GP Receptionist giving medical advice - is this good practice ?

[SaidAndDone22]

So, recently, this happened to my 79yr old grandmother....

She was sent a letter to call her GP after blood tests. The receptionist took her details etc, log passed to her GP.
The receptionist called my grandmother back and gave her medical advice and also advised a change in her medication

We are concerned whether this is considered standard practise.

We don't even necessarily agree with the change in medication. My grandmother has a multitude of ailments and this particular change in medication relates to a fairly serious condition of which she has spent at least 20 years perfecting the medication balance to control her symptoms.

Are receptionists considered medical professionals with correct certification to be able to provide medical advice and issue a change in medication ?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thank you.

I'm afraid that is DOES happen that a doctor's receptionist tries to act as the doctor herself.
This is something I refused to accept from the receptionist at my local practice so I changed to another practice...
However a few days ago with the SAME receptionist, my brother-in-law phoned for an appointment because he had a very swollen leg and short on breath... she said 'just put your leg up'.. no appointment.
Today he was admitted to hospital with thrombosis and a lung emboly. His initial indications were prime examples of what he has and would have been recognised by any doctor, who would know it needed IMMEDIATE attention but is now in a life threatening situation because of a RECEPTIONIST caused a delay in treatment.

I’d check this and get her to ask her GP to call her to clarify. Receptionists would be unable to answer any questions as to why the GP has done this so wouldn’t be allowed to do it in my practice. They will tell me if a prescription has been issued if I have requested something unusual or for a change but I’ve never had a change of med unrequested via the call handler.

Hmm I wouldn't be happy with this and I'm surprised that it's being done this way. To me there's big risks of errors in translation. But I suppose the doctor remains responsible. I could think of better systems though.

I think it's a potentially dangerous practice, instead of the doctor taking time relaying the message to the receptionist who then has to pass tge message on the doctor could have sent a text or rang the patient.

It is possible that the doctor wrote a note and the receptionist could read it out to the patient I guess. Would rather they emailed it to the patient in as many cases as possible.

Just as quick to email or text the patient

Lots of straightforward medication changes I now communicate with the patient by text message - if they’re elderly or only have a land line I ask reception to call to pass the message on. I think that’s increasingly standard practice. There’s no way you can justify a whole appointment for something straightforward but if I have to ring everyone myself as an ‘extra’ I’d never leave work.

I’ve had this recently following blood tests, the receptionist said ‘Dr X has asked me to call you to advise you to reduce your dosage of drug X to X amount’

I had absolutely no issue with this at all. I’m sure if I had any questions I could have just made an appointment to ask them. Making this call to me would have been a total waste of the doctor’s time

Is this a reverse? Surely you know that GP receptionists are just that, receptionists? And logically, because this is a universally understood fact, you also understand that they are non-clinical with no 'certification' to provide medical advice or issue changes in medication.

If you don't know that then firstly wow and secondly, why are you polling mumsnet and not phoning the GP surgery in question for some clarity?

ZOMBIE.

This is from June last year. I would think it’s been sorted by now.