Why are GP receptionists so rude?

[cosmikdebris]

Every single one I've experienced,especially now I'm a mum, seem to act like guardians of the nhs. I've been trying to sign up to my local GP since JUNE LAST YEAR! They've lost my sign up forms 3 times, told me my information is wrong twice and straight up told me to 'sign up else where if i don't like how they practice' and have also told me I'm an irresponsible parent for missing my daughters first jab date (I missed it because they lost mine and her sign up forms may I add).

I tried another go slightly further away yesterday, only to be treated with more attitude and rudeness. I'm so desperate for some help with my mental health, and I've got a backlog of different physical things I need checked, I don't understand why they're all so eager to work against you! Surely they should be required to be calm and compassionate towards people, considering doctor's surgeries are generally full of unwell people.

I just don't understand it. Maybe it's more stressful than I think it is? Maybe I'm just unlucky! Or maybe they're required to put up a front so people don't waste the time of doctors? It's not difficult to just be nice to people though...is it?

We always had 2 nice and helpful ones but one retired and other left shortly after to care for her sick Mum. New receptionist first one is ok but new one won't let you finish a sentence before she jumps in and tells you GP is very busy. You tell her GP told me to come back in 7 days can I please have appointment, she says no appointments left try next week. You have to go home and ring and hope you get ok one who can magically find you an appointment. I used to roll my eyes when my MiL was always complaining about their rude receptionist but now I can see it is frustrating.

At my old GP there was a receptionist who seemed to be on a one-woman mission to redress the balance. I've never met anyone so incredibly smiley, friendly & helpful. It was very disconcerting!

In my last GP surgery they were awful too. So rude and stroppy. When I moved and had to change GP's I was dreading it, but they are all so lovely at my surgery - thankfully.

After living in other countries (and having family in yet more) I dare say the issue is that GP receptionists in the UK are expected to do far too much gatekeeping and triage. I've had a mixed bag in the UK but elsewhere it hasn't been nearly the same with the gymnastics to book an appointment.

My old surgery were great, under 5s would get seen on the day. They would not get a timed appointment though, it was an open clinic between 12 and 2pm and you would get seen at some point within that time. We have since moved home and have finally moved over surgery. I have not had to use the actual drs surgery yet so can't say how they are but I have had an appointment with a midwife there and found them to be lovely.

It is a difficult job, they have to field a lot of call from time wasters, people who want paracetamol for a cold, addicted to painkillers and want their next fix, people who just want to talk to someone but don't actually need to see a Dr, people who are disorganised or forgetful and do not order their repeat medication in time (it often does take 48 houts for then to get a prescription generated, signed and sent to the chemist, the chemist then need another 48 hours to get the prescription labelled, dispensed and make sure they have the item in stock, so at least 4 days before you can get it), they have to deal with numerous chemists with regards to out of stock medicines, need to provide alternatives, inappropriate prescribing, organising prescriptions for patients who have been discharged from hospital and not passed discharge letters on.

They are often short staffed and training is often inadequate but this should be dealt with internally. Many practices are also under extra strain because new housing has been built with out consideration to the pressure on existing infrastructure. At my old surgery I could get an appointment the same week for myself, then 150 new houses were built and it was a two week wait to see a dr.my drs surgery would also ask if they could write a note as to why I needed to see a gp, I have always been fine with this as they use it to give the gp a heads up but there have been several posts on here about receptionists acting above their station and patients feeling they shouldn't have to tell them anything. Receptionists do have to triage your calls to a certain extent, so for things like conjunctivitis you are better off seeing an optician or pharmacist, because it is better use of their time than a gp.

@itwillbehormones I guess maybe we are different in our surgery as we are only small and we do have some medical knowledge. All queries are out through to the doctors but we have to take as much detail and specific information.
For example, John rings up because he's had a headache for 3 days. Has he tried anything over the counter? Has he suffered a trauma which may have caused it? Is he otherwise well or does he have any other symptoms? No? If it's simply the headache and he's not taken anything so far then it'll be low priority.

@KathleenTurnerOverdrive

oh do you use titles here? Jings I've never updated mine to Baroness, I'd better do that"

It'll probably make heehaw difference. My title is Doctor, I have a PhD. I filled in the registration form as Dr Overdrive. The receptionist claimed she couldn't register it as such as I wasn't a medical doctor.

Ha the Baroness was a joke, my title is actually Dr too due to my PhD, and yip, they don't use it.. Wish I was a Baroness...

We can put the title Dr on records but we would mark them not a medical Dr. That is only so the GP speaks to you as a patient and not someone "in the know" and uses jargon and stuff.

I assume @TroysMammy that my title, Mrs, is marked on my records. In which case perhaps you could explain why physicians and surgeons and in particular associated clinical and support staff chose not to use it whilst addressing another stakeholder with their title. Do you recognise that as an equality and a respect issue?

I so hope that you don't tell patients they have an appointment made with Dr Betterthanyou and then address the patient by their first name.

Every time I ring the surgery I say Mrs Hellebores calling and am abruptly asked "what's your first name" which I am happy to give but I do not then expect the person on the end of the phone to start calling me Roses. I have actually asked these officious women why they have to press the first name point when I know that when they type in Hellebores (real name very very unusual) only 4 come up: one Miss, one Ms, and two Mr (actually DH has another title but hasn't amended his GP record). It seems to me that it is a very passive aggressive practice to keep the patients in their place. If the receptionists call my GP Dr Betterthanyou, once they have identified me to be x, there is no reason whatsoever why they should not call me Mrs Hellebores.

One Mrs and one Ms that should have read, the Mrs being me.

You've been unlucky. I've mostly had lovely receptionists but when I was in my early twenties there was a real cow at my surgery.
She wouldn't allow me an appointment for the morning after pill, had a go at me about being irresponsible and even said something along the lines of acting like a "loose woman" (I never explained why I needed it because I broken condom was none of her damn business) and she then finished off with, "This is a Christian surgery. You won't get that here!"

It wasn't a Christian surgery. I'm pretty sure the doctors wearing Niqabs working there would also have disagreed with her. She was just a self righteous religious judgemental bitch.

But thankfully not all receptionists are like her.

Same here OP, the receptionists in my GP are rude and short tempered. They make me feel like I'm a nuisance when I haven't seen a doctor in years, just occasionally phone to update repeat prescription!

Also they frequently refuse to answer the phone, often when my DH calls they just don't answer at all.

I really sympathise with receptionists having to deal with rudeness and aggression, it's not on. I also think patients' perception of rudeness is heightened because they are under stress. My GP receptionists are very kind and helpful on the phone yet can be incredibly rude in person. The surgery has an automated check-in system and anyone walking up to the counter is just ignored, to the point where you can stand in front of the receptionists and they will walk off without making eye contact. These are nice people, though, so I put it down to a toxic work environment.

Ours have always been very nice.

I've read through this post and I've seen a lot excusing them acting horribly to patients because they have to deal with horrible abusive patients themselves, that they are under a lot of stress and that the work is hard.
Do we exempt social workers of being professional because they too work under the same circumstances? Housing officers? Drugs counsellors? Police officers? HMRC staff? Bar tenders? Fast food workers? Plus many many more. They all have to deal with shitty members of the public but they're still not given free rein to be absolute, obnoxious, impolite dicks (though we know a few are).

My DD is 19 and doing an apprenticeship in a GP reception. She has tales of lovely patients but also people who are downright rude! Some receptionists are rude ( I've been a GP for many years) but most are trying to help. It works both ways.

I really cannot understand why rude, offhand and unfriendly receptionists behave as they do. The variety being discussed is to be found at dental surgeries and hospitals too. There appears to be a “medical theme”, it seems.

Why would you behave like that to people who are often anxious about being there, in the first place? It is actually pretty nasty and quite cruel when you think about it. There are no excuses. As others have said social workers do not blame “unpleasant” clients which shows they have a modicum of empathy, unlike the female harridans who think, somehow, they are in charge.

Of course social workers are educated - unlike the majority of receptionists who appear to have problems fulfilling their role correctly. You shouldn’t need training to be pleasant and polite, though, which makes their lack of manners even more strange.

I don’t know why people like that are employed by doctors, dentists and hospitals - in public facing roles - where sick or worried people are to be found.

@DinnaeFashSassenach

I've read through this post and I've seen a lot excusing them acting horribly to patients because they have to deal with horrible abusive patients themselves, that they are under a lot of stress and that the work is hard. Do we exempt social workers of being professional because they too work under the same circumstances? Housing officers? Drugs counsellors? Police officers? HMRC staff? Bar tenders? Fast food workers? Plus many many more. They all have to deal with shitty members of the public but they're still not given free rein to be absolute, obnoxious, impolite dicks (though we know a few are).

Well said.

@FlyingNorth

I really sympathise with receptionists having to deal with rudeness and aggression, it's not on. I also think patients' perception of rudeness is heightened because they are under stress. My GP receptionists are very kind and helpful on the phone yet can be incredibly rude in person. The surgery has an automated check-in system and anyone walking up to the counter is just ignored, to the point where you can stand in front of the receptionists and they will walk off without making eye contact. These are nice people, though, so I put it down to a toxic work environment.

That is rude. They are not “nice people”.

Why is the behaviour tolerated @Janegrey333. Because they are paid minimum or barely more than minimum wage and provided with little or no training. The system gets away with it because it is free at the point of delivery and the NHS is revered as a sacred cow to whom we must exude gratitude and deference.

It is very different in Continental Europe.

I've always found them kind and helpful

I've travelled far & wide & have met some absolute raging cunting receptionists. When I lived in a small village the surgery was held in someone's home, the woman who owned it would look at you like you were the scum of the earth, & she was a nosy old sod. The health centre where I am at the moment is lovely, they're all lovely, I suspect they're new, whatever, I can't fault them.

There was one at our surgery who was always rude and difficult and if I called for an appointment or with a query and she answered then my heart sank.

She’s retired now and there’s a new younger version of her. A few years ago my son needed a splenectomy. We’d seen his surgeon and he booked him in for urgent surgery three weeks later, but he told us to call the GPs to arrange various vaccinations (due to losing a part of his immune system) and they’d have to be done two weeks before his operation. The operation was urgent but couldn’t immediately be done because he needed these vaccines to work their way into his system, hence the three week wait.

I called and got this new receptionist, explained what needed to be done and was told that the only available appointment she could offer was in four weeks time, I again explained the situation and she said that there was nothing that could be done so the operation would have to be delayed.

I called back a short while later, mainly to speak to the practice manager but a different receptionist answered and asked what my call was concerning.
She couldn’t have been kinder and within a minute she’d booked my son an appointment for the following day.

*should read at least two weeks before