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.

Quite honestly if you find 85% of GP receptionists to be rude I would wonder more about what you are doing which is pissing them off. Receptionists know who is a pain in the arse to deal with and who is not.

Exactly this! You are spot on and I really don’t want to discuss personal matters with reception, I’d rather speak to a professional. I attend an amazing practice however there are a couple of ladies that answer the phones who are truly awful.

I'll tell you what is upsetting being named negatively in a Google Review by cowardly people who don't put their proper name to it and you have no idea what has caused their vitriol. They have no idea of the effect they cause to your mental health and having been named I really don't want to go to work anymore. I have worked out 2 of the people who mentioned me, one transferred out 2 months prior to her review. She was having a mental health crisis at the time and I was trying to help. However the one posted today I have no idea as I haven't been in work for a week.

Funnily enough I read Google reviews for my surgery this week when I searched to make sure I had the right number (as it rang for just over nine minutes with nobody picking up, after they issued an incorrect prescription without my insulin). I was intrigued as the average review score was 1.2/5.

I didn't see cowards wanting to harm someone's mental health. I saw incredible frustration and a running theme of rude receptionists, nobody answering the phone, and admin mistakes. Quite a few said they had tried to complain to the practice manager but been ignored.

Google seems to be one of the few places patients can have a say and vent their frustrations. I'm quite sure staff would find it even worse if patients vented to their faces.

What really hacks me off is how our local surgeries (they are all linked) have completely switched over to online booking and triage for appointments. I’m run a home care service for the elderly. The vast majority of which don’t use the internet or use technology. Some of my clients have dementia but not all. And whilst yes I can do it for them that relies on me being with them at the time and doesn’t offer them any privacy. The phone line no longer connects at all if you select the appointment extension - it just gives a message about how all appointments are now triaged online and directs you to their website.

When I raised it with the surgery. The attitude I got from some of the reception team was frankly disgusting. Telling me that it was mine and my clients responsibility to use the system as stated. When pressed on it they said that you could get through to thr reception team by selecting one of the other options - which is true. But that relies on those people knowing that and remembering that it is ok to do that. Which is not a given amongst the elderly demographic. For a lot of my clients it takes a lot for them to even call the GP in the first place as they are so worried about wasting the GPs time as all they ever hear in the media is how swamped GPs are. So getting them to ignore the instructions on the automated message is a non starter.

I have now had to complain to the practice management and if I do not get a good response then I will go to CQC.

Same. Which was doubly sad because I'm a gp receptionist 🙈

The correct procedure is to raise a complaint with the surgery not post it on Google where you can't respond. It's no better than an anonymous letter if you put a nickname to it. I'm not rude, obstructive, answer the phone - constantly, I rarely make mistakes but if I do I apologise straight away, own it and resolve it. They may not want to harm someone's mental health but they are doing it indirectly. Patients may want to vent their frustrations but to single out one Receptionist, name them with your perceived slights is not on.

Totally agree. It’s like another layer of distance has been added between the patient and an actual dr.
What was wrong with phoning up or even walking into your surgery to make an appointment? A bit of human contact , easier for the non tech savvy or just very ill people sometimes and can often get a problem sorted more quickly.
I was a named carer for an LO with dementia with permission to spk to gp for them, running around in circles wfh going backwards and forwards between uk and France. It was nigh in impossible to arrange an appointment to course coincide with when I was there ( which was very very often) and was told gp couldn’t phone me cos my number was french and I couldn’t fix a time time to phone them either arghhhh

I don't agree. Making official complaints is much more time consuming than leaving a review and there is no moral obligation to take that route.

So it's ok to leave an negative untruthful review naming someone because you can? The last negative review I read about myself, having done some internet digging, the person isn't even a patient so I don't know what her narrative is.

"Untruthful" I suspect is more a matter of opinion than fact.

Most people don't use their real name on the internet and you shouldn't be wasting your time stalking them.

You really need to stop reading these reviews.