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

It was obviously an error on their part but unfortunately some GP receptionists are just spectacularly rude! I changed practices because of rude receptionists - the ones at my new surgery are lovely and I joked to a friend that they obviously hadn’t gone to the special GP receptionists training school where they teach them all to be rude and unhelpful!

I’ve had similar from my dentists (but won’t go anywhere else because the dentist himself is so great). The receptionist there is not rude but also not exactly friendly/smiley. One time when she offered to write down my next appointment date on a card I said “Yes please, that would be great cos my memory is appalling these days”. Day before the appointment I got the usual text reminder but didn’t read it fully because I knew the card said 12.15pm and I’d also written it in my diary. About 11.30am on the day of the appointment I got a call from her asking why I hadn’t turned up for my 11.15 appointment! I told her she’d written 12.15 on the card and she just denied it and made me feel like I’d wasted everyone’s time. She even remembered the conversation we’d had when I’d booked it, so she knew she had written out an appointment card. She eventually begrudgingly admitted that she “may” have got it wrong but then blamed me for not checking the time on the text reminder. This was in December and I had toothache and the next available appointment was January so it ruined my Christmas dinner! When I went to the new appointment, I told my lovely dentist what had happened - not in great detail and not to complain, but to apologise for not turning up in December. I didn’t want him to think it was my fault and had a feeling she would have made out it was. He apologised, bless him, laughed sheepishly and said “Oh, she never told me that, but to be honest I’m not surprised she didn’t!” I got the distinct impression that she has a reputation for being a bit scary!

“I use the kill them with kindness approach now and am bordering on smarmy.”. That really made me laugh, especially as I do the same with my dentist’s receptionist since she made a mistake with my appointment time last year and tried to blame me. Not that I’m ever anything but polite and friendly to her, but I have turned it up a gear!

Of course they do. My children did when they reached 16 just ad their friends do. I did when I was 16, so did all my friends.

Definitely raise it with practice manager. My DH had a call from our surgery recently. They were trying to contact our adult DS but didn’t have his phone number so rang DH’s mobile number instead to ‘pass on a message’. Massive GDPR breach

So funny.

I had a call from a receptionist wanting to arrange an appointment for me at a cancer clinic. I didn't have cancer.

What's so intriguing about that. Plenty of 16 year olds do extra curricular activities such as swimming, football, netball, dance, pretty much all sports either in school or atva private provider. Our small high school has around 15 clubs daily after school and our town has loads of activities for teens.

That would depend on the school. I would imagine contacting your child's school and asking would be the best way to di d out.

I kept complaining to my GP surgery that my children’s medical records weren’t linked to mine on my patient app, so I couldn’t order repeat prescriptions for them. Surgery kept denying it, saying their system showed they were linked. Eventually I got a phone call admitting that my children had been added to a total stranger’s account and had been for the last two months …

I'd raise this with the practice manager, get them to check the phone number they rang against patient records. They'll probably find it's someone else. Also ensure they haven't marked it on your son's record that he "did not attend" his appointment.

I agree with this.

This! ⬆️

I should imagine the original caller will call the surgery and complain that their son didn't receive the call back for his appointment. The receptionist will then understand that an error has been made, and will know that you and DH are not liars. I suspect you will NOT receive a call from them to explain/apologise. It does sound extremely frustrating.

I have access to some medical records systems and believe me, there are some very, very unusual names which there are several of in one city and DOB can line up sometimes too.

It was a mistake, just make it clear it was and request it's recorded as such.

@VegTrug took it from me and said 'wait here, you need another one" or something to that effect and actually tutted.
I said this is a GDPR breach which I hope you will report to your manager and she ignored me.
Our practice is awful

My dentist thought I'd had open heart surgery as a child according to my notes. I was born with a hole in my heart but it was small enough that I didn't require an operation and caused no problems. I'm not sure what's on my record but it was very confusing for us both when he questioned me about it.

Could DS rang himself for an appointment. Not wanting parents to know about it & not fully understanding how the DR system works?

Mistakes happen

I couldn’t make this into an enormous drama what’s going to be achieved
at best you’ll get an apology typed up by someone who doesn’t mean it or have the remotest interest in your complaint

The surgery will have a record of the time they were called and they usually record calls so you could ask the Peactice Manager to check