Power crazy GP receptionists

[LittleMonks11]

Is there a safe space to rant about the power crazy GP receptionists?

Disclaimer: not all GP receptionists are power crazy. Many are amazing and will bend over to help - my practice has several - but they are all young 🤷‍♀️

Yesterday I rang up because I knew I had (yet another) urine infection (this is a whole other thread in itself probably for Menopause) but got a call back from a lovely GP at a partner practice who looked at my history and said she would prescribe antibiotics and I should get a sample tested at my practice. It didn't have to be before 3pm (the cut off for sending to the lab) as they could dip it there. I checked.

So I arrived at just after three and this receptionist basically said I couldnt give a sample in because it was after 3pm (poiting to the big sign on the desk). I said it didn't need to be sent away and she said, well there's no one here to test it. So I said, wait, there's no doctors on the premises?

She relented in the end with a massive huff and eye roll - but I really had to push. As I knew it would turn out, another lovely GP rang back and said I had an infection and to start the antibiotics.

I just think she could have been a bit more frigging cooperative and less thinking she knew better than the GP.

Also I keep saying that she wasn't following the guidelines - it's samples being sent away only before 3pm. I double checked with the GP!

In my experience it helps if you speak to the receptionists in a polite way rather than being demanding. They then are as helpful as they can be with the volume of patients they have to deal with

That’s my experience in life generally

I totally agree, they must work under pressure (but so do many of us) but some of them totally lack any empathy or seemingly common sense.

our surgery has a ridiculous system where you can only ring at 8am for an appt that day. It is nigh on impossible to get through. They only let the most urgent matters through so if you just need to see a doctor about something that isn’t urgent that day you can never pre book an appt! There just isn’t another way! And on the rare occasion I have had an urgent issue I haven’t been able to get through on the phones and have ended up either using 111 or in desperation paying for a private GP

its a mess

They should amend the signage then

Yes so if no note from the GP
and just your word for it
this receptionist would like have been lied to hundreds of times in the past about what a GP supposedly said

Yes I agree.

If that comment is aimed at me:

I didn't rock up and demand a test out of the blue - I was following instructions. Had tried to mitigate any issues with reception - I even said to the GP 'have you requested the sample as reception won't allow it otherwise' and she said yes. And then I checked on the time.

Not much more I could have done. Open to suggestions though.

I know when someone's being an arsehole particularly thorough. As I'm sure all posters on this thread do.

I think every GP deliberately employs 1 arsehole for every 3 lovely receptionists. When I get the the arsehole on the phone I always tell her I have MH issues I need to discuss (I don’t) then I don’t get interrogated any further. Nosey cow

Thank you!! Good plan.

Some posters on this thread won't accept that power crazy receptionists exist and that I have one at my practice.

Yes Px are arseholes too.

When I collected my Rx from the other surgery the (lovely older) receptionist was phoning a Px about them not turning up. I commiserated with her and she told me she had another 6 to call. Arseholes the lot of them I said.

@SparklingLime I think I have tearing just inside (so not just on the outside) because of thinning skin. Can Ovestin work for that too?

There are times everyday when there are no clinicians on the premises. Receptionists only do what their boses tell them to do.

Who dipped it then?

The only rude person at the table was her. The sulky, silent handing over of the test kit, the eye rolling and the huffing. I did none of those things.

Most of ours are perfectly polite and helpful but there is a new one who has started recently who is a prick. She wouldn't allow me to order my sons repeat prescription over the phone as I've always been able to do in the past, said I could only order it on their online form. I tried doing that but their website and forms don't bloody work! When I called back I got a different receptionist who had no problem at all issuing the prescription and said no we don't have to do in online at all!

I've recently had a procedure done and have needed dressings changed by the nurses twice a week, it came to the point where they were happy for me to carry on doing them myself at home and the nurse said she would order me more dressings that I could collect after the weekend. When I went to collect them the receptionist told me they hadn't ordered them as they didn't know if I paid for my prescriptions or not (they do know as I was asked by the nurse in my appointment when she said she'd order them) she was very rude and completely unhelpful about it, so I left and went home and ordered dressings from Amazon. 3 weeks later I got a call from one of the nice helpful receptionists telling me that they had dressings there for me to collect. When I explained I'd been told they weren't getting any for me I went and sorted myself out she was very apologetic!

Due to unavoidable circumstances (and a flat phone battery so I couldn't let them know in advance) I arrived 20 minutes late for an appointment one day last week. I went straight to the receptionist and apologised, and asked if I could still be seen after all.

Considering the number of times I've sat in their waiting room and had to wait for way longer than that, I didn't think it was unreasonable to ask!!

Anyway, she looked at me, smiled and said no. Can't do that, no. She didn't even ask my name. She did ask what the appointment was for, and I explained that it was to discuss some test results, and it was they who had contacted me and asked me to come in. Still no. Can't be done. Apparently I would have to ring in at 8am the following morning and ask for an emergency appointment. I pointed out that at 8am every morning I was on a dual carriageway on the way to work, and couldn't spend half an hour on the phone waiting to be told there were no appointments left and in any case it was they who wanted to see me, not the other way round. Another sit back and smile smugly at me. Another flat no. You could see she was taking pleasure in refusing to help me in any way whatsoever. I didn't tell her what the test was for, and it could have been quite serious for all she knew. She didn't check my notes to find out.

It wouldn't have hurt, would it, for her to have checked to see whether the person I was supposed to see was actually available and would prefer me to wait in the surgery so they could talk to me about the test results. Considering the almost completely empty waiting room, and total lack of bustle around the place, it didn't look as if they were rushed off their feet.

All right, I said, I will call back another time. I then asked her if she would put a record on my notes to say that I had actually arrived for the appointment, because I didn't want them to think I just hadn't bothered, and wasted an appointment. It was only then that she asked my name and found my record on her computer.

It was her smug disdain and complete and utter refusal to be in the slightest bit helpful that really pissed me off.

I had cause to feel ‘wtf’? about a receptionist this week - my parent is having chemo, got covid and has a chest infection, had been prescribed ABs by the GP but needed a further course.

Receptionist: I’m sorry the GP who prescribed them isn’t in work this week and we have no emergency appointments left today.
Me: But parent won’t be coming in as they have covid anyway, just a repeat prescription is fine, from any doctor. Parent has one tablet left so tomorrow is fine too.
Receptionist: We have no appointments tomorrow either.
Me: What, even for someone on chemo who’s had it delayed already by ten days because of this infection?!
Receptionist: I’ll see if one of the doctors can give you a call later today.

(GP rang, call took 3 mins and prescription was ready within half an hour at the chemist).

It really shouldn’t be this hard.

Just ask for one of the "young" ones OP

its incredibly hard to get receptionists to stay, people are very very rude and abusive to them, then nice as pie to clinical staff.

Maybe that's because clinical staff don't use Receptionist Voice.

All patient-facing staff, whether nurses, doctors, HCAs, pharmacists, receptionists, whatever, have to deal with patients with complex requests or requirements, patients wanting things they can't have, patients who want exceptions to be made, patients who have the wrong info, and patients who are stressed, demanding, unreasonable, confused, angry, upset, etc.

Only receptionists, IME, use Receptionist Voice — a specific, singsongy, supercilious, more-than-my-job's-worth, I'll say this slowly so that even an idiot like you can understand, computer-says-no, smug, amused, unshakeable way of speaking to patients, which just oozes with condescending confidence that the system will back them up, and not the patient. It feels custom-engineered to emotionally escalate the patient, from mildly annoyed that there's been some snafu and worried about whether they'll get the care they need, to utterly furious at the arrogant twat in front of them who's apparently enjoying every moment. It's a tone of voice that would rile up Mother Bloody Theresa. And, of course, if the patient responds by getting visibly annoyed, maybe even using a swear-word for emphasis (e.g. "this is fucking ridiculous", as opposed to swearing as directed abuse like "you fucking idiot"), the receptionist gets to wheel out the zero tolerance policy and put the phone down or ask the patient to leave.

Luckily, I've always managed to keep the lid on my internal emotional response to Receptionist Voice, escalating at most to a bit of sarcasm, but I've seen other patients (perhaps with more worrying concerns, and already at the edge of what they can cope with) being apparently deliberately wound up like a clock, by receptionists who wouldn't know de-escalation if it delivered them to the deepest tube station and forced them to take the stairs back up.

To those wheeling out the ageist tropes, I deliberately pointed out that was my experience in my practice.

I think being a GP receptionist used to be a good fit for middle aged older women (yes women) and my mum was happily one for a decade. Unfortunately things have befn going to pot for ages (Tories, Covid) and I believe that many don't have the fortitude for it anymore. It's tough. You can't just start being an arsehole because you can.

Whenever I see a receptionist being trained (often) they are in their 20s. I don't think it's a coincidence they are recruiting this age group.

Once again, not all receptionists.

I'm a GP receptionist and seem to have said this on several threads lately but I bend over backwards to be as helpful as I can, as do my colleagues, as well as polite and pleasant. I try to comfort patients who are crying on The phone. A lot of patients have started to ask my name, and to say thank you, Papergirl, for being so lovely or so helpful or whatever.
I also understand that when a patient is ill they can get frustrated and make allowances for that but what I won't accept is rudeness and particularly swearing, and my standard response is that I'm not paid enough to be spoken to like that. Which is true. The pay is rubbish and it can stressful but I enjoy it.

Yes OP, we do

Op

imagine that a part of every single day of your job is having to deal with at least a handful of people lying to you about what their GP supposedly said

Now imagine that someone rocks up and says give this sample please to the GP. And you know that samples are sent away before 3pm unless specifically requested by a GP. Problem is… nothing has been left by GP to confirm this. It’s just your word.

She was doing her job. The middle man between the GP and patient.

Maybe you perceive them to be nicer because theyre more likely to be intimidated by stroppy patients?

Doubling down on the ageism there OP 😜

Disclaimer: not all GP receptionists are power crazy. Many are amazing and will bend over to help - my practice has several - but they are all young 🤷‍♀️

The way this is written, with parenthesis, implies that all the receptionists who are amazing and will bend over to help are young - by implication meaning that they are not older. To indicate that you were referring only to the staff at your surgery you could have written ‘but the ones at my surgery are all young’.

All the reception staff at my surgery - regardless of age - are professional but will take no shit from people who talk to them like dirt.

This may be the role they now have (shielding doctors) but are they medically qualified to do so? Isn’t this worrying?

Completely agree OP. I need a blood test and was told by a rude receptionist that they encourage patients to go to the hospital. I said I didn't have time to go there and would like an appointment at the surgery. She then queried me in a rude way. I was too tired to tell her I'd make a complaint.

I really annoys me as I did volunteer work when I couldn't get paid work for fuck all pay with a better attitude.

I'm sick of hearing how NHS staff are such heroes. Some of them work really hard and are underpaid yes. I've found mental health services appalling. Someone couldn't even pass on a message. I've had rude GPs who have wasted my time. I think the NHS needs a shake up.