GP surgery phoned wrong person but made out me and DH are liars

[nextwed14]

I had a couple of missed calls from my GP surgery today which was odd as I haven't contacted them at all recently. They called again at 5pm and they asked to speak to my son when I explained he was at school they said his dad had contacted them and booked a phone appt for 1130 but they couldn't get hold of his dad on the number given so they were contacting me.

I said that it wasn't my husband who called and that my son is well and at an after school club. They had my sons name and dob and said that they definitely had a call regarding him this morning. I double checked with my DH and he hadn't called so I called the surgery back and said we definitely hadn't contacted them. DH then phoned to say he hadn't contacted them and receptionist said that he definitely called them this morning and an appointment was given but my DH didn't answer his phone. They made out that myself and my husband were liars and that we were wasting NHS resources by now deciding that there was no problem. They must have muddled my son up with someone else but I don't know how as his name is quite unusual and I dont think there would be 2 people with the same name and DOB. I don't know if I should take it further or just leave it. Who ever did phone has obviously not had an appt for their child as they had the totally wrong contact details for them

I would have thought that if the son did want to call about something embarrassing, he'd have given his own number so they could speak to him direct and his parents wouldn't need to be involved?

Didn't something like that happen to a journalist with the Covid vaccine? He got called way earlier than he was expecting to be, turned out he was recorded as clinically obese because some eejit had recorded him as being 6.2cm tall.

😂

I had a shirty call from a gp insisting it was time ds spoke for himself on the phone and took responsibility for his health. He was 3! Reasonably common name but I’d just confirmed his date of birth. Anyway we agreed that on this occasion I could discuss his complicated rare genetic disorder, rather than ds.

my dad also got all the way through an appointment before the dr said he was looking wel for someone who’d had a triple heart bypass less than a week ago. He’d cycled there, in shorts carrying his helmet. He put that down the dr being on autopilot and trained not to notice people’s eccentricities.

No dr or pharmacist would prescribe a medication with that metric.

We're not totally thick you know. If I see on records I need to prescribe medication based on weight for a 3 year old and it said 14 stone and height of 6 inches I wouldn't just go 'oh that's a fat kid best prescribe maximum dosage of medication'

Just an idea but did maybe one of his friends prank call the Dr pretending to be Dad saying he had an issue with his willy or something 'hilarious' like that? Or someone with a grudge?

My DD had sports and athletics clubs after school all the way through secondary school. What's so mysterious about that?

Errors happen but they shouldn't be accusing you or your dh of lying. My son was booked in for a learning disability review for 14+ year old's when he was 9.

I didn't know about not being allowed to make an appointment for a 16 year old. This worries me as I have a 16 year old who has autism and struggles a lot with communication. Although our Dr surgery has always been happy for me to make appointments for him.

My surgery had me down as overweight - turns out they last recorded my weight when I was 8.5 months pregnant. My youngest is 10.

Totally agree. I have been on the receiving end of several fuck ups over the years, courtesy of doctors' receptionists. But apparently it's never THEIR fault,it's 'human error'. Which is all very well,but I don't think it's acceptable when you are dealing with peoples' health and possibly their lives. They tried to make out that I was being unreasonable.

I'm intrigued, a 16 year old at an after school club 🤔

I've got the page open for my dc school as I was looking up what time something finished tomorrow. They go to an academy chain school that's RI so not anything swank.

My husband was phoned by cancer specialist four months ago and was given another patients results luckily it was on loud speaker and the consultant called my husband by a totally dif name . He said my names not Ron oh sorry sorry he said I will ring you back in 15 mins with your results which he did and luckily my husbands results were better than the previous

Snapped at you for what?! Wasn't your fault

My old GP surgery kept ringing and leaving multiple voicemails regarding midwife appointments, missed midwife appts, had voicemails from the midwife herself to make new appts and checking up - they never mentioned my name, was just ' this is x from xxxx surgery, just regarding your midwife booking appt/missed midwife appt/follow up' etc - I kept informing them that I was absolutely NOT pregnant at that time, I didn't need a midwife and definitely had no appt, and it was a good job it was me who got the voicemails and not my husband, as he'd be wondering why I hadn't told him I was pregnant etc. They argued it was definitely the correct number and suggested I was in an abusive relationship and couldn't speak to them honestly on the phone in case DH was listening. Turns out the calls were for a woman with a completely different name and the landline number we had must've been her previous number that VM had recycled - worked that out after the last voicemail was for someone called 'Donna' and that tallyed with multiple debt collection calls we were repeatedly receiving for her too.

My doctors notes once said I’d had a baby the year before. Amazing as I’d had a hysterectomy some years before!

I had a call from my Dr's surgery, they stated they had booked me in for either flu or whooping cough vaccine because it would protect my baby when born. I wasn't pregnant and had no plans to have anymore. My daughter was about a year old at that point. Imagine being a women wanting a child abd struggling and you get that call.

@Myotherrideisabroom I had very similar! I'd self-referred to the hospital midwifery team when pregnant, but I went on to MC at the same hospital. The EPU said they would inform them, but I additionally called the midwifery team myself, to ensure they were aware and to not get in touch.

At what would have been 13weeks, I was called asking why I'd missed my appointment!- What appointment? I'd had no letter/text and had to advise them I'd had an MC weeks earlier and to please amend their notes.

I then got a call at what would have been 20weeks about why I'd missed a midwife appointment and scan!- I had to explain it all over again!
I was an awful time and additional stress I didn't need.

Write to the practice manager. My notes were swapped and my insurance company refused the go-ahead for my cancer operation. It stated I had a pre-existing condition and somewhere in the notes it mentioned: “This American lady” and “breast augmentation” which definitely isn’t t me!!! I went ahead with my credit card on admission at the private hospital as I knew I would get to the bottom of this. I received an apology but the worrying thing was it was all in my name and my NHS number. These mistakes happen.

GP surgeries do make mistakes and as others have said, you should report this to the Practice Manager. It's a potential data breach that should be recorded and investigated by the practice.
In the last 6 months I've been requested to attend cholesterol and diabetes clinics despite having neither condition - I reported these incidents as I was concerned that these messages were intended for other patients. During that time the practice also managed to lose my notes for three months - I only copped onto that as I was still waiting for x-rays to be done and wondered why I hadn't been called up for these scans. Unfortunately this delay has put my treatment back 😒

Some years ago, there was a funeral notice in the local paper regarding a person with the same name as my DP. He doesn't have much contact with his DC (long story), but his DS worked near him and visited him at work to check his DF was still alive! This was shortly followed by a visit from one of his DDs to check on him.

Then about a week or so later, the Practice Manager (who happened to be the doctor's wife) rang to ask if he was still alive! Apparently, the deceased person was once registered at the practice, but had moved a few months earlier and the notes hadn't yet been transferred. My DP found the whole thing very unnerving!

This! Maybe there is something he doesn’t want you or his dad to know about?

When I used to work as a GP receptionist, there was an elderly, semi-retired, receptionist who was very much a dragon, unlike the rest of us! She seemed to have a particular dislike of young people/teenagers. They would come into the surgery and she would be so rude to them! When they walked away from the desk, she would complain about them to the rest of us, despite the fact they had been extremely polite and courteous. Nothing was ever said as she had been there for years (working for the senior partners who were husband and wife) and she usually covered for sickness and holidays.

I have zero trust in most health care professionals after they’ve nearly killed me in every pregnancy with some kind of mistake.

And the doctors surgery may as well be a mirage. I think it’s a front actually.

I could drop dead in reception and they’d tell my corpse to ring 111

Thing is though, if it was that, they still went against his wishes by calling his mother’s number, and what they seemed to think was his father’s although it sounds like they got that wrong since the father said he didn’t get the calls, instead of his own number which is what I would expect him to give in that situation. He would still be justified in complaining.

Another thing you need to be flagging up with the practice manager is that unless your son has signed something to say he is happy for you or your husband to discuss his medical record with the surgery, the receptionist shouldnt have even mentioned that he had a phone call booked with at 11.30 (even if they were wrong).

Again, massive GDPR breach. Your son is over 16 and therefore the surgery shouldn't be discussing anything about his record (including booked appointments) with anyone other than himself or someone he has physically signed may discuss his record on his behalf with anyone. In NHS land over 16's are classed as adults and we aren't allowed to discuss their record with anyone unless it is an emergency/safeguarding issue and we feel that it is in the patients best interest.

I would definitely be bringing this up with either the practice manger or the caldicott guardian. This is bordering on a significant event if they are discussing your son with you without his consent.