"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 surgery has a recorded voice message when you call explaining why they do this. My friend loves describing her post birth haemorrhoids in gruesome detail!

I flummox them by replying "you can" and letting the silence hang there... but I'm mean.

Quite normal actually

I work in a GP’s surgery and for those worried about confidentiality - I see all the hospital correspondence, out of hours and A&E reports, plus all test results. I am absolutely not permitted to discuss it with anyone outside the surgery, or within the surgery unless is is relevant to your care. If, for any reason, I look at anyone’s medical records I have to be able to justify it. The surgery take patient confidentiality incredibly seriously and breaking it would mean immediate dismissal for gross misconduct.

It also stops instances such as me sitting waiting for a routine blood test as I'm on immunosuppressants and a lady with a poorly child came and sat next to me. We got chatting and she told me she thought the child had chicken pox. That would make me really poorly if I caught it.

If the lady had told the receptionist it was suspected chicken pox, they'd have made other arrangements so she wasn't sitting in the waiting room potentially infecting others.

YABU.

I'm a GP receptionist, we are told to do this by the doctors/nurses and management. It is for the good of the patient more than anything - at least once every week or two somebody will phone for an appointment with symptoms of heart attack, stroke, meningitis etc and we can then make sure they get a 999 ambulance rather than waiting until whatever time to come to surgery.

Lol - at my surgery, you’re lucky if they pick up the phone . The idea of them asking questions or intervening with an ambulance is so remote as to be laughable

Normal here.

Receptionists here also ring hospital secretaries/ scan letters/copy notes/ type dictation letters and see scripts so they are trained in confidentiality, have access to lots of personal medical info through normal course of their work and would lose their job if they were to break confidentiality. Also where we are they genuinely care about doing a good job and directing patients to the most appropriate appointments.

If your appointment is about something personal that you can’t/won’t disclose, then say “it’s personal” or “I don’t want to discuss it” no problem.

The receptionists at our surgery always ask what the problem is. This is because the Dr then phones every patient for a short telephone consultation before deciding whether or not the patient needs to come to the surgery for a face to face appointment.

I've never actually met my GP. All my meetings with her have been over the phone.

Very possibly Covid-19 related. They want to filter out any any idiots with symptoms and a relevant travel history who think their best course of action is a GP appointment (you'd be surprised how many people do this). The last thing we want is an infected person spreading it to a waiting room full of people and healthcare professionals.

It's the same reason that lots of GP surgeries have suspended online appointments (although they're having to break NHS England rules to do this). It's just too risky.

Both- it's common practice and it doesn't sit well.

This. It has become common practice for receptionists to be asked to triage for priority.

How I answer depends on where I am, what the issue is and who can hear me.

On the upside, we can now book routine appointments online and fill in the “reason” box ourselves, although only a few, routine (distant in time) appointments are released online.

It's the norm at my surgery but it's done so as the receptionist can gauge priority or at least that's what it says on a message on the noticeboard.

If I don't comfortable disclosing what it is I wish to see my GP for, I just make up something generic, a sore throat for example.

Every doctor's surgery I've been under does that. Yes, it is embarrassing to have to say anything to some random receptionist. I suppose it helps them triage/prioritize the issues of people calling in.

’sit well’?

It does happen, but it is wrong. It maybe due to the Coronavirus but I just say that it’s between me and the Dr. Unfortunately some receptionist feel entitle.

I tend to offer the information unless it's confidential, I phoned once to say my dd had hurt her wrist at school and they sent us off to minor injuries instead. Otherwise I ask for a nurse or doctor appointment depending what I think is relevant.

YABU. At my GP's surgery there are automated messages when you call, as well as signs on the wall, saying receptionists are required to ask certain questions and, basically, don't give them grief.

In my experience, their reason for asking is to either ensure that your appointment duration will be sufficient for the issue, or that you're booked in to see the right person (you might be requesting to see a GP when a nurse can help).

It doesn’t bother me at all. I wanted a coil fitted recently and told the receptionist as their is one particular doctor that fits them so she knew my appointment needed to be with her.

‘I have found a lump in my breast’ - Drs appointment urgently
‘ I need to get the dry skin on my scalp looked at’ - Nurse

HTH.

It's helpful to the GP too. if I know why a patient is coming in I can read that bit if their notes in more detail and even think of an action plan for treatment or where I'm going next with their treatment. And if it looks like a quick problem I can relax knowing I'm going to catch up if I'm running late! Also during Corona virus we are being very very strict with this so we reduce risk of spread. We can tell patients to stay at home if they fit the criteria for exclusion. This will become more relevant over the next couple of weeks.
Oh and the receptionists don't remember what you've said. The surgery gets several hundred calls a day so what Mrs Smith said at 8am is long forgotten.
We do a little triage like eye problems to optician and some minor ailments to pharmacy and not all people needing repeat sick notes need to come in so the reception staff can help in that way.

All the doctors surgeries local to us train the receptionists to ask for an outline of why the appointment is needed. It may be that there is one doctor is more appropriate than another eg contraception or that a different hcp has more appropriate skills eg pn or pharmacist. It makes sense and is in everyone's interests.There is no need to tell reception any intimate or embarrassing details .

We don't ask for routine appointments but even though the message before getting through to a Receptionist says "if you have chest pain ring 999", we've had patients ignoring that message. They just book an appointment and when they've waited to see a Doctor tell them about the chest pain. Cue squeezing them in to the Practice Nurse for an ECG, holding up other patients whilst the GP rings for an ambulance. My Dad was guilty of doing this once.

Also it's a good idea in the case of rashes so patients can be isolated away from the waiting area.

You don't have to tell the Receptionist the whole thing eg I've found a lump (male or female GP), I 've got bleeding down there/back passage (possibly double appointment) urine infection, pain in x part of body, told I need a medication review. I know we are not medically trained but in my 10 years as a Receptionist I've learned more than I did in biology in school.

We never offer advice just signpost to the best person whether it's a GP, nurse, hospital or pharmacy.