Honestly, it was surreal. Incidentally, for both phone calls I was sitting in a room with several work colleagues who confirmed to me that I wasn't somehow being rude without realising...
Dear Dr Kilbride,
I am writing to express my concern at the behavior today of your Practice Manager, Mrs Hyacinth Bucket.
My husband telephoned your surgery on Friday, 11th December to enquire about joining your practice ? we moved to Our Rd in May & are now out of catchment for our previous surgery. He was asked to download, complete & email the registration forms, which he did at 10:37am that day.
I telephoned this morning to check that the forms had been received (dh had told me that he?d returned them; I assumed this meant that he?d physically dropped them in to the surgery), & to arrange appointments for myself & my son ? we both need routine repeat prescriptions for our asthma.
Mrs Bucket informed me that she hadn?t received the registration forms. She expressed doubt that dh had bothered to return them. I said that I would double check in case I?d misunderstood him; in which case, or if the forms had been mislaid at the surgery, I?d print off duplicates & hand them in this afternoon. I asked how quickly I could see a GP, as my five year old son needs a repeat prescription & I was anxious to get this sorted out before Christmas.
Mrs Bucket adopted a patronizing tone of voice to ?explain? that we needed to re-submit the forms. She then talked me through the procedure (check after 48 hours to see if we had been accepted, new patient appointment, then GP appointment). She said that it was impossible for either myself or my son to have an appointment before Wednesday or Thursday of next week, assuming we were accepted as patients (an outcome which, she strongly implied, was doubtful).
I was rather taken aback by her unhelpful attitude.
However, I telephoned dh, who explained that he?d emailed the forms to the surgery.
When I rang Mrs Bucket back to explain this, she checked the practice?s email. It apparently hadn?t previously occurred to her to do this. She found the emailed forms, but insisted that they had been emailed ?today?. I explained that this was not the case, as was easily verifiable from the date & time stamp in my husband?s email outbox, & asked again how quickly we could see a doctor.
She again adopted a rude & patronizing tone: ?As I told you earlier??. The subsequent conversation included phrases such as ?We aren?t obliged to accept patients?, ?It doesn?t matter if you sent them 20 days ago if I haven?t seen them? ?You aren?t our patients, so I don?t have to help you?, ?You should probably apply to a different practice?, ?I am the practice manager & you were rude to me earlier? (absolutely not the case, I was extremely patient).
The conversation ended with me agreeing that we would certainly go elsewhere.
Dh telephoned later to confirm that we wished our application deleted. He spoke to your receptionist, who was very informative: she explained that the email system was relatively new, only checked every two days & that staff didn?t really know how to use it.
It surprises me, frankly, that a staff member such as Mrs Bucket, who is employed by you in a ?management? capacity, is not au fait with such 20th century clerical skills as checking the date on an email & downloading an attachment within a week of its dispatch. However, the presumably rudimentary nature of her ICT skills certainly doesn?t excuse her rude & aggressive telephone manner, nor her refusal to engage in a courteous & professional way with a family of prospective patients who had applied using a method which your staff recommended, nor her suggestion that both dh & myself were lying to her about returning the forms.
Dh made it clear, in an amicable conversation with your receptionist, that we would be registering elsewhere, having completely lost confidence in your practice. She helpfully suggested an alternative local surgery, but for some reason felt it necessary to tell dh that ?They are white?. We fail to see the relevance of this & find the implications of the comment thoroughly offensive.
I am cc?ing this letter to the Primary Care Trust. We are of course willing to discuss its contents with them at any time.
Yours etc