"Can I ask what it's for?"

[Syrinx89]

Is it normal for the receptionist to ask this question when booking a GP appointment over the phone? This happened to me for the first time on Monday when calling my local surgery for an appointment and I wondered what I would have said if it was something I wanted to keep confidential (thankfully, it wasn't!). Has anyone else had any experience with this? Is it allowed/the norm?

YABU - YES it is common practice
YANBU - No, this doesn't sit well

My GP does this and though it annoys me I usually comply. But I am sure you can say you would prefer not to discuss it with anyone else besides the doctor.

If you were a secretary in an office and someone phoned for your boss - who was out or in a meeting or otherwise unavailable - you would take their name, number and ask for an indication of what it concerns. Then you'd tell your boss "X rang, that's her number, it's about Y". Then your boss looks up Y, gets her Y head on and rings X back.

That's what doctor's do too. They see the notes, they know it's about X so they check what medications their patient is on already, what pre-existing conditions they have which may impact on X, and then call the patient in. It is far more civilised than a patient trying to talk to a doctor while the doctor is trying to read the patient's notes. There is a gp at our surgery who reads the notes when you're trying to tell her what's wrong. She's appalling, no one likes seeing her and many people won't make appointments with her but will wait to see someone else.

Normal at my GP - we have a nurse practitioner who can prescribe some basics. They ask what your problem is basically to see if you absolutely need to see a GP it can see the nurse.

You always have the option of declining to tell them. Medical confidentiality and all that.

they always ask by me

This annoys me. Most of the time they have no idea what you're talking about anyway

It really doesn’t bother me, it seems to make the receptionist squirm when you ask to book a cervical screening when the waiting room is full though.

It's common practice but you can say no.

My surgery has a pre recorded message from the senior partner/gp. It says that all staff have been trained in "care navigation" which will help them decide who is the best person to refer you to. It also states that you will never be refused a gp appointment, but that they ask you for symptoms to make sure they are making the best use of limited resources.

Seems reasonable to me. Similarly, if you call for a same day appoitment, you will be asked about your symptoms and underlying health issue.

Sometimes, this results in a same day appointment, sometimes it results in a call back to triage you.

Again, all seems reasonable to me, best use of limited resources.

This has been the case for a couple of years at my practice. So now I know pretty much what to tell them. (Eg, need a b12 injection from nurse, due next week, or, chest infection Asthma, copd with part of one lung removed, finished standby antibs and steriods, need more).

HCP, I'm sure, don't want to make you wait two or more weeks for help, they just need you to take some responsibility too. Even if that means exposing fralities you'd sooner not talk about to a person on the phone.

I've phoned for appointments, for example, when I've found something untoward in my breast. I've explained what I've foundb and that I've had cancer three times, so I'm quite worried. They've always got me appointments within days, usually the same day.

I think I understand that talking about mental health issues may be much more difficult, but as I'm lucky enough not to have experienced that, I really cannt comment, though I do empathise

Mine asks this but also says I don't have to answer

Last time I was asked this (trying to get a home visit for a very elderly and suddenly very unwell person who had deteriorated since GP prescribed antibiotics) I had a call back from the GP 20 minutes later saying we should call an ambulance as it might be sepsis.

The question works both ways, and it really doesn't bother me. You don't have to go into great detail - "it's MH related", "the hospital told me to see my GP to get a referral to a different part of the hospital" and "half my arm has gone numb and has been for 3 days for no apparent reason" are all reasons I've given in the last few years, and it's never occurred to me that it's a big problem 🤷‍♀️

They're not asking for every minute. You can sum up your problem, "I've had a really bad throat for over 3 weeks", "Oh, it's my leg". They don't want to know all the details of your sex life when want to discuss contraception choices with your doc, "it's about contraception" will do.

If you don't know how to summarise practise using fewer and fewer words before you call. I suppose some people might take a day or two.....