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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:
TroysMammy · 04/07/2016 18:00

I never ask patients why do they need an appointment. Sometimes one of the Doctor's instructs me to ask for a brief idea what is wrong for emergency appointments only. This is to gauge if that person needs to be seen sooner or can wait in the wait your turn session or whether minor injuries or A&E is more appropriate

To be honest some patients tell me what's wrong without prompting and sometimes it's TMI.

HelenaJustina · 04/07/2016 18:22

I'd be using the duvet afternoon I copies a coherent complaint email to the practice manger and practice partners...

You clearly have an excellent understanding of your condition and manage it well, you know your own body best and it should not have taken your HV interceding for you to get an appointment!

HelenaJustina · 04/07/2016 18:22

I copies? To compose...

ricketytickety · 04/07/2016 18:29

Shocked that a receptionist who is not medically trained is allowed to decide whether someone is ill enough to see a gp or not! That isn't safe. Ditto ring 111 if you ever get the block from receptionists again and also I think you should make a formal complaint that if you hadn't persisted you would have had an infection with no medical help.

AyeAmarok · 04/07/2016 18:40

To be honest some patients tell me what's wrong without prompting and sometimes it's TMI.

Eh, what? I think you might be in the wrong job Hmm

DeathpunchDoris · 04/07/2016 18:54

Ask her which medical school she graduated from. Then politely request the necessary appointment with someone who has

CinderellaRockefeller · 04/07/2016 19:22

All these snobby responses are awful. Looking down on someone who is "just" a receptionist and dismissing them with a sneery retort, when it may well be surgery policy to ask is really unpleasant. you can refuse to tell them without putting them down.

It totally varies from surgery to surgery with appointments though. Receptionists shouldn't triage in the clinical sense but there are many ways of running a list where gps do the calling back to triage, and receptionists ask what is the problem to make sure the right gp calls back. This one messed up completely, and sounds like the system has fallen down. Definitely alert the practice manager.

Incidentally do you have a asthma care plan in place? Don't know what area you are in but please talk about one with your asthma nurse, and if they do one, fill it in. Then you will know when you should be going in, or contacting a health care professional.

TheWindInThePillows · 04/07/2016 19:41

At our surgery, the GPs triage their own lists, and it works very well for me but I have worried that a much older person, or someone who is deaf, or someone who doesn't speak good English or who has mild learning disabilities may end up not being able to articulate their needs and may get overlooked.

Original poster
lalalalyra · 04/07/2016 19:45

It never used to be like this. They used to be alright with you, but now there's a real air of pesky patients who are apparently lining the streets to waste the time of doctors.

Now I know they are very, very, very busy, but the first thing they ask you when they answer is your name and dob, so they can see the first page of your record (which I believe has your last 5 appointments, anything outstanding like test results and whatever else info they can see) so they must be able to tell quite quickly that I'm not on the phone every Monday.

I followed up my conversation with my HV and the GP in an email to the practise manager's email address. Before I had counselling I had very, very little confidence and I think I could have been put off by her. Also it suggests that people can't have an appointment for anything while they have a cold so what about people phoning because they have found a lump and are terrified?

There's another practise locally (sadly full) that has two nurses who don't have appointments in the morning, they do telephone triage and if you need an appointment they make you one for that afternoon or the next morning. Ours had originally said they were planning on that, but instead they're using a receptionist that is famous locally for (mis)correcting someone on the spelling of their own name!

I can't remember the PP who mentioned the asthma plan - sorry - I do have an asthma plan. I manage my asthma well. I knew that I needed to be seen today. The problem isn't (imo) me knowing when I need to be seen, I know when my PF gets very dangerous etc, the problem was I knew I needed to be seen, but I knew it wasn't going to be an easy job to get seen.

OP posts:
Original poster
lalalalyra · 04/07/2016 19:47

My phone keeps changing practise to practise sorry!

OP posts:
TroysMammy · 04/07/2016 20:11

Amarock No, I'm not in the wrong job I actually love it. It doesn't bother me in the slightest about phlegm, diarrhoea or thrush. People were commenting that their Receptionist does or doesn't ask why they need appointments, our patients are so used to us they don't actually care who they tell.

WaitrosePigeon · 04/07/2016 20:12

I do feel sorry for receptionists. My mum is a receptionist in our local surgery and she gets abuse most days. Someone called her a fucking cunt yesterday. It's hard for both sides.

WaitrosePigeon · 04/07/2016 20:13

For example with mental health, if that's your complaint you must be seen by a GP for the best care. If you refuse to tell and you're seen by the nurse then you are doing yourself a disservice to be honest.

grannyinwaiting · 04/07/2016 20:18

I am so lucky at ours. We never get asked what is wrong, we can phone any day for any day appointment and if there are none the same day and you say 'well it is urgent' they will just say 'ok can you come at end of morning/ afternoon surgery.' and this is a big city!

CinderellaRockefeller · 04/07/2016 20:23

I only mentioned the asthma plan as that should be respected by the receptionist. "I'm calling because my plan I agreed with the nurse says I need to come" should bump you into a more emergency category.

However, it shouldn't be the receptionist call if you are seen at all, just giving them the tools to highlight your case as important to the GP to get back to ASAP.

If your asthma plan isn't being respected by the surgery tell the practice mananger that specifically - it might get them moving to sort it faster.

TroysMammy · 04/07/2016 20:26

Waitrose Shock I hope that patient will now have to register elsewhere for saying that to your Mum. Some of our patients have been off-listed for less.

MiscellaneousAssortment · 04/07/2016 20:50

I've been told repeatedly by one gp receptionist that 'I can't be that ill then' just before she cuts my off when I try and explain that I'm severely disabled so cant get into the surgery without some notice... As id have to make sure my carers are around to help me get up and into my scooter, and I cannot afford to pay them to be available just whenever I might need them. And the less I have any medical care written in my notes the less ill I actually look so then I get even less help. It's a vicious circle and it's done my health a lot of damage over the last few years, so I'm trying not to let people do that to me - but it's incredibly hard as the system is set up to work against properly ill people.

AyeAmarok · 04/07/2016 20:59

Troy, Well don't describe people telling you their symptoms as "TMI" then.

Nothing is TMI when it comes to ill-health with a doctor.

TroysMammy · 04/07/2016 21:19

Amarok But I'm not a Doctor, I'm a Receptionist.

AyeAmarok · 04/07/2016 21:38

You are the person between the patient's access to the doctor. Working for the doctors. If you think things to do with people's health complaints are "TMI" then you shouldn't be working in a GP surgery.

TroysMammy · 04/07/2016 21:50

Ok let's call it over sharing. Diarrhoea fine, I don't need to know you have been on the toilet for 3/4 of an hour. Have you tried to do the job? It can be a challenge I can tell you a bit like trying to explain yourself on MN.

Dontlikethedailyfail21 · 04/07/2016 21:52

I am not commenting in the OP's individual case here but would like to stand up for receptionists in general who get a massive amount of abuse. Poor receptionists always get a bashing. It's not like they are random people off the street. They are trained. If they have been directed to get information about the problem to pass on for triage then that is what they have to do.

TroysMammy · 04/07/2016 22:07

That is very sad but unfair to tar all Receptionists with the same brush.

BeenThereTooSEL · 04/07/2016 22:14

Our GP receptionist is are like this. When they ask you what's wrong ask if they could present you with a copy of their doctorate?