Fucking GP receptionists

[Eliza9917]

Aibu to think they must train them to be as rude, unhelpful and patronising as possible???

Just left the GP's and I feel like caving the fucking receptionists smug cunting face in.

Yes that's probably an overreaction but they fucking wind me up on a par with dealing with the fucking council.

I don't think you have any idea how overstretched these services are. You could always go private if you think it's that bad! Side note, Drs always say they will have a word with the receptionist if you complain. They never do they're just saying that to appease you & get rid of you. They are the receptionists boss & they probably told the receptionist to say whatever your complaining about.

My records got mixed up with someone else's . I found out when I called to query why my repeat prescription hadn't appeared at Boots. The receptionist told me I'd been de-registered! Turns out my name is similar to someone at the practice who left. They asked me to re-register (which I refused to). Got no help until I had to call the health authority (or whatever they're called these days) who eventually apologised and 'reinstated' my record. Practice manager called me to apologise and said a note would be put on my record to ensure no more mix ups... A few months later I call up for repeat again to be told I was not registered! I tried to remain calm but it was difficult. After asking them to double check my date of birth they admitted their mistake.
Thankfully been ok since then.. however I was in there the other day and overheard a phone call where she was being very defensive and not at all sympathic. The person on the other end I'm sure was being very rude but she really wasn't doing anything to calm the situation.
I then spoke to her and told her I wouldn't want her job and apologised for having been rude to her when my record got mixed up. She did admit that she would have been annoyed in that situation.
Ultimately. It's a stressful job that should only be held by those with superhuman level sympathy and diplomacy as the people you have to deal with are often extremely stressed and worried.
Goodness that was long and rambly!

TroysMammy

RoseWhiteTips what do you class as normal? Would you like to be threatened and verbally abused only by the not normal people because that makes it all right.

Hmmmm

Mine are lovely.

I've had the flu jab every year for the last 20 years or so due to my asthma. I even had the pneumococcal one which my mother had to wait til 70 for (I was in my 20s at the time). I have severe asthma. 2 years ago the surgery got one of the community nurses to do the jabs. I'd never met her. Was about 20 mins late going in, only to be told by her that I wasn't eligible, my athma wasn't that bad and I'd basically been wasting the NHS's money for years. I left close to tears.

I waas back at the surgery the next week and the receptionist asked if I'd had the jab yet. I told her what had happened and I told her. She was furious! She went to speak to the doctor then got me an appointment with him, making sure she would be working that day in case of further trouble. He was just as horrified and couldn't believe what had happened. He did insist on me getting an asthma review in the near future.

Amusingly, it was the bitch who did it. She asked if we'd met before and I lied and said no. I should have told her, and pointed out it the was doctor who gave me the jab (which she said he wouldn't) who had sent me to her. Never mind. She upped the dose of my medication, as my asthma was bad.

The next year she was no longer working in the area.

I must be lucky, but I do like the receptionists here.

Mine is really rude. It's impossible to get any appointments. I rang up because my twins hadn't had their three 1/2 year injections. The receptionist sneered at me and told me they didn't exist, refused to make me an appointment. Refused to speak with a nurse. Refused to pass me onto a health visitor. Only when I complained the practice manger contacted me to tell my twins had been deregistered so they'd missed their injections. No apology just an appointment to turn up in a few weeks for the injections. Good job I'd complained really...

I moved to a brand new area,
Worked Monday to Friday and was out 7am
to 7pm due to commute.

So I took a day holiday (the only my day my boss would allow) from work specifically to take the forms in to register at the doctors, because I was pretty sure I was depressed, and was finally biting the bullet to talk to some one.

Ended up leaving in floods of tears after a very snappy rude receptionist very loudly announced she wasn't happy I'd brought the form in on a Monday and it was really inconvenient for them

I hate having to deal with mine too. Had private tests done recently and was told to go back for repeats. Phoned and outlined it all and then got an appointment. Went along to be told the tests couldn’t be done and I needed to see a doctor first as they didn’t know what they were testing for.... err the letter which clearly outlined it all wasn’t good enough.

Had to wait two more weeks to then see the doctor who then took the tests, such a waste of time. Receptionist didn’t even apologise for booking me in for something that couldn’t be done.
That is just one thing in a long line of things. I know the don’t have an easy job but Jesus they are rude and difficult.

I always use the online appointment booking system now purely so I dont have to go through the receptionists. I'm sure most are lovely, unfortunately I've only ever spoke to awful ones.

Emery - the tests in the letter aren't an order to the GP. They still need to know, assess, agree with them. Sometimes the info in other clinicians letters is enough, sometimes it isn't. Most are very reasonable and straightforward.

WhoInThwWorldAmi - I hope you managed to register and get a timely appointment 🌸

I don’t think drs always say they’ll ‘have a word.’ I told mine about a piece of service I found unsatisfactory and he either didn’t believe me or didn’t get it. I had been sufficiently desperate for an urgent appointment I just couldn’t get that my fathers doctor, who happened to be around that day, sorted me out with a prescription. My doctor didn’t care.

Ours are nice enough. I think they just spend so much of their day dealing with idiots that they sometimes forget that some people aren’t.
I remember bringing in a letter which they said that I couldn’t possibly have received as you wouldn’t receive that until I’d had the appointment I was coming in to see them about. Well I had the letter in my hand! They did seem determined to prove me wrong rather than accept that perhaps there’d been a mixup.

If could get through on phone lines to unpleasant receptionist that would be a bonus! Thankfully my surgery has got an online system too though it's v temperamental at times and not much use if you need to actually speak to someone.

Our old surgerybhaf a great system, if you needed and immediate emergency appointment you were put through to a nurse rather than a receptionist to triage. I had to call twice and once was a breast lump. I got nurse Liz, she is usually the children’s nurse but she was doing triage. That woman is amazing, she can give an injection with no pain and I got her once for a smear and it was over fast and she put me so at ease I barely noticed it (I usually can’t ‘unclench’). She was so lovely whilst i cried down the phone telling me to come right down but it would be fine and I was being a silly billy getting all upset. Shexwascthe gp chaperone whilst he checked it out. She was right it was nothing. I needed someone to mollycoddle me though as I was 23 and thought I was ping to die (as you always assume the worst). One old cow of a nurse needs a slap though and I avoid her.

They moved to the god awful call on the day system, well I kinda need to be at work when your lines open and if you give me 11.40 i’m not going to be able to get away from the office! My DH has to go to out of hours for a prescription after ringing for 4 days with no luck st getting any appointment.

The ones at my GP are lovely. Always helpful. Can't fault them.

YANBU anthing I ask the receptionist at my GPs she just looks at me as though im the most stupid person in the world and shes incredibly put out at having to answer my ridiculous questions! This despite the fact that she must know that things work slightly differently in every area so theres no way I would just automatically know how that specific GPs worked in terms of booking things/picking up prescriptions etc...

All the receptionists at my local surgery are polite, professional and helpful. I have encountered some very rude ones in the past though.

the worst receptionist ever was the A&E woman who got incredibly hostile when I didnt know the date of birth and middle name of a man who was having a heart attack who id helped into A&E and was unable to speak for himself.....
That was because id found him on the ground and he was a complete stranger.... that was not a good enough excuse apparently and it was highly ridiculous that I could not provide her with his exact details and medical history. You would have honestly thought from her attitude that shed preferred if id just left him there to die!

Arghhh. I'm starting a job in a couple of weeks. As a receptionist in a doctors surgery. I'm really scared now!

It's minimum wage. I'm actually a skilled medical professional and could earn quadruple that, but I needed a break from it.

I'm already wondering if it's worth it....and I haven't started yet!

I'm nice. I hope I stay nice!

If the hospital doctor wanted a test done they should have arranged it themselves. Nothing to do with the GP practice.

I’ve been to a couple of surgeries in the last 10 years because I’ve moved around a bit and without exception every single one has been rude, unhelpful and had a huge attitude.

Examples that really stand out are when I was having an allergic reaction and had never had one before (not anaphylaxis, just swelling luckily) but I didn’t know what was happening to my body and the receptionist told me I’d been accidentally unregistered and I’d have to wait until the next day to see a gp because I wasn’t on their computer, my lips and eyes were really visibly swollen.

Or when I’d fallen down the stairs and bruised my coccyx and was crying in agony, I went to minor injuries and they told me they couldn’t help and I had to see a gp. I called to make an appointment and was told to come to the surgery and wait to be seen, then when I got there, which was difficult because I couldn’t get into the car without screaming in pain, I was told I couldn’t wait and I had to go home and the dr would call me, assess me over the phone and give me a time to come back. The dr called 10 minutes later as I arrived home, but they were adamant I couldn’t just wait for a dr in the waiting room.

I'm a GP receptionist. I'm utterly delightful, even to shockingly rude arseholes like you. Even if I were unable to magic up an appointment out of thin air so that we could assist the hospital in doing their job for them for the umpteenth time that day, we'd have probably found a solution for you, especially if you'd been as polite and understanding as you probably really are really.
In fact, it's highly likely we'd have labelled up a swab pack and handed it to you with the instructions to go shove it up your cunt in your own time so we could send it off to the hospital for you.
See how accommodating we can be?
Fuck off OP. We have to deal with rude aggressive scumbags like you every single day.

I have been a GP receptionist, I also manage some services now and cover some front line work
90% of the time all is fine
But it is unfortunate you are literally the front of house and a gatekeeper, a receptionist is worried about the risk of getting something wrong and they aren’t medical professionals so it is a very fine line between them following protocol (set by the practice) and being human. I could be really nice and let everyone in even if they don’t meet the criteria but I suppose all services are on their knees as it is and there is ultimately a price to this that you only have a limited amount of resources that you can allocate in a certain time period and that is quite pressurising and stressful

You do have to tell them what you need to see a doctor for because they have to make a decision about what HCP it needs to be, how long; is it appropriate.

I do agree some could have more training. I am in a big organisation and this is part and parcel of our ethos but GP’s are GP led and don’t have to conform to the same training standards as we do. If we had a lot of complaints we would have to do something about them. So always complain

I wonder if at least some of it depends on the surgery itself - how well it functions and what kind of an atmosphere there is. I can imagine a new receptionist might come in full of good intentions, but if the surgery is a bit of a mess, there's lots of random hassle and disorganisations, and the other receptionist have a "culture" of not being particularly nice to patients, which in turn will mean the patients will turn up ready for a fight, they'd soon start acting like their collegues?

I've had less than nice receptionists in my previous (busier, urban) surgeries, although I think on par with most other customer facing people (at least where they don't depend on your custom for business). Current surgery with it's YOUNG (not long!) lads is a genuine positive surprise. They do actually have some older females in the mix, too. The two young men just stand out. It seems to be a pretty well run and well organised surgery in general, in a smaller town setting. Yes, I've left them positive feedback, also on the receptionists!

There's some properly nice small town stuff going on, where they remember you and seem to not treat you as a number, even though it's not a small surgery. I watched a new dad come to book his partner's six week check while I was there recently, and the receptionists were full of congratulations and asking about how the mum and baby were doing, and what they were calling their wee son etc.

One of the receptionists (not one of the lads) is a bit flappy. I asked for a referral letter that I was told was in the reception recently, and she genuinely looked down on hands and desk and went into a flap about not having any letter there. Then went on a long flappy search. There was a box on the side table that says "Referral letters" on it. I meant to say to maybe look there, but she went off to find a collegue to help before I could. Collegue obviously assumed said box had already been looked into, and both rushed off into the back room. It took a third collegue (I don't know if these were all receptionists, just people who milled about) to find my letter, in the box.

Nearly all the GP receptionists I’ve met have been patronising bitches. OP could not agree more....
It’s mostly because they are not very educated school drop outs or whatever (2 gcse) who get on a power trip for the first time in their lives. They feel important denying you access to the doctor or being obstructive or asking you what your symptoms are (as if they were medical professionals), so they can decide if you get to see the doctor... it makes them feel important. And because the nhs doesn’t have money they do hire the least qualified/educated/bright candidates and that’s why everyone/most people complain about them