AIBU to think people feel entitled to be rude to GP Receptionists?

[alpacasandwich]

I've got a job stacking shelves in a supermarket. I love it. People are mostly kind, friendly and above all respectful. If someone asks me where something is, they are so apologetic about me abandoning whatever I'm doing.

By my third shift in a GP surgery I'd been sworn at, regularly told I was responsible if someone died before they could see a GP, been given the line "I pay your wages", been hung up on over the phone multiple times, I barely went 20mins without someone angrily eye rolling and shouting and being hideous.

Why do people treat people like that? I always heard retail is hell, but the odd moany customer is the exception. As a receptionist you're treated with absolute disdain no matter how hard you work and how nice you are. I used to cry in the toilets.

AIBU to think people feel entitled to behave this way, maybe due to the idea that receptionists are evil witches?

I suspect a lot of GP receptionist are rude as a form of defence. Whenever I have dealt with any of them at my local clinic they usually start off snapping at me for daring to ring them, then get progressively pleasanter when they realise I'm not going to be a dick to them. I do understand why people are snappy back though.

I agree with you Ralph - who can't the receptionists own that some of their colleagues are shit.

I'm a civil servant and I've met ( and heard about) lots of terrible civil servants in my time. I don't know why people get so uppity about people saying that some people are terrible at their jobs! I certainly don't think it's a reflection on me if someone says they have come across a crap civil servant.

But same with teachers on here - they are never shit/ wrong/bad at their jobs. Just tired overworked and unappreciated.

I've heard some crap from people waiting in line to speak to a receptionist, but I can honestly say that ours are mostly kind, reasonable people. You get the odd moment, but I'd be hard pushed to say they were being cowbags even then.

We must be lucky.

Anatidae I took a call from a patient concerned about chest pain which was centralised. I told him he needed A&E but should ring for an ambulance. He tried to talk himself out of this advice and he said "it couldn't come at a worse time'. He never acted on my advice and I heard a few weeks later he was hospitalised with a stroke.

Who knows, this could have been prevented if he had listened when he first rang the surgery.

Roses, you stated that the surgery received the request for medication and acted on it. They didn't post it to someone else (you), due to confidentiality. I don't know how old your Dd is but I would guess at least in her teens.

This is where the process failed for you. If it was being sent electronically then as soon as the doctor authorised it, it would have been sent. The method of requesting the prescription doesnt make any difference although if its a face to face consultation the doctor can print it.
This would have prevented the issue you had and by setting it up it could stop it from happening again.

Thank you for that advice liftledrummergirl. DD is 18 and has given her consent for information to be exchanged with me. It is in her records. The GP insists on seeing dd every four months and inbetween asks that dd let's her know how she is doing before prescribing. This has been going on for two years. That doesn't work electronically really.

The GP is excellent but I'm sorry the admin staff leave a lot to be desired.

It has been such a slog getting dd well again and I honestly don't think the reception staff comprehend how draining it is to support and advocate for a teen who is suffering mh problems.

It has been such a slog getting dd well again and I honestly don't think the reception staff comprehend how draining it is to support and advocate for a teen who is suffering mh problems.

I'm sorry but this is absurd. I worked as a receptionist throughout having bipolar disorder that I've had since 13 and it took me 10 yrs to get a diagnosis. I fully understand.

My mum is a GP receptionist.

She's so unhappy. She is forced to ask callers why they need an appointment or she is pulled up on it. She regularly gets abuse which isn't dealt with unless the abuse continues towards the doctor.

Management are fucking useless and put in place these BRILLIANT ideas that don't work and cause complaints. It's always the receptionist's fault.

I feel bad she can't afford to just walk away

I went to a GP surgery that had the most hilariously rude receptionists. Anyone in Fulham might know the one I'm speaking of, they're famously dour.

I switched a few years back, and my new GP surgery had such a bad receptionist that I had to lodge a complaint - she tried to tell me I was late for an appointment when my iPhone (you know, clock set by an external network) showed me as being spot on, and she refused to look at it.

They replaced this receptionist with a lovely, empathetic woman. I've observed her receiving some shocking abuse from the public when sitting in the waiting room.

I'm still amazed that so many of you think thiat those who do the job are barely lacking in empathy and that we are supposed to be all singing all dancing superstars when we take calls all day, doing really long hours. No other job in the NHS is anyone allowed to be as rude and abusive as they are to us. But maybe it's not me. It's just every other receptionist. Because the ones I work with sometimes ring when they get home to check if they have definitely done something. You are trying to get the attention of the GP because the crisis team need an immediate call back whilst sending a note through because a little girl doesn't like the taste of her antibiotics whilst someone is scowling at you because your not immediately dealing with them. You may have already cried in the toilets that morning because someone has phoned to let you know their mum has died, or they think they're having a miscarriage. The great British public has no idea what we do. I and yet as this thread has proven, it's perfectly acceptable to insult us in every way. Because we're cows, dragons, nosy. I think those who have a tough stance are the only ones who survive.

Tbf the receptionists who are difficult at my drs aren't actually rude. It is the blanket nos and refusals to allow pre arranged reasonable adjustments or telling us ds is not entitled to certain things when he is.

Well that problem is down to the GP partners and the practice manager. I work at a great practice where I can ask anyone, anything. That is not true of everywhere. Another absolute minefield is when parents ring up asking about their teenage or twenty something children. We absolutely, first and foremost have to uphold confidenality. So we may not engage with you but encourage your child to ring instead. That's what I do. I wouldn't say anything unless iwas 100% sure I was allowed to and checked with my manager or the GP.

Tazerface

My mum is a GP receptionist.

She's so unhappy. She is forced to ask callers why they need an appointment or she is pulled up on it.

^ this!

In all honesty it's wrong. There is a confidentiality between Dr and patient. Nope I should not have to explain to the receptionist why I need to see the doctor. I don't need to disclose any symptoms. Yep, it can be helpful, but it's not a necessity.
Maybe that's why people are rude? They don't want to discuss their state of health with the receptionist....

Why do receptionist seem to think they are all knowing:

1. Two days after my father had suffered a horrendous death, as there were no out of hours GPs working within 60 miles and he died before an ambulance could get there, I was in a state of shock! I kept losing time - driving along, I'd find myself in a split second, on a different stretch of road, 20 minutes further on! I was 10 minutes late for a smear, due to time having just disappeared - the receptionist and nurse just stood there making sarcastic remarks about how I could not have a smear due to being LATE, with much rolling of their eyes! Does it not occur to receptionists that people might actually have good reason for being late - like being in a state of shock and grief!

1. I went into the practice on a Monday, to request a repeat prescription for DD's emergency medication, which we needed as we were flying on holiday, the next Monday. They assured me it would be at our nominated pharmacy on Friday. DH went to pick it up on Saturday to find the pharmacy did not even have the prescription, never mind the drug. I went 1st thing Monday morning to the practice find out where the prescription was - in reception. Apparently, it was an oversight they forgot to send it to the pharmacy! (Even though the pharmacy sent staff every day to collect the prescriptions). The receptionist assured me I could go and get it from the pharmacy! I went and sure enough, it was not a drug they kept in stock and it would be in the next day! Same story at Boots - this half an hour before we had to check in! We were so stressed at the thought of a holiday with DD and no emergency medication, DH said the best part of the holiday was sitting in the departure lounge on the way home!

We both work in a profession, and no receptionist would start giving clients professional advice!

Our problem is down to individual receptionists not doing simple things like calling up his notes that clearly state what the adjustments are. Some manage to do that and we never have any problems with them.

Oh, and I'd spent 5 months trying to get a prescription of the emergency drug from the GPs, and in the last conversation , the GP had told me to leave it with her....This the product of choice in the county for people like DD, on the CCG's own website under policy documents!

Sometimes information can be buried in consultation notes. It's not always obvious to see.

Is anyone here a member of their PPG?

I think it might be like with some police officers, you get jaded from dealing with shit and maybe struggle to be nice to everyone from the start.. and the really nice people can't hack it and quit so you're left with a certain brand of person.

My gp surgery has lovely receptionist.

I walk quite a distance to use them though as my closest one is run by a shower of assholes

Oh but op, no, you don't deserve to be treated like shit at work ever

Trouble is that due to past experiences of crap service, even good GP receptionists have an uphill struggle, as the patients have memories of their crap predecessors and crap colleagues, so expect the worse! Added to that, they're probably stressed with their own or a relative's illness! People go in or ring up an expect an argument simply because of past experience, so the receptionist has to work harder to overcome that.

At our surgery, there are two vile receptionists who seem to take great pleasure in being unhelpful. I've been known to walk in and straight out again when I've seen them at the desk and will put the phone down when I ring and one of them picks up the call. I just know that they won't help, so it's pointless even trying. Yet, there are another couple of people, including a rare young bloke who are really good, and will actually bother to listen and do their best for you. I can't understand how you can have such different types of people doing the same job, chosen and trained by the same practice manager. It's not just me, either - when I'm in the waiting room, there seems to be a constant stream of people having arguments with the vile women, but on other days when it's the other woman or the bloke, there are none!

Somebody way up thread explained that the receptionist asks whether you can give a few details of what is wrong so that they can appropriately signpost and if the patient says 'it's private' then no further questions asked.
Years ago patients queued up outside the surgery and were seen in order or at other surgeries just added on until everyone who asked for an appointment was seen.
This just could not work now as there are not enough doctors and nurses to provide not only the increased workload due to patients higher expectations but also the very important and effective work on chronic diseases, follow up etc etc. Think of your own lives and those of your friends and families and consider whether all the medical contacts that happen now at the surgery would have happened 20 or 30 years ago; blood pressure management fair enough/ family planning/ stress and depression particularly for social and financial difficulties/marital problems/ detailed diabetes management/ endless insurance reports/ support of severely unwell psychiatric patients/travel advice and vaccinations / children with coughs and colds who because of school attendance strictures or parents both working need to get back to school / complex medical conditions no longer being followed up in hospital / the terminally ill and very elderly at home ...
Gp surgeries are swamped and unfortunately this means it can't be a free for all as far as appointments are concerned or there may be no time or opportunity to see the severely ill or needy the queries about child not liking the taste of a medicine or someone having to order their medicines urgently as they had forgotten to do so in a timely manner are amazingly frequent and can be dealt with much more easily by phone or a message than an appointment; freeing up time for someone else.
As I said above most users of the health service are not working full time but clearly this latter group are the ones who are not well served by the system. Surgeries now have extended hours opening eg from7.00 and Saturday mornings but these are often not used by the people for whom they were designed.

Just want to reiterate to any receptionists that lots of us do appreciate your skills and your jobs. No service is perfect and, of course, there will be things in some areas that need to be changed, but that doesn't deserve the crap you get.

There are 2 receptionists at our practice, one is absolutely lovely, I spent 2 years getting weekly repeat prescriptions for DS2 and she was always really nice, even now when I (very rarely) call up she remembers me and asks after the kids. The other is abrasive, rude and borderline aggressive no matter what you are calling for. However, having seen the timewasting, selfish arseholes people they are forced to deal with day in day out I can see how the job would suck the soul out of you.