To let you know that you're not doing yourself any favours by refusing to tell the GP receptionist your symptoms?

[privateeyefan]

I'm a GP. My surgery operate a triage system - if you ring up or walk in asking for an appointment, then you get put on the triage list, and get a phone call from the doctor that same day, who can then make an appointment for you if you need one.

When patients ring up or walk in, the receptionists who speak to them will ask for a brief outline of the problem. This means that, as we usually have at least 3 doctors doing triage at any one time, we can prioritise the calls - if if see things that I know will need an appointment, then I will call those patients first so that I can get them into the surgery on the same day, often within the hour.

If you refuse to tell the receptionist what the problem is, and there is therefore nothing next to your name on the triage list, then I leave you until last. I'm not going to prioritise you over people I know will have to be seen, when I have no idea whether or not you will need an appointment. Therefore, if you don't tell the receptionist, your chances of a same-day appointment decrease substantially, and you will also have last choice of appointments over the next few days - the most convenient times after working hours will be long gone.

In addition, I, like most of my colleagues, have a special interest in a certain field. As I glance through the triage list, I generally pick out patients whose problem relates to my particular field of expertise, as do my colleagues. By refusing to give even the briefest of outlines, you rule out the chance that the GP with the most relevant experience will contact you directly.

Receptionists don't have medical training. Of course not. But that doesn't make them incapable of typing a one line summary of your problem dictated by you, in order to help the doctors do their job.

And please also remember - they speak to hundreds of patients daily. Your problem will occupy their mind for a few seconds, and then they will move on to the next patient and you will be swiftly forgotten.

PS
I have tried to obtain medicine via online pharmacy. To try to avoid going to GP
The answer came back that with my symptoms, I had to visit the GP
I visited GP & successfully received treatment

give patients the choice of voicemail or webform...

If you really want you can have the receptionist take the call and if people don't want to tell them then flip them over to a voicemail to record their symptoms privately.

The lecturing tone from the OP makes me feel uncomfortable and comes across as arrogant. I am sure that’s not intended and is a result of frustration but I hope the patients are being considered ahead of this frustration.

Not all patients will be comfortable with the systems, the lack of privacy and the authoritarian role of an unqualified receptionist doing triage.

@AngeloMysterioso Brilliant.

@OrdinarySnowflake that’s a good idea unless, like my surgery, the answering machine is in Reception so all people there AND in the waiting room can hear what’s said when someone leaves a message or messages are played back. Not all surgeries use VOIP phones/head sets or online messaging services.

"It's true, there aren't enough GPs..But people are selfish. You are not going to be able to get people to effectively deprioritise their own health to benefit the overall needs of all patients at the surgery."

That's not true at all. People will often say it's not urgent. Plenty of people also don't even go to the GP when they should because they know the NHS is under pressure.
Obviously there may be times when you think your problem might be urgent because you just don't know if it is or not.
A colleague of mine had bad sunburn. When her ankle swelled she didn't want to do anything about it, but was persuaded to go to hospital by colleagues. Turned out she had sepsis and could have died had she tried to be selfless and not gone for treatment.

the authoritarian role of an unqualified receptionist doing triage

You haven’t read my post then. The whole point is that the receptionist doesn’t do triage, the doctors do.

give patients the choice of voicemail or webform

We have online access where patients can book themselves onto the triage list. It’s been available for 2 years, but the vast majority of our patients haven’t signed up, despite our efforts.

I went to a great clinic once where they had a laminated list of things you might want to talk about labelled a-z and they asked you to read it and say which letter(s) you wanted to talk about. Could something similar help? You could have a letter for each of the things you are interested in and all the main things that are too embarrassing to say out loud then if it was something different the patient could say other.

So sorry about your dad @OhTheRoses - blood cancers are an awful thing and are seem to be often missed.

DH is doing ok - it’s been an awful year, but fortunately he is now responding well to treatment and back at work. He has Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia and realistically the delay in diagnosis probably didn’t make a difference for him.

Did you clarify whether this policy applies wholesale to patients with communication disorders, personality disorders, hearing loss, mental health issues, OP?

Can't see it.

No she's being selective about the questions she answers

It is very wrong to discriminate against someone just because they do not want to divulge their personal information to a stranger which is not their doctor.

If it's just a common cold or something minor then perhaps there's no issue but for those who have long-term medical conditions, they may not feel comfortable discussing that with a receptionist. I would not, for example, feel happy to discuss my endometriosis with a receptionist as I struggle to discuss it with anyone. Should I be penalised for that?

I also think it's pretty unethical to come on here and start discussing your practice and patients in such a way. What is the point of this post as not every GP surgery operates on the same practices? My surgery is you call at 8.45am and ask for a moment and get given a time there and then for that day.

You haven’t read my post then. The whole point is that the receptionist doesn’t do triage, the doctors do @privateeyefan

At your surgery maybe, but not at them all.

Oh come on!!
Regardless of confidentiality practices, divulging personal information to a gp, who could lose their livelihood if they divulged the information unnecessarily, is entirely different to divulging information to an admin worker.
The receptionist does not have many years of training at stake, a professional code to follow, and could easily get an an admin job elsewhere. Totally different to a gp.
If I don’t want to divulge personal information to an admin worker, then that is entirely up to me. As far as my privacy is concerned, I don’t care whether I am doing myself any favours or not.

You haven’t read my post then. The whole point is that the receptionist doesn’t do triage, the doctors do.

You’re making the assumption that all surgeries operate as you do.

The reason people have such an issue with receptionists is many don’t. Many do have the receptionist triaging.

Make sure your patients know how your surgery works (reminders rather than assuming they know nothing has changed in a decade) and they know it’s not like the places they hear about (like my surgery)

This thread has been really interesting to read, both from OP's perspective & the respondents. I'm in Ireland, and in our beleaguered health system, the NHS is often held up as a better alternative.

When it comes to going to the GP, most Irish people have to pay, typically €50 - €60 per visit (about £42-£50 Sterling), more for bloods, longer consultation, services like getting the coil etc. (If you are low income (income threshold is pretty low) you can get a Medical Card & under-6s are free)

I rarely need to see the doctor urgently, thankfully, but regularly have to make appointments to follow up on some ongoing conditions. I usually make these a week / 10 days in advance.

@privateeyefan what happens in your surgery in this situation? Can someone call up & do this? Or do they still get triaged? Or is that only for same-day only requests? Because you said re receptionists don't ever make appointments

The systems in Europe work so much better but of course most hcps are opposed because it would mean they would have to provide more efficient and better quality services.

I know many GPs and hospital doctors who are keen to move and work abroad because they want to work in a more efficient and quality environment - who wouldn't?

The NHS provides free at the point of delivery care, which like all systems has it's pros and cons. Some HCP are very keen to keep that model because they think it is fairest, not because they have some objection to working in a quality service. HCP are all patients somewhere too, we are not immune to the limitations of the NHS.

GPs I know who moved to work in European countries generally say they prefer working in the system where patients pay appointment fees as it cuts down on daft appointments and they have shorter waiting times and longer appointment lengths due to better funding and staffing. However some people I know living in these countries find paying for appointments expensive and they can put off seeing the GP when unwell, so it isn't without problems.

You haven’t read my post then. The whole point is that the receptionist doesn’t do triage, the doctors do.

At YOUR practice! Have you just ignored the many answers where posters have been told by receptionists that their issue didn’t warrant an appointment with a Dr? Or are you just batting them away with “well, that never happens at OUR practice”??

Well, bully for your practice!

Sorry OP but your tone and responses suggest to me that you are feeling overwhelmed by the situation. You sound really angry at patients.

Yes sometimes people make decisions that may seem silly. But people have the right to make that decision and being angry at them is showing a lack of empathy. Saying “get a grip” is not a great argument back when someone made a valid point.

I usually tell the receptionist the reason for the appointment, but I’ve heard some shocking things in response...

“Your son only needs one adrenaline auto injector because that’s all my son had 15 years ago”

“You can’t get antihistamines from the NHS” - Ummmm you dont know what your talking about because you don’t know my sons situation!

Hmmm, if I wanted to discuss my ailments with the GP receptionist I'd be booking an appointment with them and if they can diagnose and decide whether I then need to see the doctor kind of makes me wonder what all the years at medical school are for......

Also I worry about my DDs future who has a social communication disorder and would clearly be unreasonable in your eyes for not being ABLE to describe to the receptionist her problems.

The systems in Europe work so much better

Probably depends on the system and your particular situation. My DP live in "Europe" - they have to pay for public healthcare appointments, tests and medications (not a prescription charge but price depending on whatever companies are charging for medication in question). It's no problem for them, or for most of their middle class friends - they all have health insurances and wouldn't really dream of going to the public health facilities unless for something fairly trivial. Must not be as much fun for those on slightly lower income.

Suggested system

Reception says you're welcome to disclose why you need an appointment or how urgent you feel it is if you want to but no need to.

Receptionist passes on list to Dr

Patient A - medicine review
Patient B - private
Patient C - suspect rash in 2 yr old
Patient d - contraceptive request
Patient E- private
Patient F - severe headache that's lasted 2 days

Go then rings the obviously serious ones, taking into account vunerable groups, elderly in winter, young babies, etc but the low level stuff like med reviews comes after the private (still calls are done same day as OP has reiterated constantly) but as a Dr with a duty of care you have to err on the side of caution and assume that the 'private' could be serious and call to find out. With a duty of care you always err on the side of caution and there's some things on there you might know are fine to wait, private should Trump those.

Maybe some message about asking people to be open if they can if they have a non urgent appointment and help them make appointments in an easier way in advance.

My surgery has me battling to renew contraception by having to ring up at 8am with all the urgent requests as they don't do appointments in advance..

@privateeyefan. Bloody hell. You sound like a tick box doctor. And op - you Dont sound any better ...maybe time to think about a new job

Also I worry about my DDs future who has a social communication disorder and would clearly be unreasonable in your eyes for not being ABLE to describe to the receptionist her problems.

OP has been asked to clarify surgery policy on such matters several times. Still waiting.