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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

322 replies

alpacasandwich · 07/07/2017 20:22

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?

OP posts:
FeeLock28 · 09/07/2017 10:40

As a qualified medical secretary (yes, there are a few of us left!), I can assure you that we have special lessons in Being Very Clear That Until We Have A Degree In Medicine And Another In Surgery We Do Not Ask Clinical Questions.

What we do do, however, is to ask enough information to be able to triage patients: those who need immediate appointments; those who have queries only a clinician can answer; those who can reasonably wait for a fixed amount of time. This triaging is done under the auspices of clinicians and not a process we magicked up on our way to work.

It's a failure of workplace infrastructure that GPs' receptionists have to speak on the phone and to patients face-to-face in public. We receive no qualifications or training in de-escalating confrontations so we largely have to learn on the job, and we rarely have security personnel to oversee difficult conversations. These are just two reasons why there is unlikely to be a private area where a receptionist can speak to a patient - coupled with the fact that such an encounter is ripe for misinterpretation by patient and onlookers alike.

If a receptionist is genuinely rude, as opposed to telling you something you didn't want to hear - such as there are no immediate appointments - there is a mechanism for making a formal complaint. Provide evidence, take notes along with querying what is being said, and remove emotion and opinion. There is no reason why a fairly composed complaint should be anything other than an opportunity for a professional learning occasion.

Original poster
alpacasandwich · 09/07/2017 11:54

Re: being late and not being seen, even if the reason is "good" the nurse's clinic is booked solid. There is no way to see someone 20mins late. A good reason won't magically produce an empty appt slot. It will put the entire clinic 20mins behind.

OP posts:
nina2b · 09/07/2017 12:00

What a long thread which can only be explained by the amount of defensiveness on display.

nina2b · 09/07/2017 12:03

However it is pointless to defend the indefensible. Just change your manner in dealing with sick people and then your client rating level might improve.

nina2b · 09/07/2017 12:04

Today 12:03 nina2b

However, it is pointless to defend the indefensible. Just change your manner in dealing with sick people and then your client rating level might improve.

OhTheRoses · 09/07/2017 12:28

Yes but alpaca something I've had when I was late by 5 mins due to a road closure which eked into my 20 minute safety net.

Well sit down, It's up to the GP if she will see you as you're late. So I sat down. My apt was at 6.45. There were four patients ahead of me and the GP was running 30 minutes late. The GP's first words "I'm so sorry to have kept you waitjng". I told the GP what had been said and her response was "they really shouldn't say things like that, it isn't helpful".

Some of them just enjoy it I think.

Original poster
alpacasandwich · 09/07/2017 12:35

nina ODFOD. I'm not being defensive I'm responding to issues people raise.

OP posts:
Original poster
alpacasandwich · 09/07/2017 12:35

OTR As the GP said that, that's obviously an issue.

OP posts:
Intheknickersoftime · 09/07/2017 14:23

Defensiveness Hmm. Have you actually read any of it?

Intheknickersoftime · 09/07/2017 14:25

But it is up to the GP. Once 20 minutes is up the system marks you as a did not arrive and we have to ask.

OhTheRoses · 09/07/2017 14:27

But I was five minutes late, apologized profusely and was shouted at for it. That's not acceptable but It's par for the course. Any other front of house staff would face disciplinaries for that sort of behaviour.

Bunlicker · 09/07/2017 14:35

Just realising I "know" the op. In that I recognise her name as she's been a complete arse to me on other threads. Grin. I'm wondering now about the random mean people she's met.

RedStripeIassie · 09/07/2017 14:40

I've got literally the loveliest GP receptionists. They know me by my voice over the phone (small town and big health past, not a gp botherer Grin) and bend over backwards to help anyone coming in and are courteous and friendly.

My career has been in healthcare and I've been on the receiving end of people using the excuse ofstress and fear to be really bloody rude. Even when I've been critically ill I've always been polite and thankful to all nhs workers including admin and so have all my family.

Polarbearflavour · 09/07/2017 18:07

Working with the public is thankless. However nice and helpful you are, patients / the public can still be rude and aggressive. Often people perceive the word "no" = rude!

Even if a receptionist is rude or unhelpful, that doesn't mean it's okay to swear at them, threaten them or assault them.

nina2b · 09/07/2017 18:11

It looks as if some receptionists are rude wherever they are as the "ODFOD" illustrates pretty neatly.

nina2b · 09/07/2017 18:13

Interesting post, Bunlicker...

Original poster
alpacasandwich · 10/07/2017 12:03

Oh please, working is completely different to talking to people on an anonymous internet forum. Or are you suggesting no users of AIBU are employed?

OP posts:
Original poster
alpacasandwich · 10/07/2017 12:04

It looks as if some receptionists are rude wherever they are as the "ODFOD" illustrates pretty neatly.

I'm not your GP receptionist in your thread. I'm a human being off the clock. Nice snide comment though.

OP posts:
chicaguapa · 10/07/2017 12:09

I felt sorry for the GP receptionist who had to tell me that it would be a whole calendar month until my routine appointment recently (having completed an online consultation in the interests of saving time and hoping to avoid an appointment at all!), but I imagine that a lot of people would be frustrated by that and it would manifest itself in rudeness tbh.

nina2b · 10/07/2017 13:35

Today 12:04 alpacasandwich

It looks as if some receptionists are rude wherever they are as the "ODFOD" illustrates pretty neatly.

I'm not your GP receptionist in your thread. I'm a human being off the clock. Nice snide comment though.

Such breathtaking irony! What about "ODFOD"as a passing comment, then?!

genehuntswife · 10/07/2017 13:36

It's Russian roulette at my GPs , they're either really lovely or others seem to have been dragged from the bowels of hell.

Ropsleybunny · 10/07/2017 13:37

All the receptionists at our doctors are lovely and so are the doctors and nurses.

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