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?

Hello just phoned again and a different receptionist offered me an appointment on Friday next week. I told her that in that case I would need to contact the consultant at the hospital and ask for an emergency prescription for 4 days as GP couldn't help. All of a sudden a Tuesday morning appointment become available - oddly enough she was even able to offer me a choice of doctor and appointment times

If they haven't got an appointment I just ask for the GP to call me back. They will fit you in, if you are just out of hospital. Since my health hasn't been great our GPs are very good, but you do have to know the system.

If the medication is something rare, you could ask your local pharmacy to order some in for you even before you get the prescription. Ours did this for us, we just showed them the bottle from the hospital, when dd1 was discharged with only a few days worth of something just before the weekend!

Op I feel for you, its an added and unnecessary stress and pressure on you.

I would call their non appt line and ask to speak to practice manger to explain your circumstances. Get your DH too. with the morning calls you need instant redial app, it will keep dialing for you untl you get through

Gosh yes I feel your pain!

Gp receptionists do have a hard time compared to other receptionist jobs, and I wouldn't like to do their job personally!

Having said that I do think it does have a massive effect if someone gets a bit too zealous about defending doctors /nurses time.

Sadly, if someone has decided they can divine the health and need of person over the phone, and allocates resources according to that judgement, then the system needs changing, as well as some retraining.

It's one of those really difficult things, a good GP receptionist is worth their weight in gold, and makes a direct positive impact on people's health and ability to access healthcare. And a bad receptionist makes the same impact but in a negative way.

I am blocked from accessing basic health care by being too ill to jump through the loops needed. It has been very difficult and my health has absolutely suffered because I cannot get through all the barriers to getting medical care. I'm now in the process of making this problem something that the GP practice need to get involved with, after many years of struggling and failing to access gp care. I hope someone can help me. Fingers crossed!