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??

My mum is a drs receptionist. All the ladies she works with are lovely. They do have to put up with a lot of shit which I know isn't an excuse foe being rude. I have been to surgeries where the receptionists are shocking.

Most are lovely at our surgery but there's one who is just plain awkward and miserable. If you call and she answers you just know you're not going to get anywhere.
Saying that though, I've seen her out and about on weekdays several times over the last few week (eg on a train into the city, shopping in the supermarket and, just this morning, walking her dog on the common) so I'm wondering if she's retired.

The grumpiest one at ours (not rude, because she's never been rude, she's just very abrupt and i kind of inwardly groan when it's her that answers) is the one who was the most efficient recently in sorting out a medical crisis for DD3. It was over the phone - she took over the call, went to find a doc to speak to, arranged an ambulance to DDs work place for us, calmed me down. She was brilliant! I recognised her voice - i don't know them by name.

AND even though it was 4 weeks later that i walked in she remembered and asked after DD. and then grumpily thrust my prescription at me

The receptionists at my GPs are fantastic - I can't fault them. They are always friendly, and if I've phoned about a problem with one of my DCs they've always managed to fit them in, even if it's after school. We moved surgeries from somewhere else in the town because of a whole host of problems (including slightly grumpy reception staff, but the h/v and a go were much more of a problem), and I'm so glad we did. I'd guess the second practice was generally a much more supportive and good place to work than the first.

Oh dear, I work as a receptionist and am shouted at, sworn at and verbally abused by a lot of patients day in day out. I would say the majority of us are kind hearted people just wanting to help and if that is not the case they probably shouldnt be doing the job. Everyone at my practice bends over backwards for patients, above and beyond. Please dont tar us all with this brush as it is so unfair. If you are running low on medications, place your order then, not when you have run out. I think a lot of people whilst equally important forget they are one of thousands at a practice. Dont blame the receptionist who is generally trying her utmost to help.

I changed my surgery because of the receptionist a while ago. I'm allergic to a particular medication in antihistamines. I had cause to take some, but it had been so long since I'd needed any I couldn't remember what the trigger ingredient was. Called up to ask and was given the wrong information. I was in agony thanks to her decision to make it up rather than search properly.
She was, rude, abrupt and had bugger all empathy. The practice manager was furious. I hope she got the bollocking of a lifetime whilst I was crying in pain. I've never been anything other than perfectly polite to her. I didn't deserve her negligence.

All the receptionists are lovely at my surgery except one, I put the phone down and ring back if she answers in the hope someone else will pick up next time She's terrifying, not to mention rude and unhelpful.

The receptionists at my GP surgery are quite wonderful. Always quite helpful. Always understanding towards me, they never used to be quite so accommodating until I got married and changed my name.

I've always been quite polite, but I think I may have been tarred with the same brush as all my family members who I'm now estranged from, but are in the same surgery.
Around 7 months ago, I went in to have a blood pressure monitor fitted when I saw my sisters name pop up on the screen, I thought oh for Fucks sake....they'll kick off- whole family seems to visit drs together. She didn't appear, then I was called....hurrah I think! Avoided that situation.
I came out and my sister and mother were both screaming at the receptionists that it wasn't their fault they were late, it was traffic (BTW I'd been in with the nurse for 30 odd mins, so they wouldn't have even left the house when the appointment would have been)
I feel sorry for them having to deal with people like this

There's one at our surgery who is a right miserable cow. If I get her when I ring then I just hang up, count to 10 and re dial. 99% of the time a nice normal human being will pick up as cow bag will probably be on another call by then.
No point talking to her, you'll get nowhere.

• get nowhere

There seems to be a bit of a disconnect between the receptionists, the doctors and the appointments system in my surgery. Doctors keep giving me notes that ask the receptionists to book me an appointment for 2 weeks in the future. Receptionists say it is not possible to book that far in the future and to ring the week I need the appointment. So I ring on the monday to be told there are no appointments for a MONTH as all have been taken (surely impossible if you cannot book a fortnight in advance?!) so I book first available, then get a letter off 'medical receptionist' (who I assume is different to normal receptionist telling me I MUST make an appointment ASAP...I call and tell them this, again its all 'there are no available appointments until September 13th' so now I am left with no medication in the meantime as docs appointment is for a medication review as the stuff I am on now is strong.

This has happened 3 times so far. it Usually ends with a call from GP saying to come in that day, and GP being baffled as there are 'loads' of available appointments. So hopefully my call will come tomorrow as I run out of meds on Friday :S

Have suggested a few times the system needs looked at as none of it makes any sense. But its been like this for MONTHS now..

Ontopic..only one of the receptionists in my surgery seem to be permanently grumpy, the rest are amazing and friendly.

I tend to find that if I am happy to discuss all & sundry with my receptionist, then I'm ok. And because I'm going to a large surgery, where the chances are I'm not going to bump into work colleagues, I'm happy to talk loudly about smear tests and birth control, and cancer scares and so forth. I have massive sympathy for our receptionists, as they have to deal with a very diverse range of patients, most of whom are not so forthcoming with information about their lives. I've been happy enough to rock up telling them that my anxiety has gone sky high etc etc. I don't suppose everyone is as much of an open book as I currently am. I do wonder whether I would be so open were I to seek assistance for any issues which were of a more generally judged nature. I guess it depends if any of my colleagues were sitting in the waiting room...

I've often wondered if I could do the job, and every time have come to the conclusion that it's not for me. As I've yet to come across a receptionist I can't handle, then perhaps I'm not best placed to be answering this OP.

Receptionist at our surgery made me cry when I phoned to make an appointment. She said there was nothing available until the next day, I said that was okay, then she went on about the fact I should have phoned earlier and kind of lectured me. I was suffering from fairly severe anxiety and depression at the time so I burst into tears.

Meh. At my old surgery they were distant, no smiles at reception etc. yet she my son fell down the stairs twice they told me to come along immediately and I was seen very quickly. New surgery they are more smiley at reception but I can never get an appointment when I need one. We have a walk in centre around the corner now and the receptionists tell me to go there!

In 20 years I've only had a major problem with a receptionist at my surgery once, and that was when I was told I couldn't have an urgent appointment for my 10 month old who had a rash and very high temperture. She assured me that the GP wouldn't be happy to see him for just a rash, so I said fine I'll take him to A&E then and tell them why. All of a sudden there was a free slot and we were seen 40 minutes later. He had German Measles, and I was pregnant, (this was back when the MMR was done at 15 months), queue one very unhappy GP!

At my last GP practice the receptionists were great. The current one they are rude and dismissive. I actually complained to my GP and the message clearly got through as they have been frosty ever since. I don't care. They are dealing with ill people who deserve a bit of respect.

(I'm not overly fussed if this outs me)

As a child of a former doctors receptionist, I will tell you why: it's an incredibly stressful job.

I've had to bite my lip the last few years but now she's quit, I can finally say what I've been wanting to say.

I see a lot of comments about the receptionists not being medical professionals when asking the patient what the problem is, 1) they do learn some medical knowledge doing the job and 2) they need to know the problem so they can assess what kind of appointment you need.

Also it's not the receptionists fault if the doctors are running late, please don't have a go at them and likewise with the lack of appointments- this is a nationwide issue, not just subjected to one particularly surgery. I have witnessed a complete and utter cunt being abusive (including threats) to my mum, I really wanted to smack the twat right there in the surgery. My mum has been physically assaulted twice, in the nearly 8 years she was there- why should she be subjected to that for just doing her job?

But it isn't just the patient that causes the stress, it's also the staff. My mum was signed off with stress 3 times, put onto anti-depressants and even had suicidal thoughts, it was awful seeing her like it- it got to the point where she was using her migraines as an excuse not to go in. Her ex-ex boss was a complete arsehole, she had little sympathy or empathy for anyone- my mum suffered from ill health in 2012 resulting in 3 hospital stays (the longest being 11 days) and 2 operations, her ex-ex boss actually rang her whilst she was still in hospital, asking if she'll be back soon whilst recovering from major surgery! Another receptionist is a bully and because her actions, 4 people have quit their jobs.

So this is why they are 'rude' but I'm so glad she is out of that place as we always got the worse end of it (not her fault though).

The receptionist is in the firing line for every kind of troublesome people, on both sides of the counter.
Having sat in the Drs Surgery and observed the interactions, I can confirm that the public act in a very challenging manner at times.
A relative of mine was once in a position in a hospital environment, taking phone calls from " the public", and she said that the level of sheer rudeness and abuse she was expected to tolerate would surprise you( or not).

I've been at surgeries where the receptionists conform to the worst stereotypes, but at my current surgery the receptionists are positively lovely. They do 'gatekeep' when necessary but have a much more constructive approach than other surgeries I have been to where it felt you had to fight for every appointment.

Interestingly all the GPs are good too, there seems to be much more continuity of staff and they are all good at their job. So perhaps the surgery just has a more positive culture and people are under less stress.

I have asthma and one morning i had the beginings of an attack. I could not find my reliever anywhere but live 30 seconds from the GPs and the pharmacy it was 8am so gps was open. I went round and inbetween breaths asked the receptionist for a repeat perscription. There was 1 person in the waiting room and all 5 gps in that day.
She refused and said it would be the afternoon as the doctors dont sign scripts till then.
I explained, even though it was pretty obvious, that i was mid astma attack and just needed the puffer to stop it. She again refused and said she would not disturb the doctors just because i say so

I politely explained it was the script or an ambulance her choice just as the gp came in to reception. He asked what was going on , walked out to the pharmacy next door and returned a minute later with the inhaler.
While i was recovering the receptionist was blaming me saying i was rude and aggressive and she didnt understand what i wanted. At this point the person who was waiting joined in and said that the receptionist knew what was wrong and would rather have seen me die than get the doctor. He was disgusted and would be changing doctors immediatley and walked out.
The GP apologised and i went home. I have never seen that receptionist again and i dont know if she was sacked or transferred.
Just to add the other 4 receptionists are lovely.

Lots of jobs are stressful, but it does not justify rudeness. Ours are very much hit and miss too, I understand that they may have had a bad day, but surely they realise their patients are likely to be having a bad day too and t is very inappropriate to take it out on them? I am always perfectly polite but have rarely had anything other than extremely rude and grumpy from them.

There's one really grumpy one at our surgery but they are mostly okay. The grumpy one didn't check me in once (self serve machine broken) then tried to blame me when I asked after 45 minutes if I was likely to be seen yet.

When I was pg with dd2 I had a bleed over a Bank Holiday weekend. Ooh told me I'd need the EPAU but they couldn't refer me. By the time I'd got to the desk on the Tuesday morning there were no appointments. I was nearly in tears. I very calmly explained the situation and the receptionist said "I will sort this". Within 10 minutes she'd arranged a telephone consultation for me (had to go sit in my car in the car park). An hour later after I'd spoken to the Dr I had my EPAU appointment for the following day.

Ours are generally very good and if there's not appointments will generally put me on the call back list so I can speak to the GP and get a prescription. Only problem is you have to call at 8 am to get a on the day appointment, so I do but there's only two phone lines so by the time you get through it's more like 8:30 and you get a lecture that you should have called at 8am!

A GP rather than receptionist - but I was recently given a form for an urgent hospital referral. Immediately after I left the GP realised he had given me the wrong form and phoned me and offered to hand deliver it to my house that evening! I was only 5 mins down the road so I just turned round and went back to the surgery but I was at the offer!

Our GP's receptionists are brilliant. I have two DC and if it's for them, they'll always find a way to pop them in within a couple of hours. It's a busy surgery but they'll always go above and beyond to help however they can. The nurse at the same surgery is equally brilliant, I can't fault any of them. Plus, our GP is incredibly handsome. A trip there perks my day right up.