Why tell the receptionist why I'm seeing the doctor

[Eldermileniummam]

Why do they ask this? Is it so they can give you an appointment with the appropriate person or some other reason?

I usually don't mind but sometimes I'm embarrassed to say and never sure how specific I need to be.

So true 😂

I feel so sorry for any receptionist having to deal with you.

But services change all the time. We (the hospital I work in) has brought in multiple self referral options that mean you’d be wasting time seeing a gp. Got a breast lump? We trust your judgement so self referral straight into the service, skipping gp stage. Eyes? NHS has a contract with certain opticians to offer nhs eye health appointments so they’d signpost you there etc.

Your team must be significantly better than at my old GP then. There, some of the receptionists were wonderful, well trained and compassionate. Some, regrettably were: rude, unkind and totally incompetent.

I'd say a large proportion of the patients knew the Dr's who would listen and get something sorted out and who would fob them off. A large proportion of the patients also knew which HCA took blood painlessly and which nurse was both kind and competent. Never much of a wait to see a member of staff not worth seeing.

Your posts seems to indicate very little respect for 95% of your patients.

That is really rude. I’m a GP receptionist and we always stress we aren’t medically qualified. However we do work darned hard, under huge pressure, and take a lot of flack and abuse from patients, all for minimum wage.
I live locally and many of my neighbours are patients but I respect their confidentiality and frankly I’m not interested in their ailments, other than to get them in with the right clinician.
Most of our patients now fill in online triage forms and we have a quick look, mark as urgent for under fives and over 75s, and forward straight to a GP. We do fill in the forms for those who can’t and we have to ask for some details so it can be triaged, but if someone really doesn’t want to say, that’s ok.
I’m kind, compassionate and helpful, and go the extra mile, not a dragon like people often think of us, and frequently patients express their appreciation which is lovely to hear.

Maybe I’m also as dense as that person - why is this wrong? Obviously better to see a dentist to resolve it but if you know what is - recurring infection, recent extraction - why not? It takes weeks to get a dental appointment where I am, even an emergency can take several days.

Because a gp will not treat this he needed a dentist. You wouldn't be waiting weeks to see a dentist for an infection you would see an emergency dentist

Funnily enough I have always found this applies to NHS staff. The number of misdiagnosis I have received during my lifetime is unbelievable.

I don't see the issue in telling the receptionist the problem and never have:

"I've had a filthy cold and now a dreadful cough - I was breathless over the weekend and had to sleep propped up" appointment pretty immediately

"I've found a breast lump and clearly need a two week pathway referral - do I need to see the Dr or can the referral just be made?" "You need to see them, Dr x can see you at 4.30".

"I've had discomfort in my shoulder for eight weeks, it isn't urgent but could I have an appointment with Dr Y as he's interested in krthopaedics/skeletal stuff". "He hasn't got anything for a fortnight" "that's fine".

It's all much easier nowadays because I can submit a form and use the app. There is never ever an appointment available to book on the app. Except where I had the cough and breathless issue over a weekend and did the "do you need clinical help questionnaire". It cam back with make a Dr's appointment ASAP . When I checked the app there was an apt for the next morning available.

Was the availability of the appointment because I'd done the on-line 111 and it was made available to me. Extraordinarily well joined up if so. Never since has an appointment ever been available.

This really winds me up - GP receptionists are not even remotely medically trained, and should not be triaging patients.

Love how the general public are all "intelligent" but the receptionist is "jumped up" and "unqualified"! Yes, they aren't Dr's of course they aren't but they have training and experience and in general they are intelligent enough to signpost you in the right direction!
Many people have no idea that their issue is best dealt with via a nurse or pharmacy appointment.

Let’s flip this around. Instead of calling to book a doctor’s appointment, let’s say you were calling to book cinema tickets. If you won’t tell them which film you want to see, how could they make sure you were sold the right tickets?

They certainly cannot. Most call up asking for a Dr appointment regardless of the issue.

They triage the patient to the best resource they have available, which very often is not a Dr.

This keeps the Dr's appointments available for those who actually need one.

Believe it or not Op to help you get to the the most appropriate person to deal with your condition

A GP is just that, a general practitioner where as centres have medical practioners with more specialised knowledge who may be better use to you or it may be better for you to see the nurse on duty for some ailments.

The receptionist doesn't really care ( I mean that in a nice way) what your condition is and will have forgotten about it by the next call.

Its not something conspiracy to annoy the public but is a useful system to get a patient to the right person.

Ive phoned the doctors at 08:10 one morning and was able to see the nurse at 09:25hrs or wait three weeks for the doctor. Which would you prefer?

Not necessarily. I got an emergency appointment at my NHS dentist to confirm that I did indeed have a tooth infection that needed immediate treatment. But they couldn't fit me in for the actual treatment for another two weeks minimum. And they didn't prescribe antibiotics either. That's when I found a private dentist who gave me a root canal and antibiotics within days. Luckily, I could afford it. Otherwise I'd have been in my GP surgery begging for drugs.

It should be to allocate the patient to the correct clinician but all too often it’s a power trip for the receptionist.
You could consider saying ‘women’s troubles’ which covers a vast range of medical conditions .
You could ask them why they need to know too.

It can be frustrating when its used as a means of trying to reduce face to face contact with doctors.

I am happy to see other health professionals but at our gp practice, they have a long running issue with doctors wanting to wfh. So they will try at any cost to filter you to the physio/paramedic/nurse (who of the course the much better paid GP partners insist are on site!!). In the last couple of years we've had 4 appointments where the receptionist has insisted the nurse or paramedic will do only for that nurse or paramedic to insist DD needs to be seen by a doctor. So a second appointment has been required.

They’ll likely be following a triage
people ring up for stuff when they panic as well, so if someone is ringing up because their partner is unconscious, they know enough to signpost to 999!
or that a pharmacy can deal with some things that people aren’t aware of or the opticians

they know enough that I can’t go to the chemist for UTI antibiotics and get me in the same day

Constantly

Alonebutmarried

This really winds me up - GP receptionists are not even remotely medically trained, and should not be triaging patients
In my expierence when I've phoned needing to see someone and said what the issue is they've asked me to hold. When they've come back the receptionist has said that they have spoken to the duty nurse and they can help you. Is that ok.
I dont know for sure but I recall someone saying they know what ailments nurses can see and they will refer to them if appropriate. If further attention is needed a nurse can refer to a specialist.

You must have hit the jackpot then.
In my experience the competency and empathy of reception staff varies wildly.

I have had to make several complaints to my surgery just because of the way I have seen reception staff talk to or deal with other patients.

Some are great, others seem to have no understanding that many of the people walking through their doors will be very unwell.

Also, for people living with chronic or rare conditions I can guarantee you that those people understand their condition far better than the receptionist (and in some cases better than the GP -- I always have to remind my GPs to check the (long) list of contraindicated medication for Myasthenia before they prescribe anything)

quite tricky on the phone..

A GP is not a dentist. It’s not the GP’s fault it’s hard to see a dentist, they don’t pick up the slack for every service, yet they are expected to. Dental services get funded for dental and Gp’s don’t get funded for dental

I am always surprised that receptionists are expected to take on this level of responsibility. I know they have some training. But they are gatekeeping access to medical care, and have to make significant decisions with potentially serious consequences. I am not sure that as a receptionist, I would want to have this role, esp on the low pay.

So they can prep the doctor so that they can get things ready for you. Appointments in the doctors surgery are often back to back, with the doctor often playing catch up due to some appointments running over.
There re not being nosey