Rude gps

[mumma224]

Why are gp receptionists so rude? And why do we just act like that’s standard? Every time I’ve called up recently I’ve been met with some condescending women acting as if me calling up is inconvenient for her. I don’t want to hear nothing about how awful they get treated because to be honest, I don’t feel like being so polite after I am instantly met with rudeness from them. It’s at the point where I get stressed whenever I need to call up.
I get the job is stressful yes but retail workers, others in customer facing jobs, we don’t get to treat customers like crap just because we can’t emotionally handle the job and everything that comes with it.

I moved eight times up and down the country in the last six years so changed a lot of surgeries and I have never encountered a rude receptionist. Can you specify what exactly they are saying to you that you deem rude?

Thought this was going to be about an impolite car sat nav

They’re under a lot of pressure to be fair op but saying that our gp has a one star rating on google and every review says the receptionists are awful.

Me too!!! GPS telling people to ‘f off’ or something

It’s very patchy. I rarely contact my gp but had to recently, first receptionist was incredibly rude, talked over me, I couldn’t get a word in, with absolutely no provocation. Later in the day another one was absolutely lovely. I cannot believe the rude ones get away with it especially when people are at their most vulnerable but it’s minimum wage and recruitment is difficult so I guess practice managers think that being understaffed is worse than having the rude ones.

I think you just have an issue with one particular person so it's not really fair to blame all receptionists.

Similarly some statistics have just been released saying that something like 285 acts of violent are committed against NHS staff every day, so I would say it is in fact a bit more stressful than other jobs.

I've been with 3 GP surgeries in my life and the vast majority of receptionists have been lovely and helpful. Yes, you get the odd rude one but that's true of all jobs - shop assistants, bus drivers, teachers etc - receptionists are no different! They do a bloody difficult job and people are rude to them all the time!

It’s not just one person, it’s multiple that I’ve dealt with, or else yes I’d just put it down to this person and not gp receptionists in general. I get that, and as stated do sympathise with it being a stressful job but the attitude you give, is the attitude you get at the end of the day. There’s absolutely no need to be patronising and condescending at 9am.

Fortunately mine are all polite and helpful.

It's not necessarily their fault if they can't give everyone what they want.

They put up with a lot though.

I was waiting for my mum the other day while she saw the nurse. The poor receptionist was trying to help a man who had turned up 15 minutes late for his appointment.

He was shouting at her and implying it was her fault. She was very kindly saying to him ' please give me a minute while I try to fit you in' and he was shouting and saying he had an appointment and she needed to let him see the doctor. How does anyone think that's ok?

I get frustrated when they think they can act as a triage system. They have no medical training and should not feel that they can do this

Never had an issue myself either, on the opposite, but they way I hear people talking to them whilst in the waiting area has often got me shuddering. I dint think k people are aware, but they start conversations already on a defensive stand and the second they don't hear what they want, the tone of voice goes up and the attitude goes along. I don't m ow how they do it.

In recent years most have been great. One was a bit eye rolly with the elderly chap in front which I wasn't impressed with, other than that all good.

Years ago we had a v rude unhelpful one. The practice sent out a survey asking for patient opinion on all aspects of the gp surgery. I completed it and returned it.
That receptionist was gone after that. No idea if the 2 things were linked but in my mind they are...

I understand it’s a stressful role, but everyone is pretty aware of that when going into the role and if you can’t emotionally handle that, you shouldn’t be in that job, not when it’s effecting the service you’re providing to vulnerable ill people.

Receptionists at my surgery went through a spell of being bloody awful, essentially telling you that you didn’t need to see a doctor and if you pushed back they got rude, but hated getting it thrown back at them, which I enjoyed.

They were getting absolutely slated on social media and reviews.

Not one of the receptionists there now are the original lot, they got rid and started again and it shows. Never have a problem getting an appointment.

I’m all for them being blunt and rude to people being rude to them, I think that’s well deserved but they seem to carry that same rudeness into their following calls and that’s where I have an issue.

Why is the thread called rude GPs when it's about receptionists?

I've experienced the stereotypical dragon receptionists at previous practices but thankfully the ones at my current practice are ok. They do ignore you for ages before acknowledging your presence but that's minor rudeness I can let slide.

I have this issue too. I phone in to book an appointment and that’s it, receptions are not doctors, I should not be having to explain in extensive detail what my issue is, that’s what the doctor is for.

They're not all like that though. It's unfair to brand an entire profession containing tens of thousands of people as being rude.

The one at your place is rude.

There are 3 at my local one and they’re all so rude as well. Even at my last GP before I moved there were a handful of rude ones but some nice.
It makes me dread calling for an appointment sometimes. Luckily the doctors and nurses make up for it and are lovely!

I do think we also need to be sympathetic to the reasons why they are rude or more likely robust has our gp surgery never has appointments so they must spend all day every day t tellingg people there are no appointments which must be an utterly grim job

They are often not just receptionists but are care navigators. They are trained to triage you to the most appropriate care.

You may think you need a GP but often problems can be seen by nurses, physios or pharmacists. There are just not enough GPs to see everyone.

So they are not asking questions to be rude. They are asking questions to signpost and prioritise.

😞So disappointed. Was waiting with bated breath to find out which gps system told you to go fuck yourself when you wanted to take a particular route.

I had a receptionist tell me the other day that I couldn't ask for the GP to ring me regarding an issue with a sick note they had issued. They agreed to pass on a message and surprise surprise the GP realized they needed to call me. I don't think the receptionists should talk in definites when it isn't there decision to make. I have a very rare condition that GPS tend to understand really well which impresses me but which means receptionists are not likely to understand why something is a problem for me

I misread this as rude GPS. At first, I thought you were complaining about being told to do a U turn when the other road is closed 😀.