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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To write a letter of complaint because

46 replies

gumblossom · 19/03/2010 23:49

of a condescending doctor's receptionist?

I had to phone and make a docs appointment yesterday as my DD has had recurring impetigo (it's a bacterial skin rash) and despite three visits to the doc already, it still hasn't resolved.
Well, last week I'd made an appointment for Monday morning, but over the weekend it looked better, so early Mon morning I cancelled the appointment.
When I phoned this time the receptionist said she could get me in to see the same doc "just as long as you keep the appointmnet as Dr may not take to kindly to you cancelling again".
Am I right in thinking she was being rude and condescending? I actually said to her, "I would have thought you'd appreciate a cancelled appointment as I always have such difficulty getting one". Her reply was ,"no, not really".
Anyway I made an appointment to see a different doctor and promptly wrote a letter of complaint.Am I being unreasonable to feel annoyed? Should I just let it go?
It makes me feel so angry, because every appointment I have there I have to wait about an hour(which is no fun with toddler in tow) and I never complain about that!
I'd love to hear what you think.

OP posts:

fledtoscotland · 20/03/2010 12:38

YANBU but I do think you need to take a big deep breath and count to 10000

GPs receptionists do have to deal with loads although thats no excuse for rudeness. I would put it down to her having a bad day but if it happens again, the make an appointment to speak to the practice manager

(and I'm not just sticking up for the receptionists btw - I complained the the GP a couple of weeks ago. DS2 has recurring chest infections and had RSV last spring. I phoned for an appointment for him on Thursday morning and when asked if it was an emergency, I said its not life threatening but I would like him seen before the weekend. Cue a telephone consultation. Speaking to the GP he wanted to know why i requested a phone appointment as he clearly couldn't listen to DS2's chest over the phone. I explained what happened and he made a point of speaking to the receptionist advising her that it wasn't her judgment call to leave a toddler to a telephone consultant when the mother wanted him seen. Outcome: a very apologetic receptionist who has made every effort for DS2 to be seen promptly now)

diddl · 20/03/2010 12:41

Of course you were right to cancel an appointment you no longer needed.

I wonder if you were "flagged" somehow because you rescheduled within a short period of time.

"just as long as you keep the appointmnet as Dr may not take to kindly to you cancelling again".-if that´s what she said, I can´t really see anything that rude about it.

However, if it was the manner in which she said it I might point that out.

FabIsFallingApart · 20/03/2010 12:41

So she would rather people went to an appointment and said I don't need it than cancel it and let someone else have it?

If I cancel I am thanked.

Tigurr · 20/03/2010 13:37

If you're in Australia, then if you don't like the GP or the receptionist then take your business elsewhere. One of the few things I like about the system here in Australia is that you can vote with your feet and take your business elsewhere - you're not "tied" to a certain GP or practice.

To be honest, I've found receptionists & GPs here to be fantastic - which at $80 for a standard appt is what I expect. If they were shitty to me then I'd go to a different surgery.

Chen23 · 20/03/2010 15:18

I wish I had the time in my life to write a letter of complaint to a Doctors surgery over a (not especially rude) comment.

Life is too short imo.

You were of course right to cancel your appointment but cancelled / missed appointments are a big pain the a*se for surgeries and cost the NHS over £150 million pounds a year; because of this surgeries (like airlines) often overbook in order to maximise efficiency (as you may have noticed with the hour long waits you mention).

Of course I'm not saying this was the case in your situation but I think the receptionist's poor attitude may have been partially down to that and partially down to poor attitude, just not convinced it was poor enough to have to deal with an official letter of complaint; seems a bit OTT to me.

blogpage · 20/03/2010 19:54

YANBU. As saslou says, the receptionist should mind her own business.

BrahmsThirdRacket · 20/03/2010 22:27

YABU leave it. The appt was for Monday morning and you cancelled early Monday morning. She was unlikely to be able to fill the appt in such a short time, which is probably why she said 'not really' when you said you thought the doc would appreciate it. OK, she wasn't sweetness and light about it, but she wasn't that rude and it is really annoying when people drop appointments at 2 mins notice.

fanjoforthemammaries7850 · 20/03/2010 22:37

yabu, i am a dental receptionist and am often told to warn people if they have cancelled too often,don't like doing it but have to.
Or maybe it was a friendly warning as she knew the dr didn't like people cancelling and might give you a hard time?

Original poster

gumblossom · 20/03/2010 22:42

Yes, It would probably put them out, dropping the appointmant at 2 mins notice, however I phoned as soon as the surgery was open(an hour before my appointment). I couldn't phone any earlier, they aren't open on the weekend.

It is true that I could take my business elsewhere, but I have been seeing this GP for 14 years and we have an excellent dr-patient relationship.He has delivered 3 of my children. The receptionist is new and I have to say, I have noticed she isn't very good at her job, she is often flustered and doesn't seem to know what to do. But, again, it doesn't excuse rudeness.

Frankly, the time it took to write the letter of complaint, was alot less time than I spend on Mumsnet, so it wasn't a big deal.

As I said earlier, I will speak to the doctor about it rather than sending a letter, writing it meant I got it off my chest and didn't lose any sleep over it.

For the poster who thought it wasn't rude, I still think it was, she spoke to me with a condescending tone and implied I had wasted their time intentionally.I suppose I didn't say that in the original post, but it was as much her tone as the words used.

Incidentally, when I cancelled the appointment a different receptionist spoke to me and thanked me for calling and cancelling.

Thanks everyone for your input.

OP posts:

IlooklikeGrotbagstoday · 20/03/2010 22:49

YANBU. I was Drs receptionist about 10 years ago. It is not a stressful job at all. I worked with a few 'Nazi' receptionists and I came to the conclusion that they obviously didn't have a lot going on in their lives so the little bit of power giving (or not giving) someone an appointment went to their heads. They need to realise that most patients are not well or stressed parents of the not well so a little bit of kindness, understanding and patience (no pun intended) goes a long way.

If someone phoned to cancel an appointment we were glad as there was always someone else that needed it.

Blanco77 · 17/05/2019 07:10

My local practice reception insists on my full medical history, its quite personal and not something I tell my family, let alone the reception. Some love playing doctors and nurses. Ignore them, i desperately need to see a lady doctor, that by law i think i should be allowed. Its sexual id stuff and they wont offer me anyone other than this guy who is utterly resistant. he for instance did not even bother to examine me when i fell of my mountain bike .Im worried ive broken ribs, it hurts a lot, breathing and coughing. He keeps threatening to deny me of medication, is this even legal?! i love someone to respond. good luck, it pays to not upset the reception, but some of them certainly wish they had been doctors!

Blanco77 · 17/05/2019 07:13

Sleephead1 · 17/05/2019 07:47

Hi I'm a doctors receptionist it's not anything to do with us why or when you cancel an appointment or even if you forget to. You will be send a letter by the surgery and if you miss a certain number of appointments you can end up removed from the list so that would be the only reason we may mention it ( if we can see the patient has missed a few appointments with out cancelling we may mention just to remind them to cancel if they don't need it so they dont get removed from the list ) We just say thanks for letting us know if patients cancel and ask if they want to rebook. If you feel you need to complain it's not really something to discuss with the doctor to be honest the doctors don't deal with admin/ reception complaints ( is the doctor a partner on the practice ? ) Even if they are they will advice admin manager or practice manager if you look online your surgery will explain how to complain and the procedure so I would follow that. My surgery our supervisor deals with complaints if she can't or it's a clinical complaint then it's the practice manager. With regards to the waiting time there is nothing a receptionist can do about that at all. It's unfortunate and we get all the complaints about it but we are powerless to change it.

chuttypicks · 17/05/2019 08:07

ZOMBIE THREAD!!! This one is 9 years old!!

HBStowe · 17/05/2019 08:15

I think you’ve hugely overreacted. I don’t actually think she was very rude - she just wanted to emphasise the importance of keeping appointments. And even if she was rude, writing a letter of complaint because of one occasion of (very borderline) rudeness is so entitled and overbearing.

Receptionists are humans and every human has moments where they aren’t completely on form. You are absolutely lying if you claim there has never been a single occasion in your life where you were less than 100% polite and accommodating. Imagine if you faced a letter of complaint from somebody who didn’t actually experience any negative consequences of your rudeness as a result?

It’s one thing if it’s a long term pattern of rudeness, but for this singular incident I just cannot fathom why you thought a complaint was justified. Hopefully this woman’s bosses will take the same view and she won’t face any action at work.

HBStowe · 17/05/2019 08:16

Oh whoops, sorry for feeding a zombie!

toomuchtooold · 17/05/2019 08:16

I'm a big fan of the politely-worded letter of complaint. Sometimes people in positions of relative power get a wee bit carried away with themselves and it's a good reminder that they should be speaking to people respectfully. Which would actually make the job less stressful as they wouldn't constantly be dealing with people who they've pissed off.

toomuchtooold · 17/05/2019 08:17

Dammit, a zombie. Oh well, the point still stands.

badlydrawnperson · 17/05/2019 08:18

however, their job isn't made harder by being polite.
^This YANBU OP.

NoSauce · 17/05/2019 08:23

Why would you bump this thread from 9 years ago?

kateandme · 17/05/2019 09:24

nope send it on behalf of all of us that have to deal with snippy little receptionists.
ours can be horrid.right jobsowrth who want to play god or doctor im not sure whitch.

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