GP receptionists?

[cherrypied]

They are called care navigators.

I’m so poorly and fed up but they seem to want to do everything tiny to not give me a an appointment with a GP.

Is this part of their training?

Yes, they're trying to make sure they get you the most appropriate care in as timely a manner as possible. They have team leads and duty clinicians who they can get advice from. It may be that a GP isn't the most appropriate route for you.

I was wondering a few minutes ago that we are due a GP Receptionist bashing thread shortly and here it is.

Let me tell you the reality. If there is capacity for a consultation you will get to see a GP. If they are booked up you won't. Don't blame the Receptionist because it's the GPs who decide how many slots they have that day.

I dont agree.

My (old) GP receptionist kept me away from the GP for 6 weeks of headaches - and severe headaches and told me having a headache for that amount of time doesn’t require urgent appointment as it had been going on for 6 weeks. (I’d been trying urgent and routine).

Told me if I felt it was that bad go through 111.

I did.

Was referred to a neurologist.

switched GPs.

New reception team are amazing and don’t work on a “computer says no” basis.

I honestly don't get why so many people have issues with GP receptionists.
I'm in my 40s and, having moved a lot as an adult, I've been registered at upward of 10 surgeries.
I've had a lot of health problems over the years, so have regular appts. I've never had a bad/unpleasant/negative experience with a GP receptionist.
Maybe I'm anomalous?!

Except in my case the practice manager of old surgery backed receptionist saying she was trained to triage.

I asked how a system thats designed to triage means a patient is diagnosed as fine by a receptionist and in need of a neurologist from the GP who read 111’s notes.

Her response was to get cross with me which I read as not having a suitable answer and so moved!

What have they offered you? An appointment with the nurse practitioner (nurses are now allowed to do lots of basic things that Doctors used to do and can write prescriptions for many ailments without consulting with a Doctor)? Told you to go to the Pharmacy? You can get lots of things from a Pharmacy without a prescription now after a consultation with a Pharmacist?

But it's not always about "slots" and appointments.

It took me several months last year to get the GP to properly deal with anamolous blood tests - he kept "signing them off" as "patient can be advised", so the receptionist would never even "Ping" a message through with my concerns as she claimed the blood tests were fine, which I knew was wrong. It was only when I actually spoke to a different GP for a different ailment that I casually mentioned the blood tests and he agreed they needed action and I got a phone call from another different GP the day after to change the medication!

Similarly, OH has been trying to get a referral for a specialist for the last six months. He doesn't need to "see" the gp. It's his hospital oncologist who has told him to get the GP to make the referral, written to the GP accordingly etc., but it's impossible to get the receptionists to chase up the GP to actually do it. Again, they say it's not something requiring an appointment and that the GP will "get around to it" when they get chance, again, refusing to "ping" a reminder/request to expedite. No idea whether the GP will ever do it or whether it's got lost in their system somewhere. Receptionists just won't engage at all with the process.

Sometimes the receptionists just won't listen and won't even do things that don't require an actual GP appointment!

Because many people have genuinely had bad experiences with GP’s receptionists, myself included. However, I am mature enough to not hold it against any other GP’s receptionists I interact with.

I spoke to nurse practitioner / urgent care team on weds prescribed some medication and was sent a text message stating that if I got worse to get an urgent face to face appointment with a GP or call 111 if out of hours.

when I called back on Friday I was told I had a follow up booked in two weeks time so I didn’t need an appointment. I asked them if they had read the message I was sent and they said yes. So I said what was I to do as I’m doing as I have been told.

This is the third time I’ve had issues this year getting access to medical care. I have no idea what I can do. On time I did get a call back from the practice manager to discuss a specific situation but I’m not sure the system is fit for purpose any more. They even said it shouldn’t be the people who stamp their feet that get the appointments as that is the systems.

I'm just wondering if it part of the training to gate-keep appointments.

edited for clarity

I haven't either. All the receptionists at my GP surgery are very friendly and helpful. I've always been treated by the most appropriate health professional.

There are two at my GP that actually give me anxiety at the thought of having to deal with and the practice manager has had to step in and verify what I'm requesting is very reasonable and can be done.
One receptionist is a delight and informative and easy to deal with.

Is it part of their training to gate keep appointments?

Yep, it's to stop people wasting GP time for minor ailments that could have been dealt with by 2 paracetamol, a pharmacist or a nurse.

In all truthful honesty - yes. Because there is not enough money and not enough appts for everyone who wants one. You need to look to the government, not minimum wage receptionists who are deluged by hundreds of demands all day long. some people do not use the Gp properly, it’s really difficult to tell the difference at times. They shouldn’t really be in the position they are in. The GP partners actively choose to use mostly min wage staff, who they train (some good, some bad) to front door their practice, because it’s too expensive to have a qualified HCp do it. This is in fact changing and most surgeries will have a clinician triaging. It’s summer, every surgery is being deluged with hayfever requests, travel vaccines, diazepam to fly and period delay pills. In winter everyone has a cough. People will call the GP after throwing up for less than 24 hours. This is not untrue. It is true.

They can’t just ping a GP to ask a question either not easily, the GP is drowning in workload and all the additional ‘pings’ take more and more time. So yes a document in the system should get dealt with, constantly chasing it doesn’t mean it will get done faster it’s in a queue with everyone else’s.

Change surgeries or contact the practice manager

There are more patients wanting appointments than there are available appointments. The population is increasing but the number of GP’s decreasing.

In the 10 year plan AI is going to care navigate you

Of course! At our surgery we have 31000 patients & 120 appointments each day. You bet there are extremely strict guidelines on who you can offer what to. Anybody not describing symptoms on the “urgent” list (set by the partners) has to complete a non urgent triage form.

What a lot of people fail to understand is that every surgery is run differently and has different ways of managing patient flow. Whatever the receptionists do they are only following surgery policy. My surgery uses an electronic system where everyone needing to be seen or with a query is added to that (either by the receptionist or the patient themselves) and then triaged by the duty doctor. If early enough it will be dealt with that day, if not the next day. Requests triaged as urgent are dealt with ASAP at any time of day.

This works really well but a lot of surgeries you still have to ring at 8:00am for an appointment, and I can imagine in those circumstances the receptionists get a lot of grief, even though they are just following the system

Our GP has no phone appointments now. It makes you fill in a form online...it gets assessed and often they ask for photos back etc. then they make an appointment with who they decide..

They will not talk to you about appointments on the phone, not will they book anything for you in person. They will make no exception, doesn't matter if you've spent £35 on a taxi or caught 3 buses, they will direct you to the online appointment system.

This works really well, because, they can triage and send you to the right person in the first place, instead of having to deal with the fucking arseholes who say "I will only discuss my health issues with my GP" when actually they just need a quick flu jab that the walk in pharmacy could have provided for free with no appointment.

Seems the " regulars" always get treated better. I can never get appointment at my GP. One of my friends who is a regular has no issue and is astounded that I can't get appt

Does it work well for those to have no access to the Internet

Or literacy issues,no digital skills,no one to help them.
This is a reality for a lot of people.

Perhaps, it is because you have medical problems. People who have medical condition may be treated differently to the general public.

All of them at my current surgery are marvellous.

I left the surgery I was at previously which I always rated highly after 17 years.

I discovered they’d had a huge change in partners and management and that explained it.

I know that question wasn't to me but the system the poster mentioned sounds like what we do. For those with no internet/poor literacy/visually impaired they the receptionists can put the info on the triage form for the patient.