I’m a GP receptionist and prepared to be honest about my job.

[TwistedSisterUK]

Hi all, as title says, I’m a Gp receptionist. After reading all the irate, insulting, rude and misinformed threads on here I have made this account!

Please feel free to ask me anything and I promise to answer honestly, even though my opinions and thoughts are likely to make me very unpopular here. I’m prepared for it , having read dozens of previous threads where we are called lazy, rude, power mad, bitches and more…..

I have done this job for 12 years, it’s hard work but can be at times extremely rewarding . I work with a great team. My opinions are only about my job, my day to day dealing at the surgery I work in.

First of all, to the ppl who think we just answer phones and ask patients to please take a seat - I wish!! Lol.

I deal with chemists, pharmacists,hospital secretaries, emails, post, 100s of clinical letters and test reports, arrange all referrals, do all test requests, type all clinicians letters, new patient files are refilled, files from patients leaving must be found and returned, clinical letters received are scanned , coded and actioned, translators requests, letters to be typed up and patients to be called to arrange reviews, Imms,smears etc, the loaning out of medical equipment - there’s lots more but hopefully you are getting the idea that my job involves far more than answering the odd call.

So, the bits you, the patients see and hear are a small bit of my job.

I have to go out today but will be happy to answer any questions any of you may have but I’ll start the ball rolling here about the “ magically appearing appointments “.

I read a lot of complaints here that you call and there are no appointments….then….lo and behold,….after more conversation an appointment is found! This is because I can put it down as an urgent call. If it is NOT an urgent call I will be reprimanded by my manager and if this continues I would possibly lose my job.

I am simply not allowed to continually add more and more patients to be added as “ extras” They are called extras as there genuinely are no appointments left.

When I return I’ll move on to the why we ask the reason for your call! Please be assured I do not think myself in anyway medically trained nor do I even like asking - I have to ask - it’s my job.

I promise any questions or comments will be answered in all honesty! I’m wearing my hard hat…..lol

Interesting AMA thread OP in AIBU

Been listening as it is hard to get through to GP surgery
That's why I love econsult! And other professionals usually email the GP surgery as we have same issue. Usually find GP surgery / office staff/ receptionists helpful if able to get through on phone.

I work in a related field but not GP, and our team assistants take all the calls for active cases when professional is not available on duty or as under their care. (Emergencies go through to a front line team so these aren't those. )

People are so abusive to our team admin - when they are just trying to ascertain how urgent it is (as the caller isn't willing to wait) and they are trying to get a clear concise message sent through to the right person. They don't need to know ins and outs but "they'll know what it's about" isn't helpful when worker is in holiday " They are covered by same GDPR and confidentiality we are and who do they think sometimes type our letters or take minutes.

They get berated when "someone hasn't rung them back" within a few hours (as if each worker is sat doing nothing all day!)

It's not the TAs fault that the lines are like a wall of telephone calls lined up.

Not their fault that duty worker may be on multiple calls in midst of huge crises for 5 other people trying to juggle setting up urgent arrangements and can't be interrupted to take 15 other calls about situations far less urgent.

People don't understand that urgent is a perception and relative to other crises for other people as you triage.

'The auto transcription software I have come across is absolutely crap. Spent more time going over and correcting the errors. Quicker to type from scratch.'

Absolutely agree. They've had transcription software for god know how long - certainly 30 years - and it's still terrible.

I think @RosesAndHellebores makes a valid point, actually: I suspect they don't address their male patients as 'Keith' or 'Barry' on the phone, although I may be wrong. And I wonder if the receptionist would really be fine with being addressed as 'Barbara', and the GP with being called 'Jack'.

Great thread OP - thanks for this one.

I am pretty happy with the receptionists and overall medical care at my surgery. sometimes prescriptions go awry but in general it's okay

However I have one question:

How long does/should it take for letters to get scanned on to the system? I can view my notes and do not yet see a hospital letter with results of a suspected basal cell carcinoma surgery. It was a positive result so I would like to see this recorded on my patient notes. I had the surgery over 4 months ago. I even took a photocopy of the letter up to the surgery and explained this to the receptionist who assured me it would be scanned on.

No issue with the receptionists at my practice - they are lovely but they’re doing an impossible job because of their bosses.

Pre-covid, you could book non urgent appointments with the GP online, having a choice of evening or even Saturdays as long as you were happy to book a few weeks in advance. You could also use e-consult to get a response by the end of the next day. If urgent, you could phone the surgery in the morning and you’d be seen by the duty GP, advanced practitioner nurse person or for a while we even had a paramedic attached to the surgery. It was grand.

Now, you cannot phone for an appointment. You have to fill in an e-consult. If an elderly person or someone with no computer phones up, the receptionist just completes the e-consult with them and submits it. You’re supposed to get a response by 6pm the following day but usually it now takes 2 days. It’s usually a text telling you they’ve booked you a phone appointment for 10 days time and that appointment could be anytime up to 6pm on that day. Which is no good if you’re a teacher, nurse or any job where you can’t simply answer the phone. Even if you specifically say in your econsult that you need to see someone face to face, you are still sent a phone appointment.

My questions are…

Who is doing the triaging? I don’t think it’s a doctor so it must be the receptionists. Aren’t you terrified you will miss something important?

What are the GPs actually doing? Are they at home or are they in the surgeries? Do you feel the same frustration with them as the rest of us do?

Do GP surgeries realise that they are playing a huge part in Emergency departments struggling to cope, because people can’t see their GPs, so problems get worse or they think going to hospital is the only option to actually see someone?

Do you think things will ever improve or are we stuck with this situation now?

I would say that doctors’ receptionists are much like teachers. Most do a decent job or better but those that do a terrible job have a massive impact on individuals’ lives.

There is one receptionist at a branch practice whom I consider to be an absolute horror. She is a walking stereotype - a middle aged busy body who gossips, is sneery and talks unpleasantly about people in front of us in the waiting room. She had also lost my records before and been unhelpful and unpleasant.

Almost every other receptionist has been pleasant and as helpful as they can be given the parameters they work with.

Really, the issue for me, is that appointments seem nigh on impossible to get, doctors are doing call back and then calling you for an appointment if they consider it important enough and this all eats in to proper appointments time.

We live in a 24hour society - shift workers, people working two jobs etc so it is not easy to get appointments. Why are surgeries not offering early and late appointments? Mine used to but you know, since Covid, it’s been wait for 30 minutes on the phone at 8.00am to be told there’s no appointments. And no pre-booking either.

The system doesn’t work and it is the receptionist who bears the brunt of people’s frustration when all they want is to see a doctor.

To get the service many want , appointments available at convenient times , more appointments then we need more GPS

Do you know what the logic is behind only giving appointments for the day you call?

A couple of years ago, long before Covid, I was trying to get an appointment. It wasn't urgent as such but just something I felt was wrong and needed to be checked. I phoned at 8.00 for 6 days running only for all appointments to be gone by the time I got through. Why couldn't I be given an appointment for a few days time? Surely it would save so many repeated phone calls just for one appointment.

I never did get an appointment and eventually the issue went away but that might not have been the case.

Also, do receptionists not get told about discretion? I was once in a packed waiting room only for the receptionist to call out "Dora - the nurse can do your smear now". I'm afraid I just walked out.

The receptionists at our surgery are fantastic. On several occasions when ds3 was little I’ve needed to make a fairly urgent GP appointment and they’ve said ok, how soon can you get here

To be fair our GP practice has been a zillion times better since Covid. Whizz your issue onto the portal and the Dr either calls you back with a solution, you get a text to say orescriprion is at the pharmacy or you are called in at a time you negotiate directly with the Dr. Why it couldn't be done that way pre covid I shall never know.

I had a basal skin cell carcinoma on my back last year, Dr texted and asked if I could send a photo which with the help of some stretching and a mirror I could. Dr rang back and referred me on a two week referral and had an appointment in five days. Pre covid that would have involved three thirty minute calls and a three week wait for an apt.

@StripeyDeckchair

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.

Try this:-

www.lloydsdirect.co.uk/by-lloyds-pharmacy?utm_source=g&utm_campaign=12548592688&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=116699501742&utm_term=550991289247++kwd-1026544361999&matchtype=e&placement=&gclid=CjwKCAjwoduRBhA4EiwACL5RPyDpkeZ5cJ3TcfvPgmKDfPZwRMN3lqWK7UdsNv9yGddJ2wNfeNrGNhoCTqYQAvD_BwE

I am sure there are many many receptionists who do a great job but my Dad nearly died recently because even though we insisted on a face to face appointment the receptionist said No. I could understand if she was just following instructions but when we asked her to go and check with another GP ( after describing my dad’s symptoms ) she said they were very busy and it was a phone appointment or nothing. I took him straight to walk in centre who blue lighted him to A&E.

I don't tend to make assumptions about people who do a particular job and put them into one category.
Thinking of people in general (not GP receptionists in particular), some are lovely, kind, caring and have the ability to try to understand and empathise with others.
Then there are those who are rude, patronising, intimidating and make us feel even more rubbish than we did to begin with.
I've experienced both.

No matter what role we have, there will be good and bad in everyone.

The staff in my Doctors surgery are fantastic.When the phone is answered it is a real person at the other end and i think this goes a long way to how polite the patient is, none of this press 1 stand on your left leg and howl to the moon. I have in the past had to turn down appointments they have offered me as the appointment is in 5 minutes time and i can't get there that quick, repeat prescriptions are sent to the Chemist the same day. Nothing is too much trouble for any of the staff. As for the woman that was so full of her own self importance in my last surgery the least said the better.

I don't have any difficulty getting appointments at the vet for my animals and the staff are unfailingly polite and caring and always make a fuss of four legged friends. Much nicer than at the Drs when the DC were small.

Ah, but on the way out I settle the bill.

I don't think you're dragons OP. I volunteer my symptoms to the receptionist because she doesn't care about me - she probably does like any human being but not in that way - in the hope that she'd be able to get me a quicker appointment with the right person.

A couple of things. I called at 8am on a Monday after suffering an excruciating earache the whole weekend. The receptionist said she could fit me in on Wednesday and I took the appointment. Less than an hour later a GP called to tell me to come in at 2pm. I didn't know but a prolonged earache could be the sign of something very serious like an infection in the brain. The GP told me the receptionist gave me her first available appointment and flagged me as a possible emergency. It was an infection and the GP killed the pain immediately with anaesthetic drops and gave me a prescription for antibiotics that cleared it up.

A funnier thing. Last summer during lockdown I was waiting in the surgery for a routine appointment. We were all masked and socially-distanced. Suddenly there was one of those summer cloudbursts and a poor little dog tied up outside was soaked and howling.

The receptionist asked whose dog he was and a woman said she'd left him tied up outside because dogs weren't allowed. The receptionist told her to bring him in and he sat quietly under the woman's chair.

Another receptionist objected because of rules and the first one announced: "I know. Let's have a vote. Hands up anyone who wants to leave the poor little dog tied up outside in the pouring rain." Not a single hand went up and she said: "Vote passed. The dog stays."

Maybe it wasn't orthodox but it was a bloody brilliant bit of initiative and really cheered me up.

Calling you Mrs Smith whilst e.g. doing a smear could seem rather formal but if that's what you prefer it would be respected

That’s a bloody weird attitude! Surely the more intimate the procedure, the greater the need for formality.

@Leftbutcameback
My daughter has been a medical receptionist for 4 years. She is paid minimum wage.

Our GP receptionists are great - one is my allotment neighbour too which is very handy!

@TwistedSisterUK Is there a training course for receptionists? and is there training for triage?

I've never held the opinion you describe in your OP -the receptionists at my gp surgery are all very polite and nice.

The receptionist at my dentist is even nicer so much that I actually enjoy talking to her as she has such a sunny nature!

There are rude people in all walks of life, doesn't matter what the profession.
I think it is just magnified slightly when it's a GP receptionist as it is to do with peoples health/very personal information and so is very emotive for some people who may feel the receptionists are acting as a "gatekeeper" so get more hacked off than they would with something less personal.

I think the biggest problem is that a lot of doctors are now franchises. They work on a we don’t have to see you now and cutting medications to save money.

My gp receptionists are lovely. But I have found that receptionists at hospitals can be very rude without any provocation. Too many times I've approached a receptionist and received immediate rudeness for just daring to tell them I have an appointment, honestly sometimes even before I've spoken.

Many have been lovely too, but I do find more shitty receptionists in the NHS than I find elsewhere.

@LetHimHaveIt

'The auto transcription software I have come across is absolutely crap. Spent more time going over and correcting the errors. Quicker to type from scratch.'

Absolutely agree. They've had transcription software for god know how long - certainly 30 years - and it's still terrible.

I think @RosesAndHellebores makes a valid point, actually: I suspect they don't address their male patients as 'Keith' or 'Barry' on the phone, although I may be wrong. And I wonder if the receptionist would really be fine with being addressed as 'Barbara', and the GP with being called 'Jack'.

They absolutely do address male patients by first name too, at my surgery at least. No idea why you think they wouldn't, not everything is about sexism.

@Wishihadanalgorithm

I would say that doctors’ receptionists are much like teachers. Most do a decent job or better but those that do a terrible job have a massive impact on individuals’ lives.

There is one receptionist at a branch practice whom I consider to be an absolute horror. She is a walking stereotype - a middle aged busy body who gossips, is sneery and talks unpleasantly about people in front of us in the waiting room. She had also lost my records before and been unhelpful and unpleasant.

Almost every other receptionist has been pleasant and as helpful as they can be given the parameters they work with.

Really, the issue for me, is that appointments seem nigh on impossible to get, doctors are doing call back and then calling you for an appointment if they consider it important enough and this all eats in to proper appointments time.

We live in a 24hour society - shift workers, people working two jobs etc so it is not easy to get appointments. Why are surgeries not offering early and late appointments? Mine used to but you know, since Covid, it’s been wait for 30 minutes on the phone at 8.00am to be told there’s no appointments. And no pre-booking either.

The system doesn’t work and it is the receptionist who bears the brunt of people’s frustration when all they want is to see a doctor.

This. The reputation comes from the disproportionate impact on patient experience of the really bad ones - and there are indisputably some really bad ones.

I would say that 70% of the GP receptionists I've dealt with (I have multiple lifelong health problems and a child with SEN) have been fine. Of the other 30%, most have been cold, dismissive, patronising gatekeepers who have put me off seeking treatment, sometimes to the detriment of my or my child's wellbeing. Around 5% have been so actively cruel and unpleasant that I have ended up in tears, or made a complaint, or moved to a different surgery to avoid dealing with them again.

@BattenbergdowntheHatches

I have no problem with giving receptionists the basic details of my problem and I am unfailingly polite. (Have to deal with many medical appointments for disabled DS and rely on admin staff like receptionists to resolve the diabolical/antiquated communications between departments and between primary and secondary care).

I get that it must be frustrating, but I also have to say that about 50% of GP receptionists I have come across act like Cerberus, with absolutely no provocation whatsoever. I have ended up in tears many times after being spoken to like (at best) a supplicant and a POS at worst. For trying to help my son.

I have private healthcare for myself through work and it’s maxing how - even when busy - the staff at Spire or BUPA manage to be cheerful and unpleasant w en though I’m sure their job isn’t a cakewalk either.

There are too many sociopaths in the NHS and some (but hopefully not you OP) are GP receptionists.

I have a really really rare illness. Lots of DRS don’t even know about it. Let alone receptionists.

I can die from my illness within mins and I find it hard when I call and try to put across how sick I really am. One receptionist wouldn’t allow me to speak to a dr for a urine infection. Which can kill me. I ended up in tears after trying hysterically to explain it

Surely there’s something in notes? So when a patient rings in. They’ll see that whatever it is needs a dr to speak too.

'They absolutely do address male patients by first name too, at my surgery at least. No idea why you think they wouldn't, not everything is about sexism.'

🙄

Well, for one thing, I said 'suspect' and that 'I may be wrong'.

For another, I know I've been called both 'LetHimHaveIt' and 'Miss LetHimHaveIt' but I'm pretty sure I've only ever heard men addressed as 'Mr'.

I wonder actually if it's because forenames, if overheard, are less identifying than surnames? Usually.