To expect a doctors surgery to actually answer the phone.

[Bee1511]

Just ranting. There’s two main surgeries in the practice. I don’t go to the doctors all that often. In fact October was the first time I’ve been in about 4 years for myself but have been unwell lately and having different tests, mainly at the one surgery that is closer and never had any problems getting through to them. Because that one is always busy I’ve had a couple tests done at the other and had to ring for different things but I can never get through. I’m not just talking about not getting through first thing when everyone is ringing but they just don’t answer at all.

I was in the surgery a few days ago. The waiting room was dead. The phone was continuously ringing and the receptionist was ignoring it and didn’t answer it at all.

Last week I tried ringing about 15-20 times in the afternoon. When I did finally get through I asked if they had a problem with their phone lines in which they didn’t.

Aibu to think this is really bad? No wonder the surgery is so quiet because no one can get through. I know if it’s an emergency you would ring the emergency services..

If I’ve had a test at one surgery can I ring the other for the results do you think?

My doctors is exactly the same. However, I can usually get a same day appointment if I book online (may need to check periodically during the day and not be fussy about which GP I see), it if I turn up in person. It does frustrate me hugely though as they have an entire office full of staff, none of whom are answering the ringing phone!!

Ours doesn’t have an online system anymore. I never had chance to use it but for some reason it stopped. That would be handy.

If I lived closer I would definitely go up there to speak to someone (one is about 5 miles away and the other 8) so not ideal.

You can never get through to our GP either and there are never any available online appointments. The surgery opens at 8am and the only way to be pretty sure of a same day appointment (the only type) is to get there no later than 7.30am and queue.

Drives me up the bloody wall. And, when you've finally managed to breach the inner sanctum where they keep the doctor s/he asks "Why did you not come in before?

Ours is the same. They have built far too many houses in this town and the tiny practice can not handle the colum of patients. It's at least a 3 week waiting period.

It’s not normally possible to register at two surgeries ( because gp paid in part by number on books) so I’m really interested in this set up.

It’s two surgeries in the same practice locally. You can see either generally if you cannot get an app at another. Also because I live kinda in the middle of the two they don’t seem to mind me going to either but I much prefer the one marginally closer.

they should have the same system so I would believe they could access the results if they have been uploaded.

Thank you

l rang my GP's surgery a couple of weeks ago to make an appointment. l was eighth in the call queue. lt took twenty eight minutes before l spoke to anyone.
l have no idea what would have happened if it had been an urgent call.

When I worked as a GP receptionist, if there was only one of us sitting at the front desk then we were told not to answer the phone.

This was in case we ended up dealing with a very long, complicated phone call while a queue of people was building up at reception.

It is receptionists sitting in the main office who are responsible for answering the phones, not the one you can see at the desk.

l have no idea what would have happened if it had been an urgent call

If it’s truly so urgent that it can’t wait 28 minutes, then a GP surgery is not the appropriate NHS service to be dealing with it.

Thanks all. I know they are really busy and often short staffed. But I was surprised at the phone continuously ringing the other morning with everyone ignoring it. There was only one other person in the waiting room (it was 9am admittedly) no one in the queue coming in, patients check themselves in using a touch screen system. It just surprises me. Ringing the surgery gives me anxiety at the best of times.

There was only one other person in the waiting room (it was 9am admittedly) no one in the queue coming in, patients check themselves in using a touch screen system.

But it’s Sod’s law that the moment she picked up the phone, a queue of people would come streaming into the surgery, needing help with prescriptions, running late for their appointment and needing to know whether they’ve missed it / rebook etc.

The priority of the front desk receptionist is dealing with patients there in the flesh.

That's really bad, did you ask the receptionist about it while you were there? My doctor's surgery isn't like that at all. I almost always get through first time and the receptionist is incredibly helpful.

@Nicosia78

That makes no sense at all. If the receptionist doesn't answer the phone "just in case" someone comes in then no one would ever be able to get through then elderly or disabled patients would never get to communicate with the doctor. If an emergency came in (which is fairly rare since it's a GP surgery not an A&E department) she could simply put the call on hold.

That makes no sense at all. If the receptionist doesn't answer the phone "just in case" someone comes in then no one would ever be able to get through then elderly or disabled patients would never get to communicate with the doctor.

There are other receptionists sitting in the main office. They are responsible for answering phones.

The front desk receptionist is responsible for patients who come to the front desk.

It really isn’t complicated.

But it’s Sod’s law that the moment she picked up the phone, a queue of people would come streaming into the surgery, needing help with prescriptions, running late for their appointment and needing to know whether they’ve missed it / rebook etc.

How on earth is anyone going to get an appointment to be late for if the receptionist doesn't even answer the phone when there's no one there to deal with? If someone needs help with their prescription, or to rebook an appointment they can wait 2 minutes for the phone call to end.

How on earth is anyone going to get an appointment to be late for if the receptionist doesn't even answer the phone when there's no one there to deal with?

As I’ve already said, the receptionists sitting in the main office are the phone handlers. They deal with incoming calls.

The receptionist sitting at the front desk is responsible for patients who come to the front desk.

@Nicosia78 There obviously weren't other receptionist sitting in the back office since the phone wasn't answered. At my surgery they don't have the luxury of a fleet of receptionists but they manage to get by by multitasking. Otherwise it would be impossible to get through to the surgery and those who aren't able to physically get there would be left abandoned. This is much more unsafe than someone having to wait 2 minutes to be booked in for their appointment.

Hi I work in a surgery so how it works for us is all the receptionist who answer the phones are upstairs. The receptionist on the desk sits alone downstairs , the phonecalls dont come downstairs there is a phone that rings but it's the prescription line so it rings but the patients just leave a message and they get listened too in the late afternoon.could it be something like this ? If you dont think so then you could certainly speak to the practice manager to Express your concerns.

Same with my dentist they have 12 phone lines coming in and 1 receptionist, who also has to book people in etc when they arrive.

I heard her ring someone to cancel their appointment the other day and ask them to ring back to reschedule. But how can they? I've just started to go in in person now

@BottleOfJameson
You seem to think that when the front desk receptionist doesn’t have a patient at the desk that he/she is doing nothing.

That isn’t true. Most of the days when I was sat at the front desk, I was working through a huge batch of repeat prescription requests, entering blood pressure readings onto patients’ notes, filing blood test forms - I’m sure you’ll agree that it wouldn’t be safe for those to be left undone. The important thing was that I could stop any of these tasks instantly to deal with a patient who came to the desk.

The two other receptionists (this wasn’t a large surgery) were sitting in the office answering the phones. Sometimes, if lots of people were trying to call at once, there would be a long wait. That doesn’t mean there was no-one taking calls.

I spent a hour and a half on hold to my GP on Tuesday morning - after 45 mins I started getting ready and then pushed a sick baby a mile in the pouring rain to walk in. Luckily they saw me straight away (he has croup and was wheezing badly) - but it was annoying.