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 don’t think you were rude at all. You were quite patient.

Why is her age relevant?

If it's actually true that the conversation was going on for 25 minutes, how were people with an appointment getting in to see the doctor?

Not many people turn up 25 minutes early for their appointment, so how was their names getting called out if they hadn't checked in?

Either way, my gripe would've been with the extremely unprofessional receptionist who allowed it to continue for so long, whilst ignoring all the other patients in the queue.

My drs electric check in has been broken for months

i was actuality at drs this week, patient thought her appointment was 2 pm system said 1.45. As she checked in at 1.50 she was sent a message saying she had missed her appointment by being late and it was cancelled

she ended up begging and pleading for medicine and mental health reasons so she could keep appointment

the woman in front of you should have been moved to the side

You will be an older person at some point in your future. That poor lady could have been ignored for months, with no kindness or back up! I think you're being quite unkind.

Our large health centre practice doesn't allow prescription queries at reception. You have to call the prescription line which is open for very limited hours each day. It can be v annoying as the pharmacy is on the same site.

I’m with you on this.
So what happened next did she leave or did she still try to keep repeating herself.

No one is "the queen of the GP reception", but it's ridiculous to wait so long because people are wasting time.

Any other place, you can just say you are going elsewhere, it's a GP, you are stuck but no reason to waste your time, and if you are unwell, you can't just stand there for 10mn.

It was kind of rude but I don't think you had much choice. The receptionist should not have let it go on that long.

Why didn’t the receptionist just book another appointment with her ? I can see both sides like why should you have to wait while that was going on? But at the same time why wasn’t she given an answer or solution to her query ? It’s a bit rude but at the same time these places would drive you nuts sometimes.

Ah, good on you OP. Prob a little matter of fact for a lot of people to handle, lol, but it's true. If late checking in, you lose your apt time (well, at my surgery anyway) and some people's need to see the doc may be greater than 25+mins of chat on desk over medicine the receptionist had no power over.
The receptionist needs to go to brusque Gp receptionist school!

You don’t check in via a touch screen? Your surgery is way behind the times😳

She wasn’t “wasting time”, the receptionist was handling it badly and should have taken her details and offered a call back once she was able to provide an answer. The woman had to speak to the receptionist. I’d assume she didn’t expect the receptionist to know the answer but she’s the gatekeeper to finding out the information. You have no idea what medication she’s on or the side effects, or her history so there may be a totally legitimate reason to ask.

OP said it was broken.

So imagine you're the lady, you're confused because your medication has been changed and you don't know why so you're probably feeling stressed. And then when you're trying to find out answers you're not getting any. And then someone is very rude and makes you feel belittled.
What you did was just make the ladies situation so much worse by how you handled it.
You could have said something simple like sorry to interrupt but can i just check in please, don't want to be missing my appointment and that way you'd have got the same result with making someone else feel crappy

I think you showed immense patience.
By the 5th ‘but nobody told me’ I would have had to say something- probably pre empted by an eye roll, a muttered ‘Jesus Christ -how much longer’ and then an ‘excuse me -is there someone else who can deal with this lady as there’s now 12 of us waiting and at this rate we will still be here when you close’.
However, I live in rural Yorkshire so would probably have been beaten to it by someone else with less patience than me.
Frankly I don’t care if she was elderly -it’s a doctors surgery, no one is there for fun and there could have be3n ill people standing waiting to be seen.
She was entitled & selfish.
Receptionist should have nipped it in the bud mind.

I find it very difficult to believe this woman was allowed to hog the receptionist for fully 25 minutes whilst a queue formed behind her.

In any case, OP was unnecessarily bullish. There were other, better ways to make the point.

I think I know this lady 😄

Why are people asking the OP about a check in screen as if she has some sort of say in whether they have one or control over whether it’s working? This place is bizarre sometimes. ‘Is there no check in screen?’ ‘Yes there is, but I fancied standing there like a lemon for half an hour.’🙄

I stood in a queue in Boots today in similar circumstances. I was there for my flu jab, but there was a man having a discussion about his prescription. There was some sort of mix up. All very civilised, but never ending. And other staff kept appearing, joining in, then buggering off again like the shopkeeper in Mr Ben (I am old😅) I waited almost 15 minutes before I finally managed to interrupt the conversation to say why I was there. I had my flu jab, came out and they were still there. Still talking. So that was about 25 minutes and counting. They’re probably still there now.

If she's been prescribed the wrong med it might need a very urgent appointment.

Yeah me too.

And I'd still like to know how everyone got in to see the GP without checking in.

Or was the GP just sat there twiddling their thumbs, waiting for the patients to come in?

Same

Well the receptionist could have said:

"I'm so sorry nobody informed you of the change, Mrs Banbury. I'll pop you down for a phonecall with the Dr so they can go over the changes and make sure you're happy."

Bye, bye, Mrs Banbury because she got what she needed.

I wondered that too.

imo it’s good manners to pretend you can’t hear the conversations with the receptionist in the doctor queue .