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.

Ours are all quite nice and helpful mind you a lot of them have been there for years so it may same something. They always say can I ask you what your appointment is about. I never mind telling them.

😆

I definitely wouldn't put that past mine - I can hear her gritting her teeth if I decide not to follow an instruction.

Usually if it's multiple people then it's not those people who are the problem.

Ive had generally very pleasant ones tbf and ive moved around London my whole adult life.

I am quite often rude to my GPS

If by "triage" you mean they ask you what you need to see a GP for then unfortunately they very much do need to do that to make sure you see the right person. I was not asked once and was booked in with a GP who wasn't trained to perform a specific procedure I needed. That's wasted appointment for someone else, not to mention waste of my time.
There are some conditions for which you are better off seeing a nurse or an AHP. And yes, a receptionist will be given guidance for this from a medically-trained professional.

Honestly, I’ll sound depressing but there’s a very large number of people, it appears, that can’t be bothered with or are simply rubbish at their jobs.

Well there you go then. We found a common denominator.
Not once did it occur to you that receptionist have been given instructions from a medical professional to ask you these questions in order to book you in with the right person. You think everyone should bend over backwards for you when you refuse to give them basic details about your needs.

But how do they know who to book your appointment with if you don’t tell them what it’s for?

All GPs cover ‘general’ but many of them also have specialties. Our practice has one in skincare, one gynae, plus if it’s something a practice nurse can do, you can sometimes get an earlier appointment

Agree they should not be rude, but asking questions to get you in with the right person is their job!

I've more found them a bit brusque rather than outright rude. Luckily our GP has a good online booking system and I can do most appointments via phone these days so I don't talk to the receptionist much anyway.

So you think they're asking to be nosey? For fun? To gossip to their colleagues? They're doing the job that they're employed to do. They will have been told by their manager (at a guess the GP) what questions to ask.

Mine have never been rude, ever and are very polite and helpful.

You must be so lucky. I've encountered many rude ones. It's as though they try and make you feel like you're being a major inconvenience for wanting to see a doctor. Oh and don't get me started on if you don't want to tell them the ins and outs of why you need a doctor 🙄 they're like gatekeepers from hell😂

I don't call for an appointment anymore. I do a consult through their web page/NHS Direct and then either get sent an appointment or a message to say prescription is ready. I think they come across quite short sometimes because they are busy and there's constantly a queue of people trying to get through on the phones

I certainly don't mind the receptionists asking questions about my call. They've saved me plenty of time by either getting me a call back from the gp or discovering that a prescription request can go directly to the gp without me being seen. I may be biased because mine are absolutely lovely and very helpful and professional. Ive witnessed people shouting at staff before and the receptionists de-escalated it impressively.

Maybe it’s an English thing?

They were quite off in my last surgery and didn’t want to forward our medical records without a lot of fuss.

Conversely, here in Ireland, they’re incredibly helpful. They try to fit you in where possible or arrange a call back from the GP. They’ll go out of their way to find the number for the consultants secretary so you can ring directly to chase appointments etc. Honestly, our local surgery is fab.

Our NHS surgery had 4 regular receptionists. One was really lovely but the other 3 were really rude. Whilst in the waiting room, it was a regular topic on conversation between people who were together and sometimes it was discussed by patients who didn’t know each other. It was really bad.

After a particularly bad encounter with one of them, we decided to use a private GP and see if it was any better. That was 10 years ago now and the difference is like night and day. The receptionists at the private practice we use are always polite and helpful. I suppose that’s what some of the £70 for an 20 minute appointment goes towards. 😬

But they make for poor judgements. On a number of occasions I have asked to see a GP urgently and be met with huge resistance from the receptionist only for the GP to agree that they did need to see me or my child urgently and that they very much we're glad that I had pushed. It's clear there is a disconnect between what GPS think receptionists are doing and what some of them actually do.

One time my son started feeling really dreadful and we were around the corner from the GP practice. I went in and said I thought he needed to see a doctor urgently and the receptionist refused and said we would need to go home and ring and wait for the duty doctor to call. Thankfully my son refused to budge - he was only a little boy at the time- and the receptionist spoke to the GP who checked his health records and realized he did want to see my son straight away and rightly so.

I really don't think it was within that receptionist power to try and turn us away at that point

Agreed. Our GP receptionists are kind and understanding. There are rude people in every walk of life and job.

I must be very lucky where I live, 14 years on and the receptionists have all been lovely, helpful too. The doctors however.... lol. There's always one when your heart sinks if get an apt with them.

I think GP receptionists have to deal with a lot of arseholes. Not an excuse to be brusque with everyone but you see how that could happen.

The ones at my GP surgery are absolutely lovely though, I’ve never had an issue like that.

I understand that to some extent but I have a rare condition that is well understood by GP's but most receptionists can't even spell it- that's not being derogatory to receptionists it's just that I have often had to spell it out to them. Both the GPS and I understand exactly when I need GP care and when I don't and I wouldn't expect ever section is to have any understanding of the subtleties of my condition. It makes no sense for them to try and make that decision and they do need to trust that patients with chronic conditions often have a really good understanding of what they need and when.

Yeah, don't get started on that one because I already addressed it further in the thread.

Sorry I didn't see your later post. I completely understand needing to know the reason but with some things you obviously don't want to be explaining in detail what's wrong, that's why you want the doctor. Some things you just don't want to tell someone who isn't a doctor.