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?

@NoIDontLikeTrains

To be fair I can empathise with Kathleen's response to this irritating attitude of "people say we're rude but you don't know how hard the job is!"

Lots of jobs are hard, and I'm sure there are many that are harder than being a GP receptionist, but that's not a good reason to be rude and unpleasant.

I think what I find more frustrating is that the general public just don't believe how obnoxious, entitled and ignorant some of them can be. And while yes you should always remain polite, we are only human and certainly not paid to take the level of abuse thrown at us. Our practice policy for example is that same-day appointments for urgent problems are released at 8am and 1pm. Last week I had a caller at 11.45 who explained he needed to speak to a GP that day. I explained - politely - that the afternoon appointments were released at 1pm so if he could call back at that time we could book him in. Actually I didn't get chance to finish what I was saying as he interrupted me to say I was a fucking liar, didn't know what I was talking about and I should book him in immediately. Again, politely explained that I couldn't so he called me a cunt and said his death would be on my conscience. That's not unusually by the way, we get calls like that several times a week. But yeah, it's obviously our fault.

I can guarantee you I am not rude and unpleasant. To tar us all with the same brush because you've come across one or two that is is very unfair.

I've not come across anyone in a customer facing role that is rude and unpleasant, perhaps it's because I've worked in customer facing roles and over the telephone and I know how to treat people to get my point across. If I did come across someone who was rude and unpleasant then I wouldn't constantly bang on about my experience on Mumsnet.

With the right training the job isn't hard, a lot of jobs are purely admin but we still need to use our brains for it. it's constant, it's exhausting which I expect quite of lot of jobs are, so please don't belittle us, we are all entitled to be fed up of our jobs once in a while.

Thought I had cracked the system. For blood results the receptionist insisted that you had to ring on the day to get a telephone appointment to be given results. Could never get through, no appointments etc etc.
Had a word with the phlebotomist when in for next test, no problem she said and booked me a telephone appointment for 3 days hence when the results would be back.
Worked well for several weeks then one day, phlebotomist's access to the appointment system has been suspended . . . .

Oh I can well believe that some members of the general public are obnoxious, entitled, and even aggressive. Ask anyone who works in a public-facing job. I can even believe that GP receptionists have to deal with people being more difficult than they are with the average customer service worker, since people are often stressed, unwell, and being told they can't have something they need and feel is rightfully theirs.

But I think what people are objecting to is the way that GP receptionists sometimes seem, compared to people working in other customer-facing jobs, to so frequently be obstructive, rude, uncooperative, brusque, incompetent, unpleasant and so on, to members of the public who've done nothing to warrant it and who never have the misfortune of experiencing this kind of interaction elsewhere.

@NoIDontLikeTrains maybe they feel that way due to their lack of understanding of whose instructions the receptionist is working to and because they feel they are superior to someone of limited intelligence just doing basic admin tasks. Works both ways.

I know how a GP practice works. I even grew up being looked after by GP receptionists occasionally Some of them are lovely, and good ones are worth their weight in gold to a surgery and the patients. But I can't ignore the fact that some of them are bizarrely and unwarrantedly unpleasant, and perfectly ordinary people disproportionately report bad experiences with them.

They aren't all, but they're under pressure for targets and used to patients lying to get prioritised.

spurs4ever so why be rude and unpleasant to ME? Why be dismissive and unhelpful to people who are nice and polite?

@Frodont I haven't been rude or unpleasant. Maybe complain to the managers of the people who have? After making sure you've been polite and respectful yourself first, obviously.

The list of typical tasks upthread inadvertently demonstrates how antiquated the systems are. Most of it's moving bits of information from point A to point B, on paper or verbally. No wonder there is so much frustration and mix ups.

I really wonder why profit making businesses can't do better. Is it because most patients can't or won't change surgery? Is it because it's mostly women who do the jobs, so pay is low? (and vice versa). Can GPs not ban patients who are abusive to staff and weed out receptionists (through mystery shopping) who are rude or who block access to services?

It would be interesting as well to know how many people ring for an appointment or a service, can't get it or even get through and give up, pay, go elsewhere, resort to home remedies or just suffer the ill health. While the incredibly rude man described above was utterly out of order, he may have been someone who hadn't had to use the system before. DH (unfailingly polite) got life threateningly ill once due to not understanding how to play the system to get seen.

[quote spurs4ever]@Frodont I haven't been rude or unpleasant. Maybe complain to the managers of the people who have? After making sure you've been polite and respectful yourself first, obviously. [/quote]
Sorry, I didn't mean you specifically. We all realise gps receptionists see the worst of people sometimes but that's no excuse for being so rude to normal people.

Ours are lovely! Literally bend over backwards to help you and will always get you an appt even if they are full.

@Frodont of course it isn't, so people should complain if they feel a receptionist has been rude to them for absolutely no reason whatsoever. That's if that person has been nothing but civil and polite to the receptionist of course.

It's quite hard to complain. Noone wants to feel even more of a burden on the NHS. I have asked a receptionist to tone down her attitude though which wasn't polite but by god she was rude.

They are sometimes really rude. Had a time when I almost ended up in tears because the receptionist was refusing a home visit for my 5 year old who was had been vomiting for 3 days (GP was brilliant and did a home visit. when I finally got through and she had to go to hospital).
Not a new thing though. Receptionist had a massive go at my mum in the 70s because she requested a home visit for my sister and receptionist was insisting my mum brought her in (mum didn't drive and my sister could barely stand which she told the receptionist).. My dad somehow convinced the doctor to come out and my sister had appendices.
Receptionist aren't medically qualified and it pisses me off when they act like they are.

It really isn't. Ask to speak to the practice manager, email a complaint in, write a letter, PALS etc.

@spurs4ever

It really isn't. Ask to speak to the practice manager, email a complaint in, write a letter, PALS etc.

Yes. It would be great if managers dealt with it though.

@Frodont

It's quite hard to complain. Noone wants to feel even more of a burden on the NHS. I have asked a receptionist to tone down her attitude though which wasn't polite but by god she was rude.

That's the problem though, it's like seen as a national disgrace to ever actively complain about anything within the NHS, and that attitude has worsened since that godforsaken clapping nonsense. I told my DSIL I was planning on reporting how appalling our GP surgery has been, effectively they've put her brother at risk. The way she spoke to me on the phone you'd think I'd suggested I was off down the park to kick old ladies and swear at small children. She was adamant I shouldn't raise a complaint, as "it's the NHS" and "it's not right".

Damn straight you should, and I have done and I stand by it.

At the end of the day, it's so much easier to stop going to Asia or switch banks or solicitors, electrician or plumber if service doesn't meet expectations. The real problem is that GP surgeries are actually small businesses operated under the NHS umbrella and the myth that the public should be grateful for a free service is perpetuated and used as an excuse for something that is too often claimed to be free. It isn't, it's free at the point of delivery and that's the crux of the matter.

Regrettably many GP's don't invest in technology because it impacts their bottom line e which is their take home pay/profit. Similarly they don't invest in their staff.

Hahaha ours are now really lovely and very helpful, they were some shockers but they didn’t last long and seem to be wheedled out very quickly.

However yours has been been my experience for the previous 32 years of my life before moving to where we are now.

At our family GP they were (and still are according to my Dad and brother who are still with them). Pretty vile.

It doesn't help that it is so hard to sack anyone in the NHS, so receptionists know they can get away with being rude because there will be no consequences. If it was the private sector they would be out within days.

It is private sector, albeit funded by the NHS.

I think it’s because they have ridiculous people shouting at them all the time and they’re frustrated. But the ones at my doctors are delightful and a credit to the surgery luckily!

However one of the receptionists at the outpatients at my hospital is the worst person I’ve ever spoken to on the phone. I rang to cancel an appointment I couldn’t attend, knowing they couldn’t rearrange it (which I said). And every time I spoke she spoke over me saying “we can’t just change the date because YOU want”. I said I didn’t want to change it so many times and then told her she was upsetting me and to please speak nicer as I was struggling (I’m autistic, vulnerable and have PTSD from being abused). She got her back up and starting kicking off saying she had worked there 15 years and never once been called rude and I should be ashamed of myself etc. She left me hyperventilating and crying my eyes out “Crocodile tears won’t get you what you want” she said.

Imagine telling someone you’re frightened by them and then them shouting at you, it was just awful and traumatic. With 3 years hindsight I think she was so used to people demanding they change dates etc, she wasn’t listening to me say that I wasn’t actually asking her to do that.

That sounds really awful Grinch. I'm sorry that happened to you. I observed a booking in nurse behaving like that repeatedly once including to vulnerable, confused elderly patients and while I didn't dare tackle her at the time (I was waiting to be seen!) I wrote to the Director of Nursing when I got home (fortunately I'd met her) with details and got a reply back from the Chief exec promising they'd investigate.

The worst GP receptionist I’ve known left the practice to train as... a psychotherapist I often wonder how that worked out.