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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to fib to doctor's receptionist?

104 replies

lalalalyra · 03/07/2016 11:55

I think I've got a chest infection. In fact I'm pretty sure (I've had 5 in the last 2 years and have been spot on each time I've gone to the doctors). I can feel it.

The problem I have is that I'm also loaded with the cold. Have been for four weeks, so as soon as I phone and mention anything about the chest she'll ask if I've got/had a cold and then receptionists will give the 'antbiotics don't help colds' spiel. Which I know.

I've got asthma and throughout my cold my peak flow hasn't been too low (normally 500, dropped to 400/420), but yesterday it was 350 and today it's 300. I've been keeping a tight control on my asthma through it (slight increase in ventolin as normal with a cold), but I really don't want my PF to drop any lower.

I know that if you say you need an appointment for 'lady problems' the receptionists ask no questions... WIBU to phone tomorrow say that and then present with a cold/chest infection/asthma playing up? The receptionists say that they need to know as it gives the GP's a heads up on what patients are in for, but anytime I go the GP starts with "What can we do for you today?" so I don't think they read it/take it as gospel.

OP posts:
greathat · 03/07/2016 13:34

Asthma with a worsening peak flow is all you need to say

Original poster
lalalalyra · 03/07/2016 13:38

There's nowhere I can be seen today. We don't have a walk-in centre. From what I can see your options are OOH GP which is an hour away (I don't have my car today and I don't even know if the 3 buses run on a Sunday. I don't have the cash on me to get a cab and PIL's are away) or A&E. I know if I phone and mention anything about tight chest they'll send me to A&E and I'm not an A&E case.

I'll ring the doctor's in the morning first thing. I'm taking my PF every hour or so to keep a close eye on it.

OP posts:
Fintress · 03/07/2016 13:42

I wonder if it depends on what sort of GP surgery you attend? Mines is in a really posh catchment

Seriously? My surgery is practically sitting on millionaire's row in my city and you always get asked if you phone for a same day appointment

butterflymum · 03/07/2016 13:42

www.medicalprotection.org/uk/practice-matters-issue-3/triage-in-general-practice gives some sensible pointers, including on role of receptionist, if the practice wishes to be covered for any potential claim arising.

butterflymum · 03/07/2016 13:43

Also see www.lmc.org.uk/article.php?group_id=548

Marynary · 03/07/2016 16:48

The receptionists at my GP's surgery are told to ask questions. I always get an appointment if I mention my medical conditions though or they get a GP to phone me back. I'm sure they will do the same if you say you have asthma and your chest infection is making it worse.

Topseyt · 03/07/2016 18:08

I do have some reservations about receptionists who are not medically qualified being expected to triage patients.

I have never been asked at our GP surgery, beyond the usual "does it need to be today" question. If I do feel the need to be seen same day then I say so, and if there are no actual appointments left then you can book onto a list at the end of surgery, either in the morning or in the evening. You are then seen by whichever doctor comes available when you get to the top of the list.

Most of the day's appointments seem to go within the first five minutes of the phone lines opening anyway.

Original poster
lalalalyra · 04/07/2016 12:49

I'm deeply popular at the surgery this morning...

Twenty minute conversation with the receptionist (she wouldn't give me an appointment as she could hear I was "obviously full of the cold"). Then a very terse chat with a different receptionist that didn't get me any further. Then a chat with my HV (who is actually surprisingly lovely and good) which got me a call back from the practise nurse who promptly made me an appointment with the GP.

Then I got there and made myself even more unpopular by refusing to use their new touch screen check in thing - there's no wipes or gel or anything, and to wash your hands you'd have to go back two doors to the toilets. There was people sneezing and coughing all over it. Apparently there is gel things being fitted next week so I said I'd use it next week.

And I do have a chest infection. Quite a bad one. Got a row for not going in on Friday, but I honestly didn't feel anywhere near this bad on Friday. GP booked me in to see her again on Wednesday which seems a wee bit soon to me, but she's concerned about the peak flow as it was slightly lower again today.

My lovely BIL and his girlfriend have stolen the baby and the toddler and I'm having a duvet afternoon on the sofa.

OP posts:
PetraDelphiki · 04/07/2016 12:55

Time to complain to the practice manager I think!

JudyCoolibar · 04/07/2016 12:58

I would suggest a formal complaint about either the receptionist or their policy if she's acting the way she does because she's told to. A receptionist has no business whatsoever diagnosing you as having nothing more wrong with you than a cold and stopping you from seeing a doctor.

It's all very well the GP telling you off for not going on Friday, but it's sheer luck you were persistent enough to be seen today; a lot of people would have been put off by the receptionist and would have given up, and could become seriously ill as a result. They will find themselves with negligence claims if they don't sort this out.

AlfrescoBalconyWanker · 04/07/2016 12:59

Just make sure you go back in on Wednesday with a badge that says "I told you I was ill" and your own anti-bac spray Grin

incywincybitofa · 04/07/2016 13:04

The thing is a cold for an asthmatic can be very serious without a chest infection, I am agog that the practice nurse didn't know that.

Original poster
lalalalyra · 04/07/2016 13:16

incy The practise nurse did, my HV got me a phone chat with her and the nurse made me a GP appointment an hour later.

My HV, the practise nurse and the GP that I saw have all said they'll be speaking to the practise manager. The nurse was livid, especially when I told her I'd asked for an appointment on the basis that my peak flow had dropped massively (it was below 300 this morning).

The GP was quite horrified when I said that I'd spoken to "some friends" about lying about gynae problems to get an appointment. She said that it shouldn't ever come to that. The on the day appointment thing does cause them problems, but she said they need to sort something better than what they've got so that it doesn't happen again.

OP posts:
Original poster
lalalalyra · 04/07/2016 13:20

*practice.

OP posts:
WaitrosePigeon · 04/07/2016 13:47

They don't ask to be nosey, why would they care about the hundreds of patients they speak to everyday?

They do it to triage you essentially, to make sure you see the appropriate person for your problem....

ShortBreadEater · 04/07/2016 15:17

They do it to triage you essentially

Or in OP's case to get everything completely wrong and refuse an appointment, twice, to someone who really needs one.

why would they care about the hundreds of patients they speak to everyday

Clearly they don't care in this instance.

Vickyyyy · 04/07/2016 15:54

Our receptionists always ask this, I honestly suspect they are just nosy as I asked one of the doctors once why I need to give medical details to a receptionist and they had no idea the receptionists even asked? Now I just say 'I will talk to the doctor about it at my appointment thanks' unless I am requesting an emergency appointment, I will go into more detail then, but even in that case you get a callback from an actual doctor who asks again what the issue is anyway :S

WaitrosePigeon · 04/07/2016 16:02

ShortBreadEater, and I agree with you.

I was talking generally.

Musicaltheatremum · 04/07/2016 16:11

Triage should be done by the most experienced clinician. It is dangerous and very risky. I would be shocked if my reception staff did that and they would be taken to task about it. They cannot make the decision that it is "just a cold" that is an decision for me (as a GP) to make. In our practice in your situation that would have been put on our triage list without question and if I had a long list to triage yours would certainly be in the most important category and I would have added you onto then nd of my surgery. I do redirect things from a triage list sometimes if I feel someone else should deal with it. I think some staff training is in order.

MiscellaneousAssortment · 04/07/2016 16:19

The trouble is with the system some GP practices are running is that it doesn't work. It cuts out ill people and enables people well enough to get through the net by lying. That's called survival of the fittest, not healthcare. Likewise the other barriers to healthcare such as same day appointments which require a huge mental and physical effort to race other healthier people to get to the appointments left - phoning 17 times in a row at 8am then battle against someone whose job it to refuse and block help, it is hardly something an actually ill person can achieve.

When unqualified people are the barrier to accessing not just medical care but a block to getting medical expertise of any kind - even to reach a medical professional for actual triage, then it will always go wrong.

Disabled, chronically ill, elderly people all find it increasingly difficult to access vital health services. I hope one day this is recognised. This attitude of employing any techniques possible to fend of the ravening hoards is not democracy and it is not equality.

JudyCoolibar · 04/07/2016 16:23

They do it to triage you essentially, to make sure you see the appropriate person for your problem....

But that is a job to be done by someone like a nurse, not an untrained receptionist. It really could have been dangerous if she'd succeeded in her wish of putting OP off seeing a doctor at all.

flowerbomb1982 · 04/07/2016 16:41

Haven't read all the replies but yes definitely say asthma as it is listed as a chronic condition mention complications from asthma length of time u have had it . I work in a surgery not as a receptionist but I think you would get an on the day appointment but ring as soon as they open . They would also give you an emergency appointment if you said you had spoke to 111 and they advised you to contact your gp to be seen first thing in the morning.

Orwellschild · 04/07/2016 16:48

Echo the PP around 111; if you called them with those symptoms they will usually speak to your GP surgery and a GP will call you within an hour to offer an appointment. I did this last year and an hour later was in the GP's surgery being diagnosed with pneumonia, so it does work.

ProcrastinatorGeneral · 04/07/2016 16:50

Triage at our surgery is done by the GPs in rotation. They all do a shift of it, signing/checking prescriptions between calls. You tell receptionist you need an appointment and you get put on the callback list, and the on duty GP calls you back when they get to you on the list.

Zbag14 · 04/07/2016 17:56

Time to make a big complaint op!