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.

Turn right you d-head! 🤣

My last couple of surgeries I've had good experiences but all the ones before that (many moves but all in London) were awful, shockingly rude and patronising.

I do think staff across NHS plus anyone front/customer-facing in any job gets the brunt of people's anger and always come polite and apologetic. If their job is to gatekeep the GP's time, they're doing a great job of it! And I can understand their irritation with people wasting GP time in fairness.

Also some pharmacy workers come into this category. I have a long term health condition and just 💀

So did I 🤣

Mine have been awful for years. They had to overhaul the entire admin staff twice in less than 10 years because they were egregious, ignored the phone, rude, always losing paperwork. I had to wait for the same scan 3 separate time because they kept losing letters or the referrals or the bloods. Turned out I had a tumor sitting around over year waiting for the scan and growing massive.

they eventually got taken over by a new group. Not great but not as garbage as before. I have solved this by avoiding them unless in dire need / deaths door.

There problem is that, as communities have grown in size - new housing estates built, no additional GP’s are taken on (or certainly not enough). Each GP has approx 30 appointments a day available…. There will be at least double that number of requests for appointments. Receptionists HAVE to filter the calls so that GP appointments are being used by those that need them the most. Lots of general Illness can be dealt with by nurse practitioners or even pharmacists. It’s not the same as a retail customer service because in retail generally you have ample supply of the item in demand and that’s not the case of GP appointments. Having done the job for several years if we booked every GP appointment requested the doctors would need to work 20 hour days by the time they’d also done things like referrals, home visits, safeguarding meetings etc.

I started out in a first line role in a rough area and initially i was so polite, gentle, smiley, very understanding and accommodating but as time passed the role and clientel had ground me down, my attitude changed because I was sick of their bullshit and jaded to all the usual excuses and the high turnover, the higher starter pay and the stinky attitude that my colleagues had all made sense then...so I blame the horrid patients who ruin it for the rest of us. They all think their case is emergency and need to be seen now and if we don't give them what they want then we are useless🙄🙄🙄

The last time I stood in my GP surgery I was behind a man who was berating the receptionist about the fact that the surgery was going to be closed over bank holidays. He mansplained to her over and over why he needed the surgery to be open, she ended up having to be really firm because other people were waiting and she couldn’t help. I am not sure how much self awareness people really have when they speak to GP receptionists, often you might be anxious and already decided it will not go well so you launch into verbal diatribes and find it hard to listen to the responses, you repeat yourself over and over, the receptionist is telling you the process and you are asking them to bypass it as you are a special case. Then you come on mumsnet and complain you didn’t like the way you got spoken to!

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
It was very predictable that this would cone next...I bet there is a direct xorrekation between people with that attitude and those complaining of rude receptionists.

Receptionist are trained to triage in as much as they can get a rough idea whether the call warrants an appt with a GP, a nurse, a pharmacist or any of their other trained staff.

Their problem is when they are dealing with members of the public with an attitude demanding an appointment with a gp when they issue could be dealt with another trained staff, employed by the practice to manage the conditions they are ringing for.

That and patients calling and demanding antibiotics.

One of my patients commented to me that our admin team start off quite business like and warm up when they realise she is polite 😀 their like airport staff, show any humanity and you’ll get liberty taking.

Ive also had to encourage them to report incidents of verbal abuse when patients have made them cry. Patient came in and was an NHS nurse so that was an interesting consultation.

My last surgery had a very officious one 🤷🏻‍♀️

This is definitely an issue where we are. What frustrates me is actually I am well aware that developers are required to give quite meaty contributions to towards additional healthcare funding but the CCG ( or whatever they are called now it seems to change all the time) just sits on their hands and doesn't work with everyone to get new provision implemented. I've sat in so many meetings where there are funds to be spent but it's not happening.

Yep ours are rude too! I was at the drs with dd last week, dr had requested that I quickly nip to reception and get a urine sample pot for dd so she could do a sample for him to dip there and then. Two receptionists one on the phone so I approach the other one, she would not stop what she was doing on the computer to deal with me, and kept huffing and puffing as if me standing there was interfering with her in some way

I used to agree with you, however my mum now works in gp practice as receptionist/admin and now I hear the flip side that they are so unbelievably busy. I don’t think they mean to be rude just stressed.

Same 😂

I kill mine with kindness and it works every time. I didn't need to tell the receptionist I was on the two week cervical cancer pathways when she wouldn't fit me in for a blood test. She said there weren't any slots until February and she didn't exactly say it in a polite manner. I was very kind in my response and she managed to find a spot this week.

I had a lovely lady this morning when I called up at 8am today. But I get your point. Some of them before I left London were shocking. They just looked so annoyed all the time, and would audibly tut in your face.

When I turned up for my GP appointment today, one elderly gentleman decided to tell his life story to the poor girl on reception. He would tell a full story about "the time I..." then would say bye, then would quickly hop back to the window and start a new story. I watched it as I waited for my appointment. Large queue formed behind him. I guess she felt unable to ask him to move on, but I can see why so many of them get fed up!

I wouldn't dream of being rude, or even "off" with them. I did a lot of reception work in my younger days and it was HARD. Always getting yelled at and talked down to.

I think most of them are good but like in any job there are always some bad apples. I think you have to bear in mind that they are on low pay so that is not necessarily going to attract the best people.

I did have trouble with one at my last GP surgery. I had a stress fracture which needed an urgent referral to the hospital. I discovered that she had been lying to me about not having received my x-ray report, although she was perfectly polite. The doctor was supposed to do a same day referral and it took a week - only because the hospital phoned them and asked for it because they were fed up of me ringing them to see if they had received the referral. The GP may well have been at fault too.

The GP was, however, VERY rude to me. I had a telephone appointment and when they called I told them that the health problem that I had reported to them and discusssed various times was getting worse. The GP said to me “There’s nothing more I can do. Bye” and with that she slammed the phone down. I was always very polite to her. I was absolutely outraged by her behaviour and changed
to another surgery. The GP I saw there was absolutely lovely and did a referral for me. I then got referred from that consultant to
another one and the second consultant knew what my problem was and how to treat it. Thank goodness!

DM loves the receptionists at the surgery she goes to. They're very accommodating and always follow through for her. At the surgery I go to they're fine.

We were talking the other day about the surgery we used to go to when we were kids. There was one tartar of a receptionist. Even when you saw her in the street, you'd be terrified. The other receptionist was a lovely lady who'd always be accommodating.That was at a time when you could just walk into the surgery and get an appointment there and then - not always, but a mostly; and they opened Saturday mornings.

Yeah I get that. I've just never had one that was outright rude. I think until we've worked as one we can't really say how much crap they have to take and how much internal rules and targets they're forced to adhere to.

I worked on reception in quite a few places and was always treated with the utmost respect. But I guess it wasn't the NHS which is a different animal altogether.

I’ve not lived in the UK for a long time but have always visted alot especially while caring for an elderly close family member. What I found astounding is the medical questions you get asked by the receptionist ( was helping incapacitated family member ) when we phoned to make an appointment. Not the receptionist’s fault at all but it feels so strange to me to have ti explain why you want the appointment to someone who isn’t medically trained.

Its absolutely ridiculous that people need to wait for blood tests. You can get a prescription in the afternoon from a dr in France and turn up the next morning at a ‘labo’ and have your test with results usually back within 24 hours . I just don’t understand why the UK government cant at least sort this out.
Glad you got your slot in the end and fingers crossed everything turns out well for you.

Not everyone needs to wait for blood tests. I got mine the same afternoon and the results 24 hours later. I seem to be very fortunate with my GP surgery.

Try a different practice. Mine used to be rude a few years back, but now they’ve seen the light!

Glad to hear that 😊

Boo, it’s not a thread about stroppy guinea pigs. I thought you were getting attitude from them for daring to rustle a packet and it wasn’t for them!