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 had a similar thing. The GP told me she needed a urine sample to rule out infection and she told me it needed to be in by 3pm. I got to the GP at 2.30pm (due to working otherwise I would have gone earlier). As I got there I saw a sign saying the latest drop off was 2.30pm for urine. I was in the queue and there was an older couple at the reception, and one other person in front of me. Being 17 weeks pregnant I was desperate for the toilet and the couple at reception were taking forever, I waited about 10mins before apologising and having to ask for anytime sample pot. The couple were a bit annoyed that I’d butted in but they were going round in circles and the receptionist wasn’t able to help, the guy in front was already late for his appointment so couldn’t check in on the electronic check in machine so he had to do it via the receptionist and was also waiting. I went to the loo, did the sample and when I came out the couple were still at reception now filling out a form. The other guy had gone through. Anyway, I was dealt with quickly and the receptionist said not to worry about the 2.30pm cut off as I was there. She gave me the form to fill out and the nurse whisked my urine off for testing and then sent it to the lab.

I work in the public sector, front line public facing. It’s all about managing expectations and time management. The receptionist should have said something and moved on. You were well within your rights to say something! A lot of people wouldn’t have!

If someone is a pain in arse and has always been a pain in the arse, why is it odd to refer to them as a pain in the arse?

Yes, it's sad but true that some folks are simply miserable, bitter & awkward irrespective of their age 💚😥💚

my daughter has several complex issues and if her meds had been changed I’d have stood there all day to get it sorted. The receptionist should have got someone else to help her out. It shouldn’t have needed you to intervene

I agree. The simplest and best solution would have been for the receptionist to say to the lady, "take a seat, I'm going to sent a message to your prescribing clinician, in the meantime I'll be booking these people in as our electronic system is down". But it wasn't my place to say that, was it? Then the reception staff would have taken against me as well as other patients in the surgery.

Maybe. the Doctors were running late. Which often happens at our surgery. Especially in the evening.

I'm sorry if this woman did sound confused but some people can also be every entitled and don't care about how much time they are taking up.

I once nearly missed my fight stuck on a
a shared golf cart thing because one of the travellers and Airport staff could not sort something out .

I could not get off and walk due to walking difficulties and the terminal was massive.

These fellow travellers did not apologise and barely noticed l was there.

Surprised your surgery does not have a book screen .

Yanbu. She sounds very annoying and a real time waster. You did the right thing OP.

I'm very impressed with our local GPs. Yes, there are long waits for routine appointments, and the receptionists triage calls, but in 2020, when Covid was at it's height, I started to pass a lot of blood pr and phoned for an appointment (didn't feel I needed A&E). I was examined at my local surgery the next day (physical, bloods, etc.), three days later I had an appointment at our local hospital and had u/s scans, a consultant did a colonoscopy, it was the NHS at it's finest. I had diverticulitis, not Ca. I think the NHS (and the country's economy generally) has all gone downhill not because of Covid, but because of Brexit. But I know not everyone agrees!

You did the right thing.

10 minutes in a local gov call centre if people are still talking to us, we risk trouble and having calls listened into to see where we went wrong of it exceeds time.

Unsure why people think a gp’s receptionist has all day to chat.

It wasn’t really ‘your place’ to say anything to anyone, but since you chose to why didn’t you direct your focus to the reception staff?

You were the AH in this situation. Either stay quiet or say something helpful otherwise you are just one of those entitled people acting as if your time should be more important to the world than this old lady’s time. Not a good look.

It sounds like the woman had a legitimate concern and staff should have explained the change or booked her in with the onsite pharmacist for a chat if the receptionist didn’t know the answer.

The fault is with the receptionist staff for not handling this better and not getting a second member of staff involved to help everyone else.

What you could have said was something in support of the lady that jogged it along like “If you can’t answer her question, perhaps you could book her in with someone who can? Or are you forcing her to make a subject access request just to get a simple question answered.”

GP surgeries boil my piss because they are not the NHS (they are a private business who charge the NHS per patient on the books, not per appointment given) yet everyone assumes that they are the NHS so when they treat people badly the NHS gets the blame. I wish the government would bring GP’s functions in-house. Many NHS departments allow self-referral and do their own triage because going via the GP has become so difficult and TBH GP referrals can be so poor as to be pointless.

Omg, seriously? You obviously don't work for the NHS. They would have been making their phone calls, checking their message list, looking at incoming medical reports or taking a call from a paramedic or palliative care team.
The general public really don't have a clue

Don’t kknoww if this is the case here, but I worked at a gp surgery and our prescription clerk was bombarded with people complaining about geomg changed from generic versions from branded. Exactly the same. She should have been diverted to the practice pharmacist. She may have been holding up someone with potentially serious problems such as chest pain, etc

'you are just one of those entitled people acting as if your time should be more important to the world than this old lady’s time.' But it IS more important than the old ladies time because if the OP is telling the truth the old lady has already taken up at least 15 minutes of everyone's time!

25 minutes. If, as you say, it’s true.

To be fair, maybe it was 10 mins total. Maybe less. But bear in mind it was reception, not a consultation, reception is for dealing with admin and appointments, not discussing treatments. If she had been with a GP she could have had all the time she needed as far as I was concerned. But the electronic check-in screen was broken, people were queueing up to be registered, and she kept saying "but nobody told me my medicines would be changed". There was a limit to how many times we wanted to hear that. Yes, we get you weren't told, or didn't listen, or didn't understand! We get it! You've said it! Now listen to the answer and let the rest of us get on with our day. GP appoints are precious and we don't want to get cancelled because we were late when we made an effort to be early.

Been both sides of the desk on this one.
Receptionist should have made a quick call through to the back office to ask for assistance on the reception desk
She could also have asked the lady to take a seat while she sorted out the queue and then got back to her.
Or..rang through and asked someone to come and sort the lady out

Any other little details you misremembered?

You weren't unreasonable to be irritated. You were unreasonable to be rude.

There's just no reason at all you couldn't have just asked to check in. All the rest about what her problem was and how she was dealing with it isn't relevant.

You could maybe indicate to the management that receptionist needs more training, but now we are down from 25 minutes to maybe 10 I think you should leave it alone since you don't seem to have the facts.

I wasn't really at the surgery, I was at home watching TV. And 10 minutes is less than 15 minutes. And I didn't have anything else to do that day. That enough?

There was a limit to how many times we wanted to hear that. Yes, we get you weren't told, or didn't listen, or didn't understand! We get it!

It really doesn't matter how often you or various other random people heard or got it; the person the lady wanted to be heard by was the receptionist as, at that point, she was the only person able to address the problem.
I've waited behind a mother of a baby in the chemist's before now and they've had exactly the same problem (same medication, different name) and kept repeating themselves. This isn't something that only happens to "elderly" people.
It really was up to the receptionist to say that she is not qualified to deal with prescriptions but, if the lady can wait or go home and take a phone call, she'll arrange that.
You're directing your irritation at the wrong person and, given you saw fit to mention that person's apparent age, it's hard to believe that your judgement isn't clouded by ageism, conscious or unconscious.

My MIL is exactly the same. We all make allowances because she has Alzheimers but in all honesty she has been a difficult old coot her entire life.

the vile fucking ageism that gets allowed on this site. JFC

Well, some medical receptionists need to learn how to handle some situations. And this is one of them.

"Ms X, just let me check these people in quickly and we'll have a look at that for you"

Agree all the fucking "bright as a button" is the kind of patronising twaddle you use for a toddler.

ah you took the easy route of picking on a worried elderly lady.

God i hope that never happens to you.

Could I ask what the GP receptionist was saying to her for her to keep repeating “but nobody told me” line.