Doctors Receptionist

[RainbowsAndUnicorns5]

Apparently it's well known that doctors receptionists are rude and grumpy but why?
I've just returned from yet another example, I can take it but I feel so sorry for old & vulnerable people, why be so abrasive it probably ruins their day??

Yes. There are rude people in every profession. But people come across a horrible GP receptionist and it all gets generalised as they are all horrible and power crazed.

I put it in inverted commas because I don't think that, fanjo. But I bet there are plenty of GPs who do.

that's true fanjo. I suppose I was just thinking that in comparison with other people dealing with the public (eg in a shop), a Dr receptionist needs to have extra skills in empathy and understanding in realising that people may be being rude because they are ill or scared and not because they are gits (although they often are...), which should inform the way they deal with them even if they can't help. If that makes sense

(I say this as someone who has worked in academic admin with academics who most definitely behave as if they think that).

I have indeed encountered rude snobby ones before but mostly they have been lovely. I think it depends on the working environment and how staff are treated and the bosses themseleves 1

I'm not sure, I think the GPs probably appreciate them, however I have been told how to send a letter by a dentist before (put it in an envelope and put a stamp on it)

I've been a patient at 3 surgeries in my lifetime. The first one the receptionist could be quite rude, even the midwife at the surgery said so at one of my appointments. The second they all seemed nice but there was one who was quite abrupt.

They're all lovely at the surgery that I'm at now.

I suppose it's like every work place - you get some nice people and some not so nice.

I do seem to find that a lot of bus drivers are grumpy but then again there are some lovely, friendly ones.

This week I had a midwife appointment at 1400, I arrived at 1345 and tried to sign in using the computer thing but it wasn't working, so I joined the queue.

There were only 2 people ahead of me, and 2 receptionists. It took them 20 minutes (so I was late as the midwife didn't know I was there!) to each see to that person. They were having a lovely chat. Let them fill in the forms there rather than seeing the next person while they waited for those people to sign some stuff! Both were registering there and when I registered I had to go away to fill it in then return!

Anyway, my midwife had a concern about my baby so I had to have an urgent scan the next day (everything was fine!) anyway, after the scan I had to queue at the maternity unit's reception desk. 3 people ahead of me. Took 25 minutes. At one point the receptionist said she had to check with someone else and I could hear her laughing and joking in the office behind and talking about socialising. But hey, at least she apologised for the wait!

Ours used to be right dragons, a lot of comments on the NHS choice site said GPs were lovely but the reception staff were awful. Have noticed lately they are much nicer. A couple are genuinely very nice and there is still one with a serious chip on her shoulder, however you can tell she has been spoken to as she now attempts a level of customer service but you can see the the pain it causes her to be vaguely pleasant. A smirk with a heap of contempt is as good as it gets.

Having worked in the NHS, I can confirm the majority of receptionists I came up against were just as rude to patients and staff a like. I was in a patient facing role and whilst you got the odd bad one, patients on the whole were lovely if you just took a few minutes to listen and explain.

They are either lovely or power trippers and or believe they can make medical decisions/triage in my experience.

The receptionist at our surgery used to be very abrasive. On one occasion, I went in with DS first thing when he was six months old and had woken with a huge boil on his bottom that had been OK at bedtime but had clearly become infected overnight (he was prone to spotty botty but this had turned nasty). I asked if I could see a doc urgently and briefly as his temp was soaring, he was screaming, and she was really unpleasant, flat refused, said it wasn't fair on the other people in the waiting room and I would not be able to see a doctor that day. So I ended up going to A&E, wasting much more NHS time and resources than necessary.

I made a formal complaint about her and she has been utterly delightful ever since...

It's an impossible job. They can be unnecessarily horrible, but they have been put in an appalling position: find appointments for people who need them when there aren't enough to go around (and yes it is "need", not "want", and this is what makes people so demanding); and make medical judgements with no medical training. It is impossible, quite literally.

When you go to A and E, I think triage is carried about by an HCP. It would be lovely if this could happen with GPs. Some problems could go away instantly if it were an HCP with the power to prescribe who was the first person to deal with you, instead of an admin person who's job is essentially to ration appointments. Obviously impossible, as there aren't enough HCPs to do the jobs there are now, without creating new ones.

I'm a doctors receptionist, the women I work with arent rude or grumpy. We get annoyed when are swore at though and treated like we have done things on purpose just to upset people.

I was a medical receptionist for a couple of years.

When I started I was a warm caring person who wanted to do the very best for people and do a good job.

By the end of it I wanted an AK47 and a rooftop.

The public suck.

You get shit from them when you do what the doctors/managers tell you to do and you get shit the other way if you try to go out of your way to help the patients.

Never again, I now pretty much hate people.

They quite often get treated like shit by patients. I briefly covered in a role where I managed some and it was an absolute eye opener.

If you're being shouted at 20 times a day because somebody wants to see a doctor right now but isn't prepared to be telephone triaged by someone medically qualified to check that it is urgent (and 80% of the time it's not) then you tend not to be a happy bunny.

And they're not being obstructive for their own satisfaction. When you've actually seen what they deal with; put it this way. Something that was fairly typical was someone with a slightly itchy rash demanding to be seen as an urgent case straight away when you also have a housebound elderly lady who's having chemo and dialysis needing an urgent medication change, someone with MS who has rapidly declined and become doubly incontinent and immobile needing an urgent visit to be referred for emergency care and a gentleman at home dying of cancer who needs a visit for pain relief to be prescribed.

And they will get someone being all pissy with them because they think that their rash or their sore throat should take priority and they shouldn't have to wait for a phone call or go to a walk in centre and wait because it might inconvenience them a bit.

And obviously as much as you might want to tell them that you're going to prioritise a patient not dying in pain or lying in their own shit for days above their right not to have to queue up or wait for a phone call you can't do it.

You get shit from them when you do what the doctors/managers tell you to do and you get shit the other way if you try to go out of your way to help the patients

This

Bill, that is what I have learned in my time working at a surgery. We get sworn at, called useless, waste of space. We have people say if something happens we, as in the receptionist they are talking to, will be personally blame. Threats to stab us.

All for things that have no control over at all, we book the appointments and can cancel them but we have no control over the system and we get the shit from the doctors if we let something in on a urgent when the doctor has deemed it non urgent.

I left my old practice because of the receptionists behaviour (as well as a rude doctor refusing my son treatment because I was just an 'anxious new Mum') which seemed to be allowed by the GPs as every single one of them behaved the same. Rude, demanding and completely unprofessional.

At my current practice I have nothing but praise for the receptionists. They are lovely to deal with, professional but friendly, don't demand answers but ask sensitively if they need to know things and will go out of their way to help.

My Mum recently had a stroke so I have to take her to her GP now......the same one I left when he refused to treat my son (who was sent straight to hospital for tests when we registered with my new GP where we found out he was severely anaemic). The receptionists have all been replaced since I was a patient there but they are actually worse than the last lot! A receptionist was so rude to me at the desk that I stepped away to compose myself before dealing with her as I knew this wasn't my practice anymore but one where my Mum needed the best care so I swallowed my pride (and urge to call her a cunt) and said nothing to her. I did, however, mention it to the nurse who goes between surgeries and she said it's not the first time she's heard about them.

Just to note, at my current GP practice there is a big sign at the reception saying 'please do not harass our receptionists if you can't get an appointment as quickly as you expect, they are simply carrying out the GPs wishes and have no say in how the practice is run'. I think this is a good idea as it shows that they are aware that sometimes people take offence with the receptionist when in fact it's the GP who is giving the orders.

My doctors surgery has both aloof, unhelpful ones (don't even acknowledge you are there until they've pottered about a bit, can't think even slightly laterally to look under both my, and DP's names for a new baby etc), and a couple of awesome ones (eg the receptionist who, when DS1 and I were blue-lit to hospital, took my car-keys and watched out for my MIL to give them to so she could take my car home - he couldn't have been better)

please do not harass our receptionists if you can't get an appointment as quickly as you expect, they are simply carrying out the GPs wishes and have no say in how the practice is run

We need that up in the surgery so the patients know that we receptionist dont call the shots, we just carry out the orders.

The receptionists at my GPs are quite abrupt and come across as rude and like you are a nuisance. It's annoying. Recently I took DD to the drop in children's clinic, I suspected thrush and she was quite embarrassed by it. The receptionist asked what the problem was and I told her it was personal, which should be the end of it, I'm not obliged to tell her, but she just looked over her glasses at me and said "well I need to write something on the screen for the nurse practitioner" and waited for me to say, so I felt I had to. Was quite pissed off about that as I know they have to ask but surely once they are told it's personal they shouldn't persist and make you feel like you are wrong for not wanting to say? I'm never anything but polite when talking to people.

I deal with quite a few Drs surgeries through work and most are actually lovely and are pleasant to work with, but one surgery are a nightmare and the staff are rude and abrupt. Unfortunately they are also my gp surgery, my dr is awesome and I don't want to move because he is an amazing gp so I put up with the receptionists.