I upset a lady at GP surgery today

[TheQuirkyMaker]

A queue of five people in front at surgery. Waiting room pretty full. Only one receptionist available. An elderly lady at the front was telling the receptionist that she had just picked up meds at the chemist, and they had been changed from her regular ones to different ones. There was back and forth discussion, and every few minutes the lady would say, "but nobody told me they would be changed". I asked the lady in front of me how long this had been going on and she said "about 10 minutes". After a full further 15 minutes I said "Look, this is getting us no where, none of us will get to see a doctor if we can't sign in". I got a bit of condemnation along the lines of "she was entitled to her time", but I said, "this is reception, not a consultation. Just repeating that she wasn't told her medication would be changed is getting us no where. This could go on forever".
People got a bit sniffy with me, and I got a few stares, but I was right, wasn't I?
I get we should be tolerant of older people, but there has to be a bit of give and take.

I know!
I won't explain the point I was making again because it really doesn't matter if some random person on the internet doesn't get it.

I don’t understand why the receptionist just didn’t say to the lady if you take a seat I will get the patients waiting behind you and I will find out what’s happened with your medication the receptionist could of then got everyone else seen to and then spoke to the lady or even found a Nurse or GP to explain to her why her meds had been changed.

If everyone puts her needs first and expects others to 'suck it' there will be mayhem 😂.

Until you get stuck behind the bloke checking his partner in and asking what’s you birthday, what’s your surname here - stuffing it up and starting over 4 times.

I had plenty of time to practise my calming breathing exercises 🤪

I do think the receptionist should have asked the lady to step aside whilst she dealt with check ins but I don't think you should have got involved. The gp would have come in and asked for his patient if none appeared.
I had a similar situation with getting a train ticket recently but thankfully I didn't miss my train. I assume the ticket officer would have known if there was one imminently.

I think you were in the right, I'd have done same thing, the receptionist should of told the woman to stand to the side while people check in, then carry on with her repetitive questions

Ugh, a pet hate. Ours have a screen check in for appts as well now likely for this reason.

had it in the pharmacy the other week though, got there 20 mins before it closed to pick up my scripts, I have a pre payment so it takes two mins. Older lady at the one till querying paying as she already paid last time (for a different item), which was painfully explained to her, then she paid and asked for her son’s, queried paying for that for another full 5 mins but eventually did. THEN started asking for canesten but saying it was too expensive what do you have off brand etc etc. queue was out the door by this point and I decided I’d rather have thrush than listen to her any longer and left 🤣

I think your delivery was rude. I would have been equally annoyed in the same situation, but I would have directed it more at the receptionist than the elderly lady. I don't think the receptionist handled it very well to be honest. She could have quickly checked the rest of you in and then gone back to assist the lady. It was her job to resolve the situation. If it was just a different brand, she should have explained that or if the medication was indeed changed, then the lady should have had reassurance from a GP.

And her age was relevant because….?

My parents had no end of bother with my late db's medication. He was terminally ill due to not having been able to see a gp and in fact never saw a gp before he died so needed a coroner to certify his death certificate. He went back to theirs to die and on at least 2 occasions df went to collect medication and it was wrong. The surgery then wanted to speak to db who was not able to speak anymore. Finally they processed his medication and when df went to get it it was all tablets when it was meant to be liquid - they had the list from the hospital. Df got the correct stuff in the end but db died before he could take it. The receptionist was an idiot! Db had already wrote a letter allowing df/dm to deal with the surgery on his behalf.

It mattered enough for you to try to explain yourself while claiming you don’t care enough to try to explain yourself

I'm amazed that no one else backed you up, the receptionist didn't ask the lady to wait until she had checked the queue of people in and then deal with her and that you waited so long before saying anything. I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you weren't in Glasgow. After recent travels in England I was surprised about the amount of dithering and blocking doorways/exits etc that I experienced on trains and nobody said anything. When I did people looked on aghast. Got the situation sorted out pronto though.

What’s electric check in? Like take a number at the cheese counter?

At mine, it's a touch screen by the entrance - you enter your day and month of birth and then name, and it checks you in without having to queue at reception - it shows what room you are in and confirms time and who you are seeing.

True but I have my limits.
I'd be an awful teacher.

Touchscreen - something like enter your date of birth and surname and it recognises you from the day's list of patients expected and checks you in.

Life is too short to get het up imo unless you were in an emergency / huge rush or something. The older lady might have been a bit lonely and enjoying the attention or a bit congnitively challenged or the receptionist inexperienced or overally patient . In the grand scheme of things it really wouldn’t matter to me ,I’d have let it go.

That's it. It's exactly the same as when you're in a shop, you go to pay, there's a massive queue, only one person on the till, and they're doing nothing about it. (And for anyone mystified as to why you wouldn't choose the self-service option - it's because there isn't one, or it's out of order.) This happened to me when I was shopping on Sunday and the solution was easy - turn tail, dump potential purchase and walk out the door.

Obviously a GP appointment is a very different situation. It's vital that receptionists know how to manage people, gently but firmly. Entering into protracted conversation with one patient and making everybody wait so that they're potentially late/overlooked for their own appointment is just not on.

Yes older people can get a bit obsessive about their own concerns, so do many other people. It's a PITA but it's life. The problem is not them, or the stressed-out people in the queue, but poorly trained staff who aren't equipped to anticipate or handle a common situation. A relative of mine was a GP receptionist for a while, and she said newbies like her were often left to flounder on the front desk while the more experienced staff were behind the scenes 'doing paperwork'.

Well done OP for speaking up. You were indeed right, and shame on the mutterers who presumably had nowhere else to be that day.

Because older people's time is less valuable obviously 🙄.

Not always true for hospital appointments...

I'd have felt the same, and think your assertiveness was justified

I think reception handled it badly.

my approach would have been ‘I agree Mrs X, please take a seat and we will look in to the mix up for you’ and meanwhile I would have got on with processing the other patients and found the time to talk to Mrs X, or suggest to Mrs X that I contact her later that time once I’d had chance to find out the reasons.

“I get we should be tolerant of older people”

This is actually a terrible thing to say. We shouldn’t just tolerate older people. I hope you just worded that poorly rather than that being your true view of people once they reach retirement age!

Everyone was being kind, except you it seems!

I think that’s fair, it winds me right up when the person in front is having a full on chat, poor cashier can’t always multitask, but has to be polite to the customer!