Being triaged for a GP phone appoitment by GPs Receptionist

[Pennox]

Curious to know if others think IABU here as this is a particular bug bear of mine. I should say that in the past I have had 2 particular concerns about GP receptionists which maybe colour my view. One, my mother was briefly a GP receptionist (not recently) and used to tell us all sorts about the patients at the surgery, much of which was personally identifiable if you knew those people in the local community. Secondly, I was given incorrect medical information by my own GPs receptionist just prior to Covid regarding my son which she shouldn't have been giving me anyway, and was given in an attempt to get me to go away and not persist in asking for an appointment, but, more importantly, because it concerned a severe allergy, could have been very dangerous if I'd not known it was rubbish and followed it. (And no I did not officially complain at the time as the practice makes that really difficult and covid kicked off, I should have done.) Anyway.

I had covid approx. 5 weeks ago and was feeling pretty much over it after 2 weeks of pretty rubbish flu type effects and then 2 weeks of fatigue, joint aches etc. So by end of last week was thinking great, I'm back! after a surprisingly rough month. I did not seek any medical attention during this time and self-managed. However, I think I've now developed a secondary chest and sinus infection which is getting worse and worse, all the usual gross symptoms which I wont detail here and got to the stage where I am feeling really rough again and cant work properly (from home). Im really behind at work after the initial 4 days off that I took and then being ill/fatigue/brian fog for another 3 weeks. So I reckon I may need antibiotics now and it wont just go away on its own - I'm not a medic but when this has happened a couple of times in the past that is what has inevitably happened. So, basically, I need a GP appt. To check and hopefully get some antibiotics. Online booking is 3 weeks out. So only option is the GP prescribed practice of phoning at 8 to ask for a same day/emergency appointment. Thisbused to involve queuing round the block at 8 as was impossible to get through on the phone. They've somewhat addressed this now so after about a 30 minute wait I got through and asked for a same day appointment and surely is a yes or no response, yes we have one available, no we do not. But they of course then ask you why. So I said I had covid recently and now think I may have developed a chest infection at the end of it and might need antibiotics to clear it up. She then started asking me a long list of medical questions about my symptoms. Was I coughing? Did I have a temperature? Was I coughing up phlegm? Was there blood in the phlegm? At this point I said can I ask you why you are asking me these questions? Is this my appointment? She said I am triaging you before putting you through to the list for a GP phone appointment (they are still doing all initial appointments over the phone). I asked if she was a nurse then or medically trained and she said no I am a receptionist but the GPs give us this list of questions to ask before we decide whether to put you through for an appointment or not.

AIBU to think that they shouldnt have non-medically trained people triaging attempts to get a GP appointment?

Its not so bad in this instance - the receptionist and the rest of the surgery now know I've got symptoms of a possible chest infection (its open plan and they're in the main reception), so what?. But bearing in mind she'd just confirmed my name, asked for my date of birth and echoed it back at me over the phone in front of who knows who standing in line in the surgery in front of her (that I can't see and could be my neighbour for example). What if it had been a call about depression or mental health/suicide or domestic violence? And more fundamentally than that, is it really appropriate to have non-medically trained reception staff, not bound by the same professional conduct standards as doctors and nurses, deciding who actually needs medical attention in the form of a doctors appt, and how quickly, or not?

But they are trained in exactly what questions to ask to pass on to the triage nurse, who then makes a decision on what to do.

Otherwise they would need to have nurses answering the phones and that’s not going to work now is it

They'll have set questions
It's the same as if you ring for an ambulance, you aren't speaking to anyone medically trained then hit they are able to triage appropriately

Yes as above notes they are triage trained and it's part of their job to access whether an appointment is appropriate/same day or whether they should call 111/999/attend A&E. In a not to dissimilar manor the call takers who answer 111/999 calls are not medically trained, but following a triage tool they may say the caller doesn't need to be seen.

It's not perfect and mistakes occur but resources/appointments need rationing.

This is exactly what happens when you call 111, OP. They have a careful script to follow which tells them how to refer you. 111 would have a nurse call you back if appropriate.

They’re filling in a form for the Dr. They’ve been told to do it, they’re not doing it for fun. And nobody - nobody cares what your ailments are. The receptionist doesn’t care. People standing in the surgery don’t care.

It's the exact same thing as calling 111 - they ask questions they've been told to ask, to gage the severity of the condition and whether the GP needs to see you that same day. They aren't diagnosing you, they don't need to be medically trained to follow the script they've been given.

This is normal, they are trained and do it all day every day. They may well be more sensitive in the case of domestic violence, but you have a chest infection so you wouldn’t no. Unfair to judge all the receptionists on the basis that your mum was negligent at it.

Urgh I used to be a gp receptionist.They don't want to ask you those questions,they get told to.Take it up with the practice manager.

I remember going into my surgery pre Covid times to make an appointment to see a GP as my mum had just been diagnosed with a congenital heart condition. Her cardiologist recommended her children were all referred for an echocardiogram to rule out the condition.

I was quite surprised when the receptionist informed me that there was no need for a referral as they could do them in the surgery. When I queried this I was told quite confidently by both her and the practice manager that an ECG and an echocardiogram were exactly the same thing.

They only ask you briefly what's wrong they don't interrogate you. I don't see a problem.

Are you suggesting that a doctor or nurse should be sitting on a GP reception and taking phonecalls? That would be a massive waste of resources.

This is normal. Not sure what you're concerned about.

Just book appointments online. You won’t be triaged.

I suspect that if you answer in certain ways that you will get redirected to 111 or in the case of haemoptysis will be told to go straight to A&E instead. It’s just a brief filtering tool to make sure you’re safe to wait on the GP call back list and don’t sit till 7.30pm waiting for a call back when you’ve got bilateral PE’s and are desaturating rapidly.

Do you want the medical staff to answer the phone or maybe the receptionist can diagnose you? A receptionist just does their job that's all they are not pissing about for a laugh.

This is perfectly normal. Doctors ask reception staff to triage. YABU

Our GP surgery don't triage at reception; however, many GP surgeries do have a GP or Nurse Practitioner at reception who triages for two/three receptionists at a time.

You should probably find out what actually happens first before saying that the information is not coming from a medical professional.

And, in the scenario involving your mum, surely you know the only person at fault in that is her and you shouldn't hold other, most likely professional receptionists at fault for your mothers shitty behaviour.

If you said you were experiencing domestic violence then I don’t think they’d continue to interrogate you over the phone. They asked those particular questions because you said think you have a chest infection. I don’t really understand why people have such an issue with GP receptionists. Unfortunately there aren’t enough appts to go round and there has to be some sort of process to direct people accordingly.

oh and PS ALL staff who have access to patient data are bound by the same confidentiality and patient care standards as doctors and nurses are. Did you never tell your mother to shut the fuck up?

She's not deciding whether to give you an appointment or not. The GP has made a decision to give you an appointment based on the answers to your questions. 5/6 yeses - appointment, only 1-, no appointment necessary, likely to clear up on its own. It could be the receptionist asking, it could be someone else, it could be a computer. What it shouldn't be is a nurse or doctor as they are busy dealing with the patients that the system sends to them.

YANBU. Our GP surgery has set up a triage system but the triaging is done by a GP. You give the receptionist a list of symptoms and they pass this to the triaging GP who decides who you should see and when.

It works very well and saves the scrum of anyone who happens to get through before 8:10 getting all the same day appointments.

I work in general practice and this is protocol to ask set questions to triage.
Are you sure they answer calls actually on the reception desk? Where I work and other surgeries I know, answer calls in another room to avoid breaching confidentiality. The staff on reception only deal with the patients in the waiting room and do admin like prescriptions etc. Obviously this is only my experience and I imagine varies in different surgeries.

And your mother was a gossip I bet you lapped it up !

Really don't get what the problem is. They're doing their job. They're asking what the doc tells them to ask.
I needed gp recently. Rang at 8, asked similar questions. Doc rang me back, discussed in more detail then doc decided I needed a face to face appointment. All sorted.
If you really need an appointment you will have less chance of getting one if they don't triage people.

Our surgery has a back office they don't seem to answer phones at the front desk.