a while if there are problems with the people in front of you in the que. And the buzzers are going to signal next patient in and they are going unannounced as te receptionist is busy.

No one should be nasty and yes of course we should be grateful we aren't the emergency and I've never ever complained or been rude and I never would. But as well as the concern for the patient who's in with the drs we can't possibly know what the others are in for or judge their reactions. And yes some (like mine) would have turned out to be a waste of time be that's annoying because it takes away an appointment from someone else.

And shouldn't we also be thinking about patients who leave because the waits been so long and they can't stay any longer. How many drs surgeries who run late all the time (like mine do) have patients who are going without treatment because they had to leave.

Yanbu, thats so rude.iv waited two hours for my app before.iv never moaned even when iv felt awful. The docs only have 10 minutes slots, can understand how they run over!

Seems like a thread for bashing HCP, I often have to wait, it's no big deal.
I went recently and was treated immediately much to the disgust of others waiting, I was blue lighted and spent 2 weeks in ICU.
The surgery staff were very kind and took the time to phone me once home to check how I was.
Without the prompt treatment I wouldn't be typing this.
I emailed the practice manager to praise the staffs quick actions and sent flowers, I'm grateful for a service that prioritises illness over the ticking clock.

It always seems worse when you are sitting outside waiting.
When you go in for your consultation, it's impossible to guess how long your actual time with the GP is.
You are not thinking about everyone outside, you are concerned with getting your problems dealt with.

Though when I went for my smear, the Practice Nurse was running 35 minutes late. I was soooo tempted to say "Can I rebook" but she only does certain days; my cycle is very erratic and this was one particular day it was okay; I'd have to wait weeks to rebook.....but my bravado was wearing off

In the event , it took a couple of minutes.

Primary care has changed beyond all recognition; we are seeing sicker and sicker patients and dealing with things that used to be seen in hospitals.

Clinical staff don't LIKE running late, we are very aware that patients are piling up in the waiting room and are waiting (usually patiently) to be seen. Every patient that takes longer than their allocated appointment time, every patient that arrives late and is still seen, every patient that pitches up with a list as long as their arm of problems they'd like addressed is additional time pressures on already-busy and probably running at capacity clinics. The longer it takes me to see the patients in my clinic the later I am finishing - and I also have children to pick up from school, the childminder, my own appointments to keep!

Communication is key - our receptionists are great at keeping patients updated as to how late a doctor or nurse is running. I appreciate it is frustrating having to wait especially when you are busy, in pain, worried. I always apologise if I'm running late, that is a common courtesy that should be expected.

However the pressure of the workload, a massive shift in the clinical demands of primary care and a tendency for many patients to have a huge sense of expectation of the HCP they're seeing without being able to take much responsibility for their own health are a few of the reasons why, after working as a practice nurse for 14 years, I want to jack it all in.

Our GP has one of those electronic things that you book in on and it tells you how late they are, how many in front etc., but the problem is it is never accurate.

Last night they were running so late it was refusing to allow people to log in because too many were waiting.

Excellent post, Sidge, well said!

Yanbu, it's a pain having to wait but it's unavoidable sometimes.

We made everyone be late when I was called into Drs by gp, on Sun eve we had taken ds3 to oohs and they weren't sure what was wrong with him but gave us antibiotics and sent us home.first thing Monday the notes had been faxed to our gp who read them and realised ds3 May have Kawasaki disease. He called us in, saw us straight away and arranged for ds3 to be admitted to hospital. So all his morning app were then running late.

Ds3 again had an eye injury and we again ended u at the hospital, for 6 wks we had to go to the hospital every day and then every other day. The head consultant insisted on seeing us as ds3 had a very unusual eye injury and there was a risk he could lose his sight. They gave us an app at 8am each time and made sure we got seen first.

Ime yes the nhs is stwretched and has weaknesses but the mmajority of staff care and try their best and will often put themselves out to do their best.

If there are problems I don't blame the hcps it is management/funding issues.

Btw ds3 would make a simliar comment to your dd!

I prefer a late doctor as a late doctor is a careful doctor and that is what I want for the children.

If they are late then they will either have to work through lunch or be late home so they pretty blatantly don't want to be late.

If this is a common problem, then it needs to be looked at.

Why are people waiting 45 minutes to an hour for a booked appointment.

The man was extremely unreasonable and should not had banged on the door and shout at the receptionist.

Whilst they are dealing with an emergency I doubt they know how long exactly it is going to be but...
if they knew it was at least 30 mins (5 people in front of you!) maybe you could go out and do something else or choose to rebook etc.
I think (like waiting for food in a restaurant) if you are kept informed you are more tolerant - if you are ignored (waiter avoids your table) and don't know what is happening it is more annoying.
Also whilst I know it isn't the receptionists fault I think sometimes their attitude isn't ideal - they are working in customer service after all.
A sympathetic apology -said like they could possibly mean it and not like they couldn't care less - in the context they are sorry that another human being is being inconvenienced, not they are to blame might be helpful.

Can you imaging a waiter saying 'I don't know how long your food will be but it isn't my fault' or an air stewardess saying 'the flight is delayed - nothing I can do about it' ....it would be infuriating ...but GP receptionists do do that...
Anyway for all those who have to wait for ages because of an emergency etc, I would suggest if you can (it isn't a quick simple thing) to rebook . The GP is going to be trying to get through the backlog quickly and if you are like me you will be aware that others have been waiting too...

DD (8) did not help when she said very loudly "mummy I think that man is very rude, I think we're lucky to live in a country were we can see a doctor and not worry about money"
It is a bit sanctimonious to be honest.
Personally I would rather use any system outside of the NHS and when living in Africa and Bangladesh never experienced the worry about money and equally have not had to worry about filthy wards, crappo nurses instead of proper doctors or endless waits (because we are soooooo lucky to have a hospital smuggery nonsense) so unless you have travelled and tried proper healthcare it is a bit sad to try and make your child smug and ill informed.

I had an emergency when pregnant with DD and 2 Drs were with me at home for over an hour till I was blue lighted to hospital. They weren't at the surgery. So I am sure that day things ran late. I NEVER complained if my apt were running late as they are not sitting having a cup of tea! On a lighter note, I always found that if I had someone looking after DCs and could wait,(read the magazines, just chill!) I got seen straight away...BUT if I had all the kids, worried about parking, needed to be some where else... I had to wait!! Sods Law eh? I have lived abroad a lot and I know we are lucky to have an NHS, even flawed.

Marylou I know this one! Went to the opticians on Sat leaving the kids with dh. Was about 15 mins wait so I occupied myself reading a nice magazine.

"So sorry we are running so late" said the optician
"Oh - it's no trouble" I say breezily "not at all"

Shouting and behaving aggressively is never ok, with anyone. Well done for standing up to him.

I have decided, since having dd, that doctors' receptionists are fantastic.

Ours seem perpetually grumpy and detached. I can understand it's a form of inscrutability and expectation management.

Whenever I've been worried about baby / toddler dd, in an urgent sort of way but not an obvious A+E one, she has been seen that day, usually within an hour of my phoning.

That includes twice when I've called around 5pm expecting, first time, to be told tomorrow or out of hours service but been seen by a GP. Yesterday, I called at 4.50pm, was given a 5.50 appt, went there for 5.15 as dd had declined rapidly and I felt I'd rather be there just in case she got worse. We were seen within minutes - clearly queue jumping.

Another time there were no appointments left but we were told to come in that morning and they's see us between patients. This is the sort of thing that makes them run late of course. Dd has also been seen an hour late for a non-urgent appt. Bit of a pain (by that GPs own admission, he always runs late so he talks too much!). We lose as well as gain. Chatterbox GP notwithstanding, I am now much more understanding of appointments running late. There is much more to it than meets the eye!

That is the power for good of the GP's receptionist, all due to her excellent judgment and invisible patient management.

Runs late as he talks too much, of course, not so.