To ask DP to phone the GP surgery for me as I can't cope with receptionist?

[listsandbudgets]

I'm 40 years old. I have spent years dealing with other peoples problems as part of my job... yet I cant deal with the GP reeptionist on my own account.

I was discharged from hospital on Tuesday following an emergency admission last Wednesday. They prescribed me a weeks worth of medication and told me to get a GP appointment and to ask them for a further prescription as they want me to take it on an ongong basis for a while but not without medical checks.

So this afternoon I phoned and asked for an appointment either tomorrow or early next week and got told

1. They cant give me an appointment for next week - I have to phone every morning until they can give me an appointment on the day
2. I have to give them 10 days notice for needing a repeat prescription
3. I needed to bring them the hospital disharge letter by 10am and that would count as the first day of notice for needing repeat prescription.

I tried to explain why these things were impossible for me to achieve - e.g. only got a 7 day prescription in the first place, they were constantly engaged when I tried to phone in the morning and I needed to take the medication on an ongoing basis witout a gap and got told this was not the receptionists fault and I should have told the hospital what their represcription policy was (not that I knew until this morning).

Came off phone and burst into tears. Feel so awful and stupid and I know Im not coping. Nothng seems to make sense

AIBU to ask DP to phone them in the morning and sort it out? AIBU to feel like giving up?

I mean I did't know until this afternoon not this morning... so confused

I would go into the GPs surgery and talk to them face to face.

Ring and ask for the practice manager.

You're just out of hospital, you're feeling vulnerable. If your DP is good at this sort of thing then by all means feel free to get them to go in full of righteous indignation on your behalf to sort it out. You're a team, and that's what team members do for each other.

Yes, call and speak to the practice manager, also see if you can get a meeting with the practice nurse as she may be more available.

Also you should write to complain about the appointment system (I ant remember to whom) but I read on a prior thread here that the whole "ring on the day" thing is to help the practice achieve a government target which backs the practice into a corner. So although she was unhelpful the rules may not even be the choice of the practice.

I'm hoping I didn't just make all that up- I'm sure I read that on another thread!

10 days notice for a repeat prescription?! That's fucking ridiculous!!
I have no idea how GP surgeries think this phoning up on the morning is a good idea!! It's pathetic!!
Get your DP to call and complain!! YANBU!!

Yup - I would echo a pp and ask to speak to practice manager. My GP receptionist is also a law unto herself, and blatantly called me a liar when I said that they had misread my daughters neurologist's letter and effectively halved her medication. I ended up having to ring the neurologist secretarywho went ballistic at GP receptionist to get it sorted out. I then spoke to practice manager who apologised for the mistake and 'took onboard' my comments re anyone can make a mistake, but it would have surely been common sense to actually check with the GP rather than calling me a liar - particularly when my daughter is vulnerable and can't speak up for herself.

I know not all GP receptionists are like this though

Doctors receptionists, in my humble opinion, are either a) lovely, caring, helpful people who go above and beyond to meet your needs or b) power- tripped people who enjoy being gate keeper.

I once got off the phone from a receptionist who was rude, unconcerned and unhelpful regarding an urgent blood test. I'm mid 30s in a demanding job yet she really got to me. About an hour later I got a call back from a different receptionist who was appalled by her colleagues attitude and fitted me in the next day. She was brilliant.

Hopefully your experience will improve.

Ours has a decent call on the day system and almost always do have an appointment on the day, though yes the line is sometimes engaged for too long. Repeat prescription 2 days but they've done them faster for me if urgent. Just for comparison. Sounds badly managed and yes get your dh to deal with them if you need to!

Bless you please try not to stress about this too much and yes get your DH to deal with them if possible.
Get well soon !

💐 plenty of good advice here!

If NHS you ought to be able to register to order repeat prescriptions online? My GP surgery does this, not very efficiently, but it does it.

Call in the morning...ask to speak with the practice manager and make a formal complaint against the receptionist....I hope you feel well soon....the receptionist was out of order....they have no empathy let alone sympathy!! Take a deep breath, a nice cup of tea.....breathing exercises and just relax....it can and will be resolved...please don't worry....X

It can certainly be every man for himself when dealing with some NHS services, and you can well do without this stress.

Get your DH to call to get you an appointment to see the GP. Give the discharge letter to the GP. The GP will be able to write you a prescription on the spot and set it up as a repeat so u don't need to see them again every time you run out. Find a chemist who will re-order the repeat for you automatically, this is much easier. I think / hope the 10 day thing must be a misunderstanding relating to the notice they need to order a repeat script but 10 days seems very slow,

10 days for a repeat script?!?!!?? Most places aim for a 48 hour turn around!

It's a very very bad day when you feel that you can't call your Doctor's Surgery because of some little upstart on a power trip. And the 10 days nonsense. I think she's making that up as she goes along.

My heart goes out to you. I have been near enough to tears by times dealing with one absolute b1tch at my doctor's surgery. She does her best to be obstructive, and makes a song and dance out of every single thing.

YANBU.

Yes, first things first, get your husband to call and sort the appointment etc.

When you feel up to it, then pursue the complaint with the practice. Meantime take care of yourself.

Thank you for all the advice.

Can't believe I let her make me cry. Everything seems an uphill struggle right now. Even ordering flowers for my friend earlier seemed difficult. .. could not seem to fill out the order properly

Dp says he will phone in the morning and get it sorted out for me. I have to see doctor as dose will probably need increasing so not just a simple repeat prescription.

A bit of me wishes I was still in hospital where everything was done for me and the hardest decision I had to make was choosing my dinner off a menu. Still feeling dreadful though not nearly as bad as when I was admitted. Even little things like cooking a meal seem a struggle. I just feel so confused

Don't be hard on yourself. I genuinely do know exactly what you mean. Try to forget about that one, and focus on taking care of yourself.

I've never seen more than 2 working days for a repeat prescription, 10 days is ridiculous!

It's not that you couldn't be arsed, you have been discharged from hospital with 7 days of medication. Bollocks you should've told the hospital about your GP repeat prescription shit! How many people even know what their GPs policy is!

When I was being discharged from a hospital last year, I asked the consultant what I could do if the GP wouldn't see me and I was told they had to.

I also got my DH to contact the practice, they said they had no appointments so booked a telephone appointment for the GP to ring my DH back. After that, the GP gave us an appointment . They already had a copy of my discharge letter so they knew I needed to see them! Is there a system like this at your practice, or a telephone triage (hate this system!).

I hope you get it sorted, I would absolutely leave it to your DH. You don't need any stress and 10 days wait for a prescription is simply not feasible as hospitals give you 5 days or less of meds.

"You're just out of hospital, you're feeling vulnerable. If your DP is good at this sort of thing then by all means feel free to get them to go in full of righteous indignation on your behalf to sort it out. You're a team, and that's what team members do for each other."

Yes to this, and also to the people questioning the 10 day thing. Ridiculous. Get your partner to deal with it, and focus on your recovery

If an appt can't be made, can they direct you to a walkin centre type place. When our gp surgery has no apps which is always I can get an appt at a gateway centre even on the weekend.

Ask for a telephone appointment with the doctor and when the receptionist asks what it's about say it's private.

Once you speak to a doctor they will be sensible about it and will ask you to come to the surgery if necessary.

You can ask for a telephone appointment even if there are no physical appointments left by the time you get through in the morning.