Receptionists at the Doctor's surgery

[CallingFromLondon]

AIBU to be fed up of all these jokes and complaints about them? "They don't have a medical degree, they just think they do". Or "Why do they ask all those questions?"

They ask so they can redirect you to the right place or person. If you ring up and want to see a GP about a rash, you're not going to want to see a GP specialising in mental health, are you?!

Sorry, rant over. I know I'm not being unreasonable.

And my experience is being told no, there are no emergency appointments. So no not in all surgeries does everyone who asks for one get seen.

A major issue is that patients often have to phone from work or a public place. I would be quite happy to discuss medical issues IF I was home in private but if I am in the middle of a busy office, I appreciate some discretion. Some people simply cannot easily find somewhere private to phone from.

I always use online booking if I can. I will look at the doctor's specialisations before choosing an appropriate doctor. And I am very happy to give details of the issue online when I book it.

you are being unreasonable. They're not qualified to decide who you need to see. Also "general practitioners" or "nurse" are going to be the only 2 options you can choose, and most people would know if they needed to see a doctor or a nurse.

The only reason they would need to know is if you were on the triage list. Not so they can decide whether you get an appointment, so an actual medical professional can decide whether you do.

They also have to ask because there are far too many people who go to the doctors when they don't need to, because they have a virus and want to demand antibiotics.
But how can a receptionist know the cause of your illness just by asking you a few questions?

"I have a headache, nausea and vomiting" could be anything from a hangover to meningitis to a brain tumour and many things in between.

I find them snippy and sadly think they answer each call with a don’t fuck with me tone because they have a lot of rude callers.

My drs has recently amended the answer message that automatically answers before putting you through to state that any “aggressiveness” will end up with the call being terminated. Which actually makes me feel a bit ragey and if I wasn’t calling for an emergency would feel the pedantic need to ask them to correct it to “aggression”, but I don’t want to risk the call being terminated.

The receptionist in a GP is just there to stop you seeing the GP.

It's no wonder they are rude, bossy cows with bad attitude. That's on purpose.

And of course people die because the receptionist has put them off. That's built into the system. Happens every month in a large practice.

Ive never met a nice doctors receptionist. I also dont believe they have the right to know why you require a doctors appointment. Gp's are medically trained to deal with most problems but receptionist screening doesnt garantee you will see somebody suitable. Ive had doctors googling symptoms before now after explaining to the receptionist.

&flamingofridays

Not strictly true...

Not all our nurses do the same thing, we have to know what they are booking in for or the nurse will not know what she has to prepare for.. they also have to sometimes order in certain equipment/immunisations or whatever.

Also, a lot of people try and book in for things they do not need an appointment for, for example.. a UTI. We take a sample and the nurse will dip it and send results to the GP to prescribe something if necessary.

There’s a lot more to it than people think. It’s not about deciding who has an illness worthy of an appointment.. far from it.

you ring up and want to see a GP about a rash, you're not going to want to see a GP specialising in mental health, are you?!

Well I would actually. A GP is a GP. If they specialise in mental health they might be better qualified to deal with the next person, but at the same time they can still check a rash.

Sometimes they are very helpful but sometimes there are conversations like this.

"I need an apt with one of the GP's for my annual check for chronic underlying disease, it's not urgent so could I have the first available appointment at 8.30am with a dr"
"2pm on Tuesday love"
I'm sorry I work fulltime, can I please have an appointment at 8.30am. Now worries if it's in a few weeks"
"I've got 10.30 on Friday"
"I'm sorry but I need an apt at 8.30am when you have one"
Audible sigh
"8.30 on Tuesday 26th then"

Why does that to happen? Do I not make myself clear enough or is it just to be unhelpful and waste their time and mine?

Or

"I've come to collect my prescription please"
"Name"
"No nothing here, come back tomorrow"
But I ordered it last Friday and your sla is 48 hours and you have had 94"
"Well I'll get the dr to do it after surgery, come back later/tomorrow"
"I'm sorry but my time is valuable like the dr's and coming in at 8.30 or at 6.30 means I have to be late for wprk again or leave early again"
"Well you'll have to come back for it"
"Why when the error isn't mine"
Catbum face
"Well can you pop it in the post please"
"Only with an envelope and stamp"
Well if I had that on me I'd give it to you
"This is the NHS you know"
"Yes I do know but I have not made the error so why is it me who needs to put myself out to deal with the practice's error"
Audible harrumph
"This is the NHS and it's free"
"It isn't actually"

All iver the surgery there are signs about the dr's time, being polite to staff and zero tolerance for rudeness. It needs to be reciprocal.

Why is there such obstructiveness.

I always try to leave any space where there are notes saying zero tolerance for rudeness to staff. It often means staff are rude and have no training on dealing with the public.

I left my old GP practice because of the intrusive and unnecessary questions by their receptionists. No, I don't wish to discuss my health with someone who is acting as 'gatekeeper' to the service and who has no medical training to be able to judge whether I need to see a doctor or not. I have no form for being a time waster and I resent the implication that I am. I'm now with a practice that allows patients to make online bookings. I love it!

They need to listen to the patients needs. My DH was having chest pains. I rang for an appointment but the receptionist was very dismissive and offered him an appointment for two weeks time. We reluctantly turned up at A&E feeling bad we were time wasting. My lovely DH was having a heart attack. If we had waited the two weeks he wouldn't have been here. I understand they have a difficult job but some cases need an appointment immediately.

"General practitioners or nurse are the only two options". Not true. A practice nurse and a nurse practitioner are very different roles and we have a few of each. And many people don't know whether they need a doctor or a nurse. They don't realise a NP can do a great deal of what a GP can do and in fact, would be happy with this to be seen sooner. Without this triage, the wait to see a GP would be twice as long. I'm a PN and see it every day.
Receptionists ask questions because they are told to by the GP. If people are so unhappy with this, complain to those who decide how the system works.

I have known some lovely GP receptionists. They need to be firm but kind.

Some people are unreasonable - asking for home visits because they are unable to get to the surgery, but then refusing an appointment because they will be off to the hairdressers then. If you can afford a taxi to the hairdresser, you can afford one to the GP.

Receptionists have to deal with people with unrealistic expectations like this.

theWickerWoman the receptionists at my local surgery appear to have had some re-training recently and are much more professional now. But it always used to be

Me: hello, my name's Yellow Jumper...
Receptionist: Mrs Jumper? Is that 13 Yellow Street?
My friends/neighbours who happen to be waiting to see a GP: Ooh this sounds interesting, I wonder why Yellow's ringing the doctor...

I heard something similar quite a number of times - either when I was in the surgery waiting room, or gossip resulting from something like this. I suppose I should have complained, but I know others did and they do seem to have made efforts to deal with it now thankfully, but I'd still feel uneasy about sharing personal info.

I also think the lines are blurred a bit when the receptionists are part of the community too, so you're sharing info with someone you may also know as a fellow school mum or similar - that's unavoidable, but also makes it different from a 111 call.

ours are excellent. they only ask for further information if an urgent appointment is requested, and even then do so sensitively. I had to contact them last year about some a scan result that the sonographer advised me to chase urgently, and they instantly put me through to a GP on the phone.

mind you, I assume they're only as good as the GPs themselves, in that we're usually fortunate enough to be offered say Dr Smith on Friday, Dr Patel on Mon, or Dr Chan on Weds, so you can decide whether to go for ASAP or for a particular practitioner.

the only time I had any difficulty getting seen was when a locum declined to offer an appointment to DC2 when she had a chest infection, and told us to go to the walk-in for triage. the walk-in called the gp to complain and insist that she was seen. on arrival the receptionist whispered to me that she'd tried really hard to get us seen earlier, as the regular GPs always wanted young babies to be seen ASAP.

I've never really had a good or bad experience with GP receptionist until joining my new practice. They are awful.

Most recently when trying to book an appointment, I asked for one before 9am any week day and, like PP up the tread described, she came back with nearly every other time slot available. No I can't do 3pm, no I can't do 11:30am. Yes I'm aware I may have to wait a week, that's fine, no I still can't do 1:15pm.
I also tried to book on behalf of my son, but we have different surnames and she was really difficult, saying I would need his birth certificate to confirm we were related. Bullshit.

They do need to ask, and all but the very worst of them are perfectly understanding if your answer is "um. I really do need to see a doctor"

I have been expertly soothed by receptionists interpreting my sobbing down the phone as a mental health emergency (correctly!).

@theyellowjumper

I get you, I can see where you’re coming from. If ever you’re uncomfortable with any of the staff seeing your private records you can ask that they are specifically blocked from seeing your records. We occasionally do this at our practice on request because some patients have history or are well known to one of the admin staff and want their records kept private from them.

I take a medication that requires frequent blood tests to monitor side effects. For a year now my bloods have been abnormal, many times so abnormal that I have to omit the medication for a week.

Had bloods done and phoned for the result as usual. Receptionist tells me they are back and fine. I asked if she was sure and if they were from X date as they haven't been normal for a year. Told yes, all back, all normal. Several more times I ask and eventually tell her the 3 tests I had done. Only 1 was back and it wasn't the 1 we are worried about. Reluctantly she finally puts me through to the GP who checks and it appears the bloods have gone missing, urgent repeat done. Low and behold results come back seriously abnormal. If I hadn't understood what I was talking about I could have accepted the assurance that all was fine and carried on with the medication.

Receptionists need to appreciate that they aren't medically trained and when a query arises that they don't know the answer to they should refer it on, not make up an answer.

My GP surgery is fab, the receptionists know us by name (small village) saying that, there's never been any issues with confidentiality and we can phone up and get an appointment very quickly. I've been asked how quickly I could get there as they could see me in 30 minutes (I did). I'm not saying where I live in case you all turn up to register there!

I'm sure some are fine. I arrived for my weekly appointment with the nurse last week to be told that it had been cancelled. I was then told that one of her colleagues had telephoned me and left a message. I pointed out that I'm pretty much housebound and received no calls and I wasn't sure how they left a message when I didn't have an answerphone. I explained why I needed to see the nurse and she mumbled and booked me in for the following day. Both the nurse and I were confused that she written it was re diabetes, which I don't have.

Hmm I don't mind so much over the phone but I don't like it when I am in a full waiting room and with people behind me in a queue. My husband has severe asthma and was fobbed off recently by a receptionist whilst trying to book in an appointment about it. She obviously didn't realise how serious asthma can be therefore, I don't really think it should be down to reception staff to determine how urgent an appointment is.

There's such a huge difference between surgeries too. My GP doesn't offer phone consultations, online booking or online repeat prescription orders. The only permanent doctor works one morning a week, and the other slots are taken by a succession of locums, so you never know who you are booked in with unless it's a Thursday morning. There are several lovely receptionists there and one awful, rude, one who talks down to people.

At DH's surgery, the receptionists are all awkward apart from one, who is very sympathetic if you have a problem - DH is on a cocktail of medication for his cancer and has had at least one thing wrong on every prescription in the last year. Depending who you talk to, you can either get the matter resolved instantly, or it can take several days. They are always losing his hospital discharge notes, which usually have changed meds noted on them.

I think the common theme is that they are people - you get helpful and unhelpful people in life, same as polite and rude people. You only interact with a GP surgery generally when you are unwell and a little vulnerable, so it's more likely that you notice poor customer service skills because your tolerance threshold is lower. That's my theory anyway.