Tell me about your doctor's receptionists good or bad?

[mummyrabbitpeppapig]

This happened to me this morning:
( speaking to Dr reception) hello I missed the callback from the doctor can you ask them to ring me back again please? ( Reply) which Dr rang you?. ( me ) I don't know - I missed the call - (receptionist )- well do you know if it was a man or a lady?

Yes that is a bit dipsy of the receptionist. Maybe she/he didn't get much sleep 😁

I like my receptionists now - they are efficient and do what they have to do (asking for a brief description of the problem etc).

My old doctor's receptionists were awful though. Condescending and quite stuck up - and they thought they were doctors. I also had one (who lives on the same street as my parents, but they're not friends or anything) tell me parents she had seen me at the doctors that day, going to an appointment.

The appointment wasn't sensitive, and my parents already knew, but if it had been this would have been such a breach of my confidentiality.

At our surgery it really depends on who answers the phone. Some of them are bloody amazing others are shockingly shit!

I rang mine this morning..

Me: Can I book an appointment to see the doctor please?
Her: You can...

Then that was it. Silence

Very odd!

Our GP only uses former nurses as receptionists, and so my experience was more positive:

Me: I'm on Clomid and wanted to check with the GP what tests I need.
Receptionist: you need x monthly on day 21 of your cycle, y bimonthly at these days of your cycle, and z weekly until this date. I'll book them in for you and also arrange a follow up with the GP.

It's the same with any job though you get those who are competent and those who are just plain weird.

If it's the older one shes the embodiment of the Rottweiler Receptionist. You cant get an appointment through her for love nor money unless you have already died in which case she would want to check your pulse personally before giving up an appointment to certify your death.

On the occasions she is working but you've managed to get an appointment via the younger receptionist on arrival you will often find you're the only patient there and theres staff wandering around aimlessly chatting about why there aren't any patients and how she has the magic touch at managing the patients with her obviously brilliant advice to self manage

The younger one is brilliant. Really helpful will get you in if youre a worried parent and can tell you which pharmacy can help thats closest to where you are. She deserves a bouquet of flowers every time I see her. Nothing is too much hassle. She's really brilliant.

Previous GP surgeries I hated calling, because of how rude the receptionists were. My current one they are all lovely and helpful, on the phone.
Nutty your receptionists sound great!

I've never really had a good experience with GP receptionists. I hate that they seem to be allowed to triage patients despite having no medical training. Why should they be allowed to judge whether something is severe enough to merit an appointment or not? And why should I have to tell them about potentially quite personal or embarrassing health issues in order to get seen by a doctor?

oohlook that wasn't an odd response, it was a patronising twat response. She was trying to say "yes you are able to make one". She then expected you to laugh in an embarrassed way and rephrase, so that you were not asking if you had the ability to make an appointment but that you would like to make one.

HTH

We have one receptionist that huffs and tuts at people and 2 others that are lovely.

Mine are absolutely lovely. Been there 3 years nearly after a house move and they are a world away from the old surgery.

It was nearly impossible to book an appointment with old surgery. Even when it was for a review as requested by the surgery! I also had 2 run ins with them over DPs stoma products as he was using more than the recommended 2 per day. This was in the height of summer, dp is a builder and the sweat used to make them come undone so need replacing at mid day. I had the receptionist tell me they were nearly £70 per box and the surgery couldn't afford to fund 'extravagant use' of them.

I reported her to the stoma nurses at local hospital for that little gem and they doubled his prescription instantly and prescribed some wound powder stuff on top to stop his skin getting sore.

But current ones are absolutely lovely and helpful and efficient.

I can't fault the receptionists at my doctors. They have been trained to take pertinent details and advise if an appointment with the nurse is more appropriate then a gp for example. Occasionally mistakes are made, i was booked in to the nurse when I needed to see a gp and was given an alternative appointment the same day.

Nearly always helpful and pleasant the odd grump but nothing off-putting.

Nurses answer the phones at my health centre (not in the UK) as they triage over the phone so can't have someone untrained doing that, and they are nearly always great. Have had them encourage me to bring DD in to get a splinter removed because they know how difficult children can be and reassured me that its no trouble to them - love those nurses!

Can't praise mine enough to be honest. There are about 5 different ones and not one of them would ever be rude (the newest one seems to have quickly changed her tone from how she was when she started). The head receptionist is sterner than the others but never rude, just a little less friendly. One of them has been absolutely amazing every time I've spoken to her and she knows my voice as soon as I call (I'm not on the phone all the time but she was the go between when I was quite ill and the GP was checking up on me). They will always try their best to get you seen and always friendly but professional when face to face.

The receptionists at my surgery in London were mostly vile. Always trying to triage you and always huffy.

The ones in my new surgery are lovely, helpful and understanding, and they're just as busy as the London surgery so there's no excuse!

Ds has special arrangements for appointments due to his disability. Some receptionists when you say this, look at his notes to check and then follow the arrangements. Others cannot get beyond computer says no, won't look at his notes to check and you have to get the practice manager to sort it out every single time.

Mine are great- friendly helpful and efficient. I've needed them a lot in the last few weeks with ongoing medical issues and they've been terrific

I've never really had a good experience with GP receptionists. I hate that they seem to be allowed to triage patients despite having no medical training. Why should they be allowed to judge whether something is severe enough to merit an appointment or not? And why should I have to tell them about potentially quite personal or embarrassing health issues in order to get seen by a doctor?
This absolutely!
Took me months to get sorted at the right time as heavy bleeding between periods and would never be given an appointment in the rare times I wasn't-by the time I got there I was bleeding again. Only time I got one was giving the whole sordid details to the receptionist and explain I had had three consecutive useless appointments because of not getting one that day. Puts me off going to doc's as you feel you need to justify your existence. Ended up travelling 20miles to another surgery of a practice they had just merged with for one appointment and totally different attitude there....

My surgery has got pretty efficient, polite receptionists, actually. A lovely friendly young man and a couple of polite, helpful older women. I do get pussd off with the stupid 'triage by receptionist' system when you call up for an emergency appointment, though. I don't want to discuss my health issues with you, thanks! But I realise they are just following protocol, so fair enough.

I know I'm lucky. Previous surgeries I've been registered with have been awful. I left my last surgery because the receptionists were both outrageously rude dragons.it does seem to be a thing.

Mine are great but then again i don't mind telling them why i am calling so i never have a problem with them. They are always really polite and sympathetic and really do try to help you

Ours are incredible. They're friendly, helpful and never do the "what's wrong with him" question. Plus our surgery always manages to fit them in if they're under 18 so it's a godsend for DS2 and his asthma.

We were at asthma clinic this wednesday at 5pm, by 9am today they'd delivered them to our house and the GP had phoned to check DS2 hadn't had any further issues since he was last seen (he's had a dodgy chest for the last fortnight). That sort of service is unheard of these days in most places.

We've got 4 regular receptionists at our surgery, one (the youngest one) is pretty useless, but then I think she'd be useless in any sort of job but the others are great. Her telephone manner isn't great and her general manners aren't great (she's a bit abrupt)but she gets appointments booked and checks you in properly when you arrive so she's not all bad.

You can always get in within a day, and if it's urgent you'll get in the same day (but a lot of that is because the GPs will work through their lunch breaks for emergencies).

They never ask why you want an appointment, but will ask if it's ok to see one of the male GPs rather than the lady if she's not available.

I really like the surgery - we go a lot as DD2 isn't well and DP has monthly appointments and the GP always asks after the other one when we go in (I do in with both) and only ever charges us for a short appointment no matter how long it takes. We drive half an hour to our Drs and I'd never change to a closer one.