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.

I'm a GP receptionist.
We have to ask so as to book you with the correct person.
I have had absolutely no training at all, we have lists on the wall of the clinicians and what they can see and treat, anything not covered on those lists goes in with the GP.
My supervisor is your typical dragon so sometimes I have to do sneaky things coz she's so nasty, eg this week a tearful lady came to the desk with some horrible symptoms but we're not allowed to book at the desk, I explained I couldn't book whilst writing on a paper asking her if she could come back at 10am, then booked her in with a wink.
I just want to help people.

I think the allocation of appointments work well and if we're ever not sure we can ask the clinician if they can see this issue.
My only problem is when we're low on appointments and are told it's emergencies only as I am not trained to know what's an emergency. On the face of it a headache for 2 days may not sound like an emergency but it could be something underlying that I am not trained to know about.
So on these days I also go against the rules and book everyone in.

Ok so how does that explain the tongue tie scenerio ,( and probably loads more simple conditions) Rather than spending 10 mins sorting it immediately mess about with referrals and lots of appointments

Yes, I had a similar experience. I had an empyema. Doctor’s receptionist said it was just a case of the flu and to go bed, plenty of fluids, etc.

If my mum hadn’t taken one look at me and dragged me to A and E, I would have most likely died. It was obvious, even to her, something was seriously wrong. I was too out of it to really do anything much myself. Leaving triage to someone who isn’t medically trained is quite risky.

A friend ran out of medication on a bank holiday weekend. 111 told him which pharmacy was open and phoned through a prescription for him.

Much better than him going to A and E and taking up resources there.

Fairly new thing, it's triaging and was introduced roughly around the same time as the Pharmacy First scheme which gave more 'power' for pharmacies to consult and prescribe antibiotics etc.

I do understand how you feel though. I usually do this via eConsult first online, but I felt really sorry for the people in the surgery who had to 'speak up' and with the receptionist using a loud voice when repeating back the 'issues'.

It's supposed to cut down time and make GP surgeries more efficient. I'd love to see the data and hope it has worked but the queue at the surgery was ginormous and I really felt for the (mostly) older people who were there and who don't use online systems.

So no they can tell you you’re not urgent enough whilst also telling you that no, you can’t book in a weeks time and will just have to keep calling at 8 in the morning hoping one day you’ll get an appointment. They shouldn’t be allowed to triage

I find it really does help if you tell them everything. They're just going their job and they have to prioritise patients.

Our surgery does this and most of the time it works. But sometimes it doesn't. For example dh has autism and struggled to use the phone. He will ask me to book an appointment with the gp but he won't let me tell the receptionist anything. He won't even tell me what the problem is until after I have got the appointment because he knows I will give in under pressure and tell the receptionist. Thankfully they are used to him after 21 years of being with the practice and do their best to accommodate him.

Another example is that my 12 year old ds had a cholesteatoma 3 years ago. Ear infections need an urgent appointment with his ENT consultant which needs doing by the gp. Every time I ring up for this it's a case of computer says no and I get directed to the pharmacy. Which wastes time and means when it finally gets sorted it has got worse.

I usually give punishing detail. They quickly shut me up by offering an appointment.

Itll be the drs who have created the triage system though, the receptionists are essentially just following it and obviously prioritising more at risk patients eg elderly and babies, people who've had recent surgery etc.
So your scraggy toenail really isnt something that needs sorted asap

I go to a doctors practice where I have seen all the GPs plus locums if on holiday etc.

From my experience:
. Choose best for expertise. One GP specialises in skin. So on the few times I had to make an appointment for skin issues (eczema and moles that need a look at as changed) I see her
. If you have seen a GP for something in the past and said come back if things not getting better, try to see the same GP for continuity.

An abscess on an infected tooth put my mother in an induced coma for a week. She had to have a tracheotomy. She made a recovery but died a month later due to various other health factors that weakened her heart.

Please don’t mock people seeking treatment for tooth infections. It can sometimes be months of waiting for dentist treatment.

It’s perfectly acceptable to say it’s of a very personal nature.

Think some practices have a flow chart system where put symptoms and gives the best GP for that

If it’s a chest infection from a cold, then they just put you on the GP with the least number of appointments or earliest depending on how the appointment system works

That’ll be because dentists tell you to go to your GP to get antibiotics for tooth infections 😉

Had infections in the mouth and dentist gave me a prescription for antibiotics

Yes but they don’t always.

Contrarily, I’ve always had the dentist prescribe antibiotics and my GP would refuse to prescribe them if it’s a dental problem.

We cannot get an appointment anymore by just ringing up, everyone has to fill a form in saying what the problem is and they usually make you a phone appointment with the pharmacist or physio, no docs appointments, I have not seen one since before Covid and I really do need to🙄

This argument will never end until the NHS is completely reformed. People on here complaining about people trying to access the gp are the same people who are up in arms when people then go to A&E or urgent treatment because they can't see a gp.

Where i am you cannot book a gp appointment in advance its on the day only. So its irrelevant whether a receptionist thinks its urgent or needs seeing on the day or next week.

So they can assess who you need to see and how urgent it may be.

My son had a rash on his back recently and the receptionist was great. I explained his medical history and why I was more concerned than I ordinarily would be and she made sure he had a same day appointment and with a doctor.

It was shingles in the end thankfully and nothing serious.

Dentists prescribe their own antibiotics on different colour yellow prescriptu9ns dont they?

I really understand the reasoning behind this and that some people are idiots that block up appointments. However, I think its fundamentally wrong for non trained non medical reception staff to be doing the triaging, and not fair on them when sonething goes wrong. Receptionists aren't qualified to do that role and arent bound by the same professionals code of conducts that doctors and nurses are. I think GP surgeries need to employ triage staff for this purpose if they want that first filter for appointments.

Getting an appointment at my GP is like pulling teeth. You have to ring at 8am and by 8:20 they’re all gone. You have to ring about 60 times because lines are full so half the time you never get through before they go. After that you’re being offered an appointment in about 4 weeks. The GP sent me for emergency bloods the other day and they couldn’t get me in with the nurse for another 6 days.

There’s been a few times though when I’ve rang up in the afternoon for an appointment, they’ve offered one for a few weeks time and when they’ve asked me what it’s for they’ve paused and asked me to come in within the hour. So I presume it’s to prioritise because they always hold back a few appointments for urgent matters.

I just use patchs now as it’s much quicker to hear from a GP.

Whilst agree in principal, how are receptionists clinically trained to make this decision?

That's not particularly ridiculous really. I know they say they can't help with tooth problems, but not everyone knows that. Tooth infections are awful and if you can't find a dentist and the doctor won't help, you end up in a&e - wasting everyone's time even further like I had to in 2020 when an untreated infected gave me sepsis.