Thank you for everything you do. As a GP I know how much abuse you guys get and it’s undeserved.

The receptionists at our practice are really good and helpful. No complaints here. Must be a hard job at times.

My opinions are only about my job, my day to day dealing at the surgery I work in.

So what's the point, unless we all use your particular surgery?

I love the receptionists at my GPs, they're professional and very polite. The receptionists at my old one years ago, were utterly shit. The pair of them couldn't have run a bath, let alone a reception area.

I’ve been horrified at how rude people can be to receptionists. How do you cope when patients are abusive? I know I couldn’t do your job and I’m so grateful for the work that you do

I've worked in customer services and know how crap the general public can be. It shouldn't, but it comes with the territory unfortunately.
Of course they don't know what the person on the other side of the desk does, but I wouldn't expect them to. People only know what they see.
The vast majority of heath care receptionist I've come across are amazing, but everyone has met the dragon at the door type. They have probably reached the stage where the public as a whole are the enemy and really shouldn't be in the job any more. I witnessed one receptionist yell at, belittle and patronise each and every patient that dared walk into her surgery, I guess it was Covid stress but I did complain.

I have been frustrated at calling my GP for an appointment in the past and it has been a conversation point with many of my friends and family over the years.

However, I am not in any doubt that the rules and decisions around appointment allocation are made by the poor person who answers the telephone.

I am in a sensitive telephone based role myself (not medical) and I know that most problems begin and end with poor communication skills and lack of empathy. Frankly, the same message can be delivered by two different people and the outcome will be almost 100 percent affected by the way the conversation is handled. The times I have been most frustrated when calling my GP have been when I don't feel that I have been listened to or if I feel my concerns have been dismissed without understanding or care, the person on the end of the line is ticking the boxes and seeing if I am worthy of attention. I have seen this changing in recent years (hopefully not just at my practice) and people skills have improved greatly.

Thanks for this thread and by starting it, I imagine you care greatly about the patients you deal with.

Why is everything so antiquated? Is it lack of funds or what?
I had a day off last week & called in to my GP to request a repeat prescription. They wouldn't let me into the building so I had to yell through the door mechanism and then told me I had to write in with my request.
Write in! Can't email or phone I have to write. Which means it doesn't get done for days, because I work FT & now have to write the letter & make a trip to deliver it I've now run out of my prescription.

Can I ask what the pay is like? (In general of course). I've always assumed it isn't particularly well paid

Ive met good and bad also, I cannot deny the fact there are some people who aren’t suited to their roles.

The same as all of us then.

You said, dozens of previous threads where we are called lazy, rude, power mad, bitches and more…..

Those will be the people who aren't suited to their roles. Not that the insults are ok but you obviously seem to understand the frustration.

I used to work in pathology.
I had a lot of contact with many gp surgeries and I could absolutely distinguish the good from the bad by the people answering the calls.
Lack of training I think has a lot to answer for.

Bearing in mind I would usually be ringing a surgery because test results were abnormal. Therefore it was important the gp got the results ASAP.
Frequently a receptionist would tell me that I couldn’t ring until after 2 ( that’s when patients can ring).
Or would have no idea how to write down the results accurately.
Would ask me what I wanted them to do!
I have had to firmly reiterate that the receptionists take the results to the duty doctor immediately.

In a well run, happy surgery the receptionist would know to get the results pad, understand my terminology and I would feel confident that the gp would receive the correct information quickly.

Also hospitals go through the same waiting system to get to a receptionist as do patients. I could often sit 5/10 minutes trying to get through.

Your GPs should be using autotranscription software. Waste of time to be typing letters surely?

I recently phoned out GP receptionist just to say thank you to her for being so helpful. She was blunt to start with but ended up being a real help. When I called her back to just say thank you she burst into tears, she apologised kept saying she was so sorry for getting upset, she explained she’d had nothing but abuse since Covid started and people were always rude and that is what she expected with every call so was sometimes defensive and no one had ever called to thank her. She was only following practice rules when asking patients questioned before deciding where to direct them but people didn’t understand that and thought she was being obstructive.

very interesting. thank you for doing this ama op

my question is about languages. what happens if someone call who doesn't speak enough english? do you have a translating tool you can use? or are there language requirements for your job?

I echo the sentiments, absolutely draining work, busy, stressful and absorb a lot of the abuse. I'm an ANP in a GP surgery and our receptionists are gold, and we would fall apart without them! The extra work of calling patients for us with messages and about results, having to signpost patients to where they can be helped, constant faxing of urgent prescriptions, calling ambulances, organising clinics and vaccination lists....the list goes on!

We have serious issues with communication and medical records, the disabled students allowance is a lifeline for those who need it but it relies on gps responding to requests for things like diagnosis letters etc. the receptionists lost requests (in writing as requested) refused to discuss it with me (I have medical power of attorney) and refused to put me through to the practice manager. Thankfully the doors aren't locked at our practice do we employed the sit in reception until someone senior talks to us method despite the dragon receptionist threatening to call the police. All we wanted was medical records that the student loans company required, the fact that there's covid is irrelevant, they are still required.

Sorry dragon lady really annoyed me, especially when she said "why does she qualify for dsa she looks normal, so inappropriate (dd is autistic)

Tough job, imo. A friend works as one. You need to be quite thick skinned, I imagine. I also think the past two years must have been very tough for GP receptionists.

Heres a question: if you could change 1 thing about the nhs what would it be and why?

The receptionists at my GPs’ are all lovely. I’m sure it’s a hard job.

I wish I could say the same for all of the doctors.

I'm a GP nurse. Receptionists are the glue that holds general practice together!
I would not want to do their job.

I have no problem with the receptionists at my surgery. They're professional and quite friendly.

My gripe is at things that they don't control. At our surgery, you can only get an appointment on the day you call. This means, alot of the time, you are unsuccessful at getting an appointment at all. You either call first thing in the morning and wait in a queue for hours on end. I was number 48 in the queue once! Or you call an hour or two after opening only for all the appointments for the day to be gone.

I understand the obvious problem there would be with booking appointments days in advance, but it would be very useful to just let it spill over for a day or half a day. E.g. calling at 1pm on Monday and being able to get an appointment for 10am the next day.

Does your surgery only allow appointments to be booked on the day? If so, why?