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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to really have it in for GP's surgeries...

350 replies

mersmam · 25/02/2009 18:14

Had an appointment with my community midwife today (I'm 30 weeks pregnant and haven't seen her since I was 16 weeks, which was when she made the appointment.)
Got to the drs surgery to find it locked and a notice up saying that the surgery is closed this afternoon for staff training! As far as I'm aware there has been no attempt to contact me about this! I rang the midwife's office straight away but could only leave a message and have so far had no response.
Am really annoyed as have arranged my whole day around the appointment (and DH had arranged to work from home so he could come too).
Generally I am just sick of the whole GP system - I can never get an appointment at a convenient time - when I do I always have to wait at least half an hour (no joke with three DCs under 5) and the staff on reception are rude.
I asked for a home visit once as I was ill along with all the DCs and you'd think I'd asked for the moon...

The thing with the midwife today feels like the final straw...

Should I change surgeries to somewhere further away (which would be less convenient?) or are they all like this?

OP posts:
unpaidworker · 26/02/2009 16:46

The truth will out.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 26/02/2009 16:47

No wonder they are rude to you lot if you think of them like that, seriously...

unpaidworker · 26/02/2009 16:47

Fanjo - How can you comment on doctor's receptionists. You ask whats wrong? I've got toothache - end of, hardly the same is it?

unpaidworker · 26/02/2009 16:48

Fanjo

Well you are one, are'nt you?

tumtumtetum · 26/02/2009 16:49

It's not receptionists in general though, or public facing people in general. It's a very specific doctor's receptionist type with a very specific manner which seems to be popular at GPs and hospitals up and down the country.

People remember because they are vulnerable and it hurts when someone is nasty/makes their life difficult.

I have never ever met a nurse/doctor/midwife etc with a similar approach, so it's not about the environment.

When people are in the best of health and chipper and a tube employee (as a random example)for eg is rude it doesn't matter so much, so people don't remember it so much. it somehow doesn't seem so personal or so nasty.

I still don't understand why you don't get an apology when things are truely cocked up.

tumtumtetum · 26/02/2009 16:52

So now it's a good thing that about 20 heavily pg women were forced to stand/sit on the floor in midsummer heat when someone could have simply said there were seats next door, because all the pregnant women were probably obnoxious bitches.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 26/02/2009 16:53

Tumtumtetum - Yes, that's exactly what I said...if you are very unintelligent or twist my words to suit your own argument, yes.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 26/02/2009 16:54

i get a real kick when pregnant women come in with toothache too, and refuse to give them an appointment, as i hate them all.

Numpty.

unpaidworker · 26/02/2009 16:55

You probably do as well.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 26/02/2009 16:56

I do, and am going to retrain as a doctor's receptionist as then i get to make even MORE people's lives miserable.

BoffinMum · 26/02/2009 16:57

Ours used to do amateur diagnoses over the phone and then come up with trite things like "Have you tried cream?"

However since the new GP contracts they are very professional, and now ask questions like "Would 3.10 be OK? Oh, you have to pick the kids up then - let's see, 4.20?" "Would you like to see a lady doctor for that?" "By the way, did you know you are due to come in to discuss your repeat prescription soon?"

Our appointment system works better than it did, we wait less time, our doctors seem to get home a bit earlier and we may even be healthier as a result of being listened to. Who knows? I think that's what we are after. Something responsive and sensible.

BoffinMum · 26/02/2009 16:58

Fanjo I think you have a calling as a head teacher, forget being a medical receptionist.

tumtumtetum · 26/02/2009 16:59

Well the women on reception, who could have eased the situation and made everyone a lot more comfortable, and chose not to, seemed pretty downright nasty to me. When I went through and realised that there were loads of chairs next door I was flabbergasted.

I can think of no explanation for their behaviour other than the one that you have given.

Can you not understand why people get upset when stuff like this happens? When they are at their most vuilnerable?

unpaidworker · 26/02/2009 17:00

Fanjo - You'll be great.

UndertheBoredwalk · 26/02/2009 17:01

Ooohh this thread is scary
Have to say about receptionists having to ask you what's wrong and sending you to Dr/Nurse on the basis of it is absolute bollocks, they cannot possibly triage which is essentially what that is, when they have no medical training to do so. They couldn't possibly be allowed to do that.
I have worked as receptionist and various other customer service/customer facing roles. As has been said the attitude and behaviour of a lot of Dr's receptionists would have gotton me sacked in any of those jobs. And they're not the only people in customer facing roles that are regularly abused.
I have been in jobs where I was abused daily, but it's the job, you have to stay professional, and you certainly can't treat the next person you deal with with contempt because someone else hurled abuse at you.
If you can't be professional and curtious in a job working with the general public then you shouldn't be in that job imo.

BoffinMum · 26/02/2009 17:01

TumTum, did you so anything about letting people know there were chairs next door? Or was it too late by then?

Bossy boots that I am I would have organised the receptionists into a chain to pass chairs through, and shamed them into not doing anything before, but I am quite insufferable about things like that.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 26/02/2009 17:11

I think what we need is a REAL doctors receptionist to tell us the procedures they have to follow if someone calls for an appointment, since, being a lowly dental receptionist who only deals with toothache, I have been told that I cannot say.

And we should all abide by the judge's decision......if we are told that they aren't supposed to triage people in any way then I'd be quite surprised..

DOes anyone out there know someone they can ASK to get the REAL STORY here?

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 26/02/2009 17:12

I think Tumtum should have lain on the floor and let everyone sit on her..

UndertheBoredwalk · 26/02/2009 17:18

I know in my surgery if I call for an appointment I'm never asked what's wrong with me (or DD) But I am offered the choice of seeing the nurse and told what the nurse can do, and asked if I think that seeing her would be suitable.
Which is as it should be I think, half the time I go to the Dr's I don't know whats wrong with me, and a receptionist isn't qualified to diagnose a bunch of symptoms and decide whether it's serious or not are they? That's what the GP's are for.

UndertheBoredwalk · 26/02/2009 17:20

Must point out the receptionists at my surgery are brilliant, and will go above and beyond to help you out
My last surgery though...awful. Which will be why I'm not with them any more. lol

Dalrymps · 26/02/2009 18:39

My experience of Gp receptionists at my surgery is that they are downright rude to me. I am always polite, happy and approachable and having worked in customer service roles etc, am sympathetic to the shit that they must put up with on a daily basis... However i don't understand therefore why they are rude to me. Fair enough if a patient is a total arsehole but I never behave that way and feel the receptionists tar us all with the same brush regardless .

Even over the phone I get constant sarky comments and anything I ask is a massive effort. I feel they expect me to know all policies and procedures as well as they do and that they talk down to me

There is one little tiny thing that annoys me that happens every time I go. I stand at reception and the receptionist is sometimes busy/typing something/looking through paperwork which is fair enough but the bit that annoys me is the fact they never acknowledge my presence. Even if they just looked up and said 'I'll be with you in a minute' it would be more poilite IMO.

Northernlurker · 26/02/2009 18:44

Dear me - I see there's been quite a lot of comment here whilst I was at work making life difficult for patients slogging away at my NHS job!

A few points before I move on:

  1. GP receptionists ask you what the nature of the problem is for two reasons - so they can appropriately direct you to the right clinician and appointment and secondly so they can check that you aren't going to harm yourself by waiting. If you say you have chest pain for example - or difficulty breathing - it's possible you should be in an ambulance not waiting three hours for the next appointment. Please don't come back and say people with chest pain don't ring their GP - they do.

  2. Rudeness and unprofessionalism should always be addressed and from what I can see post after post here is about something that went wrong and was then fixed/apologised for. This thread shows how GP practices are improving and changing - so it's pretty unfair to keep beating them with the stick of a historic experience isn't it?

  3. Sick people and the carers of sick people are not saints. They are just as short tempered, unreasonable, tearful, curious, loving, obnoxious and amazing as well people. Every HCP and support staff member I've ever met has appreciated the difficulties their patient is labouring under, the stress, the frustration and the pain. We appreciate that but it doesn't give people the right to be rude and abusive.

Your Gp receptionist has not taken a vow to make you suffer. They just want to do their job.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 26/02/2009 19:04

Thank you Northern Lurker..the voice of reason!

As opposed to me, the voice of PMS!

Dalrymps · 26/02/2009 19:08

Thanks for explaining all that northernlurker but can you explain then why the receptionists at my surgery are rude to me from the start, whenever I speak to them?Hmm?Hmm?

2Happy · 26/02/2009 19:10

Because they work at WCS, Dalrymps? (Or are you at UB?)

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