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

[mersmam]

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?

Macdoodle - I was hoping you wouldn't see this thread

Why thank you NL for thinking of me - you have certainly fought the good fight - sensible reasoned arguments, but you are not going to win
I am not even going to get drawn in or comment at all - it is not worth the energy -I will save that for the very long and hard day me and my wonderful girls (receptionists ) will have tomorrow - me and the young lady who does the late shift with me on a fri afternoon, both of us single parents with abusive nasty exes, will be leaving after 7 after spending all day dealing with unfailing politeness and helfulness with anything upwards of 200 patient contacts........goodnight !

Good night and good luck

Why, thank you Liath!

you just caught me on a good day though, normally I love barking at the patients and you'd get a better reception from a spotty yoof in McDonald's!

Our Dr's receptionists used to be a bit snotty, but since having dd i have found they are a lot more helpful. I suppose they thought i was fit and healthy so a waste of time being there (i wasn't there much but you do need to see a dr occasionly) and i had quite a bit of hassle when trying to book my first antenatal app, when i rung up the receptionist said "are you keeping it? yes, well dr will see you in 2 weeks" and when i went in they had forgotten to tell me dr wasn't there., "someone should have rung you" when i finally got seen 3 weeks after initial phone call i got rushed to hospital with suspected ectopic pg

Forgot to add i think it was the same woman who possibly isn't there anymore, hence them being friendlier

The reason for the reputation IMHO is partly that there is a misconception about how much power they have, and when they say "no" to people people think it is just them being bloody-minded/rude..when actually they are just doing their job.

I personally have been called rude for denying a patient an appointment, when I had tried to get them one and not been allowed, and witnesses had heard me speaking to the patient and confirmed that I was definitely not rude ( I might get annoyed on here but I am so mild mannered IRL it's not true).

Anyway I think I should just leave everyone to get their rants about receptionists off their chests as am wasting breath here.

Having worked in the NHS for nearly 30 years I have to say that there are some appaulingly rude people who are obstructive and abrasive from the moment you speak to them, no matter how pleasantly and politely you start the conversation. It's not just GP receptionists, there are all sorts.

The one that still springs to mind is when I phoned to ask for a patient's adress. And having explained that we had sent the patient an appointment but it had been returned "addressee unknown" and did they know if the patient had moved she just turned round and said "so?" "what do you expect me to do?". And when I asked if she'd mind checking the patient's notes (it was a while ago so still hard copy) she said "that would mean I'd have to go upstairs". I ended the conversation, rang back a while later and asked to be put through to the GP - who ended up apologising profusely for sending the wrong address and gave me the correct one.

And having worked in psychiatry for 12 years and a drug and alcohol service for 10 years, I've had my fair share of rude and abusive clients. But I agree that is no reason to be rude back. Lots of us in the NHS feel the pressure, but you just have to detach and not take the abuse personally. People are worried, scared, ill - you just have to take that into account.

northerlurker - although i do agree that receptionists have to deal with a lot, that doesnt excuse the incompetence of some GP practices.

The OP should have been contacted if the surgery was shut.

I work within the NHS and will be the 1st to support it but my practice annoys me sometimes. After major surgery whilst pregnant with DS1, DH had to go back to work as he had been off whilst i was in hospital. The GP was supposed to come and check on me 48 hrs after discharge as i was housebound and the cheeky receptionist didnt want to put me in for a housecall as "i sounded young enough to make it down" . It was not her judgement call but she still made it.

HedgeWitch - they definitely do, like the guy who told me he "hoped I felt good about myself" the other day because I wouldn't let him cancel an appointment the other day at short notice without a charge, I would happily have cancelled it but was told to charge him.

Anyway, this thread is pretty depressing, and now off to a funeral.....

so later all!

I think fledtoscotland makes a good point there - if we phone up or contact the surgery wanting something for medical reasons, it is not helpful to have receptionists second-guess things in a judgemental, amateur way, aka the "Have you tried cream?" approach I mentioned earlier, or "You sound too young to need a home visit".

Also it's a problem of assymetrical information. If you phoned up and explained that most of your family was ill in bed with persistent diarrhoea and vomiting you were really worried about, and the receptionist explained that the GP had three palliative care cancer patients to get around to and two over 90s to sort out before they could even hope to get to you, it would allow for a more intelligent conversation about options and what was in the best interests of the children in particular.

Again, I do feel my surgery is a bit more attuned to this than many others, and they will talk it through with you in a sensible way so you don't feel too patronised or neglected. I have a lot more trust in their judgement as a result of this and I think there is a good fit between what I think I need and what they are happy to provide.

On reflection, this country does seem obsessed with triaging, rationing and queueing however. I haven't experienced that in other parts of Europe - you just ask to be seen and a suitable person sees you. I wonder if it is a cultural thing over here, as are passive aggressive patients and receptionists and the associated friction.

Interestingly, I heard that the A and E department at King's (I think) once got rid of triage for the day once to see what would happen, and sat the consultants in the cubicles instead. Apparently the improved efficiency was such that they cleared the department of patients for the first time ever! So do we always need to triage?

The receptionists at my GP's surgery are great. They do ask what the problem is and generally I've got appts on the same day. But then again we don't tend to see the Dr very often and when we do it's for something quite drastic. My MIL has a terminal illness and receives palliative care at home, her GP (same as mine actually!!) pops in every other morning.

I knew someone once who had a paddy at the surgery because she wanted an emergency appointment because she thought her son had got tonsillitis. The receptionist said 'well Dr will him now then', the mum said 'But he's at school' It astounds me how nesh some people seem to be and such people do clog up the NHS.

NHS bashing really gets on my wick.

I think I must have the same GP as fivecandles.

I don't understand why if the receptionist offers you an appointment with the nurse you just don't take it, IF you are ill enough to be seen by a GP the nurse will ensure you are then seen by a GP.

As for the triage, well the reason is that the consultants were obviously allowed for once to spend their whole shift on the shop floor instead of spending half of it on management issues and paperwork.

Quite, Libras.
I think the problem with seeing the nurse is that they can't prescribe. Sometimes I have had to wait for a GP appointment when I know a nurse could have sorted me out if he/she was allowed to prescribe things like simple antibiotic cream and so on, stuff you can often buy over the counter overseas. By making this sort of medicine hard to access (for all sorts of good public health reasons, no doubt), GPs have made a bit of a rod for their own backs. But I agree paperwork is ridiculous too.

Also most of the appointments I have had of late are a result of me being sent back by the hospital ANC because they have lost paperwork and referral letters, or mixed things up. That is also a waste of GP time (although he's very good about it, I have to say).

Boffinmum - I'm sure hospital and GPs alike would love to tell you exactly why they are delayed etc - unfortunately they can't as it would be a breach of patient confidentiality.

NL - just an aside - the various medical professionals involved encouraged me to complain to the Chief Exec as I believe it was an admin inefficiency thing not just confined to me. Every time the poor GP, MW or consultant did a secondary or tertiary referral it would be lost, I would patiently wait a month, and then we would both be told there was no record of me in the system, and I should go back to the GP again. It was all a bit Groundhog Day and after the 6th or 7th instance in 2 months we all got fed up, consultant admitted me to hospital as an in-patient and asked them all to come to see me while I was in there. I think the hospital might be a bit embarrassed because I have had a few apologetic phone calls in the last week.

I also should add that these days we rarely wait much at the surgery, the doctors are really clued up and personally I don't need to spend long in there at all because it's so efficient, so I don't have any gripes at all about the way we're treated.

OOH centre leaves something to be desired, because it's in a completely different part of the county and the doctors there are a bit bizarre, but if it's something really serious the local GP seems to appear anyway if necessary.

I appreciate that there are some wonderful GP's receptionists out there and some incredibly efficient and user friendly systems for making appointments (please tell me there are!) but that doesn't mean it's ok to dismiss people's complaints and concerns as NHS bashing etc. As has been said we respect the fact that they have a hard job (who doesn't? Try being a teacher) but they are dealing with people who may well be vulnerable and needy. Putting people off making an appt (as I certainly have many times) could actually end up being a life or death situation. It matters.

My experinenes with GP receptionsih have ranged from the potentially very serious (telling me test results were clear when they weren't) to the not so serious but still rude (avoiding any sort of eye contact).

But the systems which for making appts are often increibly inefficnetn and difficult for patients to use. THere is just such a lack of respect for patients such as I've never experienced anywehre else when you most need them to be approachable and sympathetic or at least polite

I amlucky enough to have had 2 out of 3 good surgeries, and the present one is fantastic, receptionists are young, helpful and cannot do enough for you; I can get an appointment at a time to suit me within the next 2 days.

But my bad experiecnewas prettymajor - ds at 9 mths had bronchiolitus and was having troublt breathing so I took him to the surgery for 8.30am - I thought they openend then but it was only the phones that started that early. As they did not open I phoned and the receptionist told me that I should not have come to the siurgery as 'that was not how things worked' and I should 'go'home' and a doctor would call me to assess ds and decide if he needed to be seen. Obvioulsy I waited for the doors to open at 9am and went in and again I was told to go home. Luckily I insisted and as soon as the doctor saw ds she put him on oxygen and called an ambulance - he was in hospital for 4 days.

I did at least get some satisfaction from the receptionist's face when she saw ds being taken out to the ambulance - and she had refused to let me see the doctor!!!

But that sort of experience does tend to colour my reaction to receptionists so I am delighted with the current practice

I did not complian tho as it was jsut too difficult and i was worried that it would only make things worse