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.

We’re currently 2 full time receptionists down and struggling to recruit more. Which of course means that it’s going to take a lot longer for patients to get through when they try to call us.

That’s not entirely your patients’ faults. I disagree with abuse of anyone, but you are talking about patients with potentially serious worries about their health, being told they have to divulge these to the person whose job it is to answer the phone. I’m not surprised some of them get pissed off.

But the op is calling all the patients on the list the same day. Nobody is not being called back that day based on what the Receptionist has written down. The reason for visit is just affecting what order the op calls people back. So if it says "short of breath asthma flare" she will call them first, if it says "thinks has a UTI" she will call them back once urgent patients spoken to as likely to need antibiotics, if "needs letter for school about allergy" then she can leave that call until later in the day after unwell people dealt with.

Yes, according to what the receptionist has written down, so if the receptionist has missed something, or they haven't taken everything down then chances are an urgent case might slip through. They rely far too heavily on notes that a person who is not trained medically takes down.

OP maybe consider a fairer system then, or atleast blaming funding rather than blaming patients who are sometimes vulnerable, or just not able to fall into line with your policies. Moaning about us on here isn’t going to help you retain staff

Fair enough.You just sound like you're having a rotten time.
So are your receptionists it seems.
My sympathies.

I go to a rural surgery, and the receptionists decide if you need a same day appointment so you have to say what's wrong. But it doesn't bother me and I've never not been seen if needed.

My surgery now have online booking, you request the appointment you want with a go/nurse etc and fill in a brief outline of the issue, sometimes they call back and say actually we'll fit you in with the GP for that (I usually go for the nurse, she's great and generally has better availability, when I had nipple reynauds during early BF the doctor called her in and asked for her advice). I can book an appointment at 2am if I like, it's brilliant. Of course you can still call or week in, but the phones seem to be quieter since this system came in.

Then train your receptionists better!

I wouldn’t mind saying why I want to see mr Dr if the jumped up twat on the reception didn’t act like she was God & tries telling you that you don’t need a Dr. I ended up with an emergency appendectomy last year because the silly cow eoukdnt give me an appointment because ‘it’s probably period pain’

Another one told me I DIDN’T Have diabetes when my test showed I clearly do. I was asking for an appointment, not her untrained opinion

Then last week their checking in machine wasn’t working so I had to wait to check in with the receptionist. Fine but I can now tell you 5 people’s nanes, addresses, dob’s & medical requirements🙄 do it’s finally my turn & I get told I’ve missed my apt ...so nothing fir two weeks. I was standing in reception waiting, well before my appointment time!

If you think it’s frustrating being a receptionist or GP, try being a regular patient - it’s great fun. Not.

If you had 20 same-day appointments available and 60 patients requesting an urgent appointment, how would you determine who receives one?

I would say, “It is entirely your decision, but if you would like to disclose the problem, that might give us enough information to offer you a same day appointment on the basis of urgency.”

None of this “back of the queue” shite.

It’s unacceptable for people to be abusive to the receptionist for asking. You don’t sound like you are taking on board the drawbacks of the system though OP, and the fact that people might be acting quite reasonably in not wanting or feeling able to tell the receptionist.

Many of your patients will remember the time, as I do, when they simply phoned the suDexyMidnightrgery, or went in person, to ask for an appointment and an appointment was made, without them having to discus the intimate details of their problem with a total stranger over the phone or, worse still, in front of a waiting-room full of people.

My gp moved onto this telephone triage system about 3 years ago. Fortunately, I've never had to use it. I don't see how it could work for me. I'm supposed to phone, explain the problem to the receptionist, then wait around for a phone call from the Dr? That might work for someone like my mum, who never leaves the house and is never far away from her phone. But for me, it's no good. I work in a shared office so there's no privacy for private calls. What if the Dr phones when I'm in a meeting, or on another call? How many times do they try before giving up? In my experience when the Dr has phoned my DH, she never leaves a message and always uses "number withheld". I don't pick up withheld calls!

I wouldn’t mind saying why I want to see mr Dr if the jumped up twat on the reception didn’t act like she was God & tries telling you that you don’t need a Dr. I ended up with an emergency appendectomy last year because the silly cow eoukdnt give me an appointment because ‘it’s probably period pain’

In our system, the receptionist would simply add you to the triage list with a one line summary, you would get a call the same day (unless you walk in/ring up after 5pm in which case it has to be the next day), and the doctor would then book you an emergency appointment.

Our receptionists do not book GP appointments. Ever.

I'm a triage Nurse Consultant/Specialist (not my exact title to avoid outing)

Who are you going to call first? The people who you know will need an appointment, and have a problem that can be dealt with there and then, or the people that you have absolutely no idea what they need? I have to be as efficient as possible and cannot afford to waste appointment time.

Triage 101 - you do not have someone sitting in a waiting room or waiting for a callback when you have no idea what might be wrong with them. What you are doing is not triage.

I get that resources are stretched everywhere but I really think you need to rethink your system.

No, I haven’t. What I am frustrated by is our inability to hold onto receptionists, because they can’t bear the abuse they get for asking what the problem is, as we direct them to do.

And all that's telling you is that it's all the patients that are in the wrong?

Couldn't make it up.

Well I have had bad experiences with gp receptionist, one who has been dicussing my dh cancer with a neighbour, who let it slip!!! Also I phoned to ask if b12 injection could be brought forward, she told me to go eat some meat!!!! I have pernicious anemia . So no I dont discuss anything with receptionist and I don't think the system is person centred.

There's a thread going on at the moment about someone who has wet the bed a couple of times. The OP on that thread is understandably v embarrassed about it. I imagine she would struggle to even discuss this with a GP. Are you suggesting she should feel comfortable discussing it with a receptionist, let alone with a packed waiting room of people!

What about someone who is suicidal?

You really need to rethink your system and make sure that it not only works from an administrative perspective but also that it protects the privacy of your patients and doesn't discourage patients from seeking medical help.

I work in another field where confidentiality is very important and we are absolutely forbidden from even asking for the client's name in front of other clients (eg in the waiting room). let alone the issue they have come to us about.

I look forward very much to a service set up like many countries have in Europe. We have a home in France. The equivalent service there is incomparably better. I would have no objection to pating an up front charge which is reimbursed by the equivalent of the mutuelle.

Do you think that vulnerable groups such as those who struggle with English, people with learning disabilities etc are disadvantaged by this requirement and if so do you have measures in place to reduce the impact of this?

We are in an area with next to no immigration, so have hardly any patients who don’t speak English.

In general though, everyone gets a call the same day (or the next day if they ring up or walk in after 5pm), so they will still get time with a doctor. It may even be better for the doctor to call them towards the end of the surgery when the triage list is almost finished, as we can afford to spend a longer period of time talking to the patient.

Our receptionists do not book GP appointments. Ever

But that’s an utterly ridiculous system and wastes the GP’s time when routine appts could be booked.

I've never been asked by the receptionist at our Doctors. Morning surgery is open surgery, it's generally accepted that if you want a same day appointment you will go to morning surgery. Afternoon and evening surgery have booked appointments, these are usually booked days in advance but some are same day appointments for those who couldn't make morning surgery and those after half six are for people outside of work.. The surgery is really well regarded locally.

Well I get what you're saying but when you have to describe the problem in front of a long queue of other patients then you must be able to understand the reluctance. If you saw the receptionist in a booth which allowed discretion then more people would discuss their symptoms. I really didn't want to have to announce in front of a queue of people that I thought I had a tampon stuck inside me, or mention that I had a foul discharge coming from my vagina. Surely you can understand why some people would not want to discuss their symptoms in front of other patients standing only a metre away?

Our receptionists do not book GP appointments. Ever

My old drs did this. You could not book any appointment, for anything, without speaking to a Dr on the phone first. Of course they could never tell you what time the Dr would ring so great for people like teachers or shop assistants who can't have their phone with them whilst at work.

We are in an area with next to no immigration, so have hardly any patients who don’t speak English.

I wonder where that might be.

I would expect it's a rural area where everybody knows each other and so is even more reluctant to discuss their bleeding haemorrhoids with the receptionist.

OP- can someone talk to the receptionist in private setting or is your waiting room/reception area designed in a way it's likely other people will hear the conversation?

You should use nurses, not low waged untrained receptionist to have these conversations. How do they know the questions to ask? This really relies on people saying the right things.

Your system sounds ridiculous, discriminatory and is clearly failing both your patients and your staff. Fortunately, like so many people on the internet who claim to be doctors, you're probably talking shite.

How very kind of you to start a thread like this, however all it shows is you to be utterly rubbish at your job!! First question any manager of services asks themselves- do our processes work? Is it clear to our service users?

Any other occupation looking at a British GP surgery scenario - shit no, this is chaos I’m gonna get fired if I don’t sort this out all hands on deck let’s get this sorted.

A British GP looking at their surgery- hmmmm it doesn’t work load of complaints, well It can’t be us we are doctors! We know everything it must be the patients yes let blame them and be sarcastic about it. Hold on I’d like to chat more but it’s 3pm and I’ve got to pick my 3 kids up from prep school...........