to complain about GP receptionists? So upset.

[Alpacacino]

So, 3 year old DS has had a bad cough for a while, and along with choking on his cough, started wheezing quite badly yesterday.

So this morning, after unsuccessfully ringing the surgery to get an appointment on the day, I went there to ask if there was any chance DS could be seen. The receptionist told me the doctor would phone me to discuss the matter, took my landline number and checked the mobile number.

I did not stay home all day personally, but obviously had my mobile with me. No call, no missed call. At 5, I rang the practice again to ask if the doctor was going to call (just to make sure it was not accidentally forgotten), only to be told that they had in fact called, my mobile had not worked, and no-one had answered the house phone. There was no evidence of this in my mobile call log, and no message on the house phone. DS was going to be "put on the list again".

I panicked.

I went back to the surgery, with DS, to look into the matter - did they have the wrong number after all? The number was correct, the receptionist insisted the mobile was not working. I asked her to please ring it - she did, and the call appeared in the log. I was then told to return home to await the call by the doctor on the landline.

However, by this time I was very concerned that DS would not be seen, as it was less than an hour to closing time, and worried about not receiving or missing a call. I was then told that the doctor will not see me unless he has spoken to me on the phone first, and I should better head home quick in order not to miss the call. Luckily, DH was home and thus able to take this call. I stayed in the practice (which all the while was empty apart from DS and me), then did receive a call from the doctor on the mobile phone, and then was seen by him, and told that DS had been on a list all the while of people who need to be seen in person.

The receptionist claims she did ring my mobile, and claims she did not leave a message on the house phone since there was no answer machine (it kicks in after 6 rings). I was very upset about this, and then told to "get a grip on yourself" - they even threatened to call the police! If I had not chased the matter up, trusting that the busy GP will only have time for this at the end of the day, DS would not have been seen. Luckily he was seen, as he needed antibiotics, an inhaler and steroids.

Was I unreasonable to be upset?

I think you have hit the nail on the head MrsRTea. If the doctors thought customer service was important it would be better.

alpacapino,
you know what,

Just use your gut instinct,
ALWAYS.
if you need to shout,/scream/threaten if the "professionals" aren't listening to you, go ahead.

My dd-4yrs- was sick, I took her to the local hospital, she was rushed to theatre, to "get her heart going" again..
You know what, a cocky patronising doctor told me to take her home.

I said dd was very ill.

After a lot of shouting, I was told they would call security.

I KNEW my dd was very ill, but they in their arrogant and patronising attitude said they actually felt sorry for dd for having a "hysterical" mother like me.
I demanded dd was transferred to another hospital (after I grabbed the doc by the throat).

After a lumber puncture, she was diagnosed with meningitis.
The fear of her death or permanent brain damage was devastating.
Thankfully, she made a full recovery.
SO IF YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT YOUR CHILD,JUST DO WHAT YOU NEED TO DO.

Plus there's the fact that the child was on the list the whole time.

The receptionist insinuated that due to the missed call he'd have to be put on the list again

If he was never taken off then this missed call never happened

If they called your mobile why didn't they leave a message? If it has no signal or you were on the other line then it would have gone to vm. She lied.

There's almost certainly CCTV in the surgery. And very likely there will also be software which will show if she tried to call the patient.

Given this fact I hugely doubt the receptionist would have lied or threatened to call the police unnecessarily when she must know she can be checked up on and caught out very easily if she was lying or unjustified in threatening the police.

Allisgood1, she may not have had voicemail enabled. If she did there are confidentiality issues which may have meant she could not leave a message.

They can leave a message to call them back though

Some GPs surgeries don't even do that.

And I'm sure that the ones that do will probably have a thread complaining about that next week and people will be queueing up to say how unreasonable that is too.

People do complain about that, if they don't want other people to know they are visiting the doctors for some reason they get very upset if a message is left which they believe could have alerted others to that fact.

If you were promised a call from the GP, why were you annoyed you didn't get a call from the receptionist?

I can't understand why the receptionist was messing around trying to get the doctor to call your home when your toddler had breathing difficulties.

We are told repeatedly during training that breathing difficulties in a young child IS an emergency. My own DD has asthma and, due to this knowledge, I have called the ambulance service in the middle of the night twice. I have never been told I am wasting their time; on the contrary, I have been reassured I've done the right thing and told always take her in if I'm worried about her breathing.

I can understand that a mother who has not been trained in first aid would not necessarily realise this, and might try her doctor's surgery first.
I can't understand why the surgery would not either see the child as a matter of priority or send him to A&E.

There is one receptionist at my doctor's clinic who would be more than capable of trying something like this. Fortunately the others are not like her.

CCTV is fine as long as it's on, the tape hasn't run out or hasn't been wiped over. HR Manager here, the amount of CCTV fuck ups I've hoped to rely on are incredible. The CCTV is only as reliable as the staff responsible for making sure it's working. In a GP's surgery where they organise a repeat prescription in my opinon .