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.

There are some truly horrible stories here of receptionists being completely ignorant and awful. So many occasions where things could (and did) go horribly wrong.

Just one thought... I guess what we do not see here are all the clueless people thinking they are emergencies. We ended up at the A&E when DS has appendicitis. Next to me was this couple who had brought in their son to the A&E at 2am as they were concerned he was overweight. They refused to leave and insisted to be seen even though the triage nurse said it not was a case for the A&E (“It seems from what you say that you feed your son too much crisps, chocolate and juice, but this is not a case for the A&E”). I am still fuming. Luckily DS was seen by the doctor before their son!!

I wonder what made them come to the realisation at 2 am their child was overweight. So bizarre!

My thought later was that they had been up watching some program on TV.... and decided to do something about it. It is still one of the most surreal experiences I have had. I was trying to comfort my DS who was moaning in pain... and overheard this . I think I heard it as the nurse was getting impatient and started to raise her voice.

Oh God I hate this.

Used to be so bloody simple. Call up at 8. Book an appointment. Go to or leave work /school accordingly.

Now it takes all bloody morning. Hanging on the line for god knows how long to speak to a receptionist . Give personal details while knowing full well there are people in the waiting room.or the queue listening to what's being said . Then you have to wait for a call back. Then maybe you get an appointment if you are lucky.

Means an entire day off sometimes for no bloody reason.

Of the receptionists are qualified to know what is relevant to write down or give advice then why arent they seeing patients instead of spending all that time on the phone.

And this is why a&e is hectic cos not everyone has phone credit to spend an hour on the phone being 24th in the queue.

No one should be having to tell multiple people their problems. Its between them and their dr .

I sympathise that funding cuts have lead to this and I by no means hold the drs and staff responsible for what has had to happen to try and sort out the mess. But there has to be a better way.

That’s lovely in theory. However when I’ve needed to see the doctor in the past unless I’ve known what was wrong (ie - I have tonsillitis, I have had stomach ache for 6 days etc) i haven’t wanted to discuss it. Sometimes just making the phone call is hard enough for those of us with mental health issues, particularly PPD and anxiety. I have really struggled telling a gp what was wrong, how on earth am I supposed to tell the horrid, gossipy, bitchy receptionists at my gp practise who shout the names of the condition/issues for all to hear??

@ralfeesmum Mon 15-Jul-19 10:44:01

I've worked as a GP's receptionist and the hostile responses I've had to the simple question "May I ask what appears to be wrong?" are anything from stilted and blunt right up to foul-mouthed and abusive

ie: "Why should I tell you?", "That's my business!", "Are YOU a doctor?", "I don't want to say", "It's for the doctor to find out", yak, yak, yak........

None of those replies are abusive, or foul mouthed. However, your "yak yak yak" is pretty shitty considering you are talking about your patients, and it is very dismissive of their privacy and their right not to tell you anything.

OP. I am so glad you are not my gp. If you were I would change to another surgery.
You don’t seem to want to see your patients, you want go spend most of your time on the phone !!!! For heavens sake, see your patients. What is trivial to you is important to the patient. This is why the a&e depts are full of issues that are not an emergency. It’s because they CANNOT get an appointment.
I hope I never move to your area

OP ...... Have you made your receptionists aware of GDPR. If you have, they are probably not adhering to it.

Because sometimes you don't want a particularly loud receptionist to know as her voice can be heard by everyone and she loves to repeat what you said to confirm what she heard was right. Or you want to minimise the time spent with another receptionist as it is very awkward at the moment. Because when we you called for the 6 weeks check up she insisted on making one for your baby. Even after saying baby don't need one, she refused to accept it. At that time it was very raw for me and I couldn't say he was stillborn without crying. So I kept on say no appointment for him but only me. That was very awkward/ sad and after a few back and forth of saying he don't need one and yes he does need an appointment. I finally managed to get it out through tears. She did become very apologetic afterwards and had approached me separately to applogies and to say sorry for my loss.

But things have not been the same and I changed my gp afterwards. Not because of her, as I don't think she did it on purpose but was baffled why I didn't want an appointment for him.

Also some receptionist are busy bodies and refuse to give appointments. For example, ds1 had a skin infection and I took him to dr who perscribed antibiotics that ds1 refused to take. I tried diffrent methords to get him to take it. After he vomited it out (I distracted him & put some in his mouth, he coughed until he vomited it out), I decided ask a doctor for an alternative antibiotic. So I called gp and receptionist refused any appointments even a telephone appointment. There is no point in prescribing antibiotics if there won't be any compliance. I ended up taking him a&e after a few more attempts (as advised by dm). His skin was bleeding and white (top layer of skin gone after scratching it off), doctor said he needed antibiotics and I couldn't make him take it. A doctor there gave him a different one and an urgent referral to dermatologist. I was able to make him take that and he got better quick. Compliance is very important when taking antibiotics.

My doctors are absolutely lovely. So, it must be said, are the reception staff. The only dodgy character we have is the practice nurse, who makes me miss the previous one.

The problem?

The Reception Area is about 3x4m. The desk has a window with an opening, and they have recently installed a screen directly over the window. It announces the appointments, and inbetween, BLARES NHS promotional videos over the window.

No one can hear anyone else without shouting. I have to get the reception staff to write my appointments down. It's absolutely ridiculous, but no one seems to have the authority to shift it.

If you want the receptionist to ask people for symptoms then you need to provide a private space for this to happen. It's unreasonable to expect people to shout out their medical issues where they can be overheard.

As for people calling on the phone, they too may fear that the receptionist is repeating their name and symptoms back to them in front of other people. And the patient might also be calling from work and not want to be overheard by colleagues discussing their health.

I think YABU, frankly. It is not right to expect people to forgo doctor-patient confidentiality in order to get an appointment with a health professional. Whoever is doing triage needs a private place to talk to the walk in patients, and those who call for an appointment by phone and do not want to explain their symptoms over the phone should be offered a dedicated email address to send information to instead. Or just offered an appointment.

I am also disturbed by this, OP: "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." If you have no information about the patient then you also don't know that the patient will NOT need to be seen urgently. I do not think it is fair to punish patients for not being willing to speak outside the zone of confidentiality by treating them as if their health concern was inconsequential and putting them last on your list. I would say it was reasonable to call the cases you know to be urgent first, but I think the next task would be to call the unknown quantities and actually find out whether their case is urgent, instead of putting them last behind the people who you expect to be less urgent.

Some people believe only a clinical professional is bound by doctor-patient confidentiality and will not want to share their information with clerical staff. Some believe the receptionist will filter their information through their own bias algorithm and will make an uninformed decision as the the urgency of their case. And some just don't want a waiting room full of strangers, or an office floor full of colleagues, to hear their private health concerns.

I understand that you are trying to make your office run as efficiently as possible so as to maximise your time as a GP, and I applaud you for trying to help as many people as possible in the hours you have and to prioritise the sickest. It sounds like a lot of thought has gone into your strategy. But I think if you want to increase compliance with your system you need to look harder at the causes of the non-compliance and address them directly rather than struggle on being maddened by people who just aren't doing as they are told.

I had some post menopausal bleeding so went to make an appointment. The receptionist did ask me why I needed an appointment but didn’t push further after I said gynecology.
This I felt was fair and practical without asking for me to list my symptoms in the middle of a busy reception area.

When DH was suffering from the anal fissure, he did not actually know what it was; but would have said he was passing fresh blood, he couldn’t sleep with the pain - he had cancer!

Any triage of him would get the response - “It’s cancer, what else could it be?” His father died of cancer at 63; he is convinced it will carry him off too before he gets to 63!

I'm SO glad our surgery doesn't operate like this. Why make it so complicated.

Actually thinking abput this. Response to GP's receptionist.

"I have just told you that I am concerned my symptoms may be life threatening and if ignored may lead to litigation, can you read that back to me please?"
No relevant info shared but I bet it will always get a call back.

I'm gonna try that @OhTheRoses