GP receptionist

Leg End Reject

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119789491#Comment_119789491

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119789695#Comment_119789695

You're contradicting yourself now.

Leg End Reject

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119789664#Comment_119789664

Get your appointment and take or leave it.

As for your last part, all you had to do in that situation is say no.

It's not complicated.

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119789878#Comment_119789878

First part - wouldn’t be an issue for me, I don’t think in the first place the receptionist isn’t entitled to know why I need an appointment.

Second part - that’s all I did, I don’t make big dramas out of nothing.

None of this stuff is complicated.

Ave Sodalis

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119789433#Comment_119789433

Ah, I should have looked at who I was quoting. I would explain how that's not what the post said, nor what the other poster was saying, but you already know it.

Flinty997

I could care less who said what or when.

The point is only if you don't want the receptionist managing/triaging the waitlist supported by the medical staff, or knowing your details, looking at your files. What are are the alternative suggestions. Nothing "viable" has been suggested. Lie, do it first come first served, use medical staff. These are nonsense impractical suggestions, as was already explained.

The systems that exist aren't ideal but it has come into place (in surgeries where they do this) due to lack of resources and/or people being obnoxious. A few of our local GPs do not answer the phone directly, you have a leave a message. Because the staff were being abused so often on the phone or the desk. I know people who work in GPs and the stories you hear are horrendous.

The impatience and lack of empathy on this thread for people working in difficult situations, is pretty eye opening. No wonder they have such problems retaining staff and its a service in crisis.

At the surgery I attend they do not answer any calls, all go to voicemail. They later phone you back to offer an appointment . However they way prefer you to request an appointment by email, which I always do.

I state whether the appointment is urgent or not, eg if I am coughing up blood (have had pneumonia a few times) I would state that and maybe get a same day or next morning appointment, but more likely a doctor would phone me later and forward prescription to chemist for an antibiotic and follow up on how I am next day or two, which has worked out well.

If I ever have serious breathing difficulty in addition, I attend hospital directly, where they would put me on oxygen, nebulisers & a couple of days IV antibiotics.

If it is something more routine, like looking for an appointment with a view to a possible consultant referral to see about an increasingly bothersome but non urgent issue, then I specify any appointment within the next week, and preferred doctor.

The receptionists are not great where I attend, but using email I don’t usually have to talk to them much. 🙂

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119790782#Comment_119790782

I would agree they must have a basic triage system as agreed with their employing doctors. New onset chest pain of a nature never felt before, especially in over 30s would be an indication to direct patient to A&E, coughing some blood with a bit of fever but without shortness of breath would be indicative of the need for urgent consultation (by phone if needed) within next several hours by doctor. A breast lump, though not ideally, could wait a day or two, a consultation for arthritis referral could usually wait a week or two. Receptionists would have been given a certain basic amount of training in triage, and some would get pretty good at this.

Ave Sodalis

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119790782#Comment_119790782

Absolutely nobody here is saying working as receptionist (in any field) is an easy job. Not one. I've family who work in health care and an extended family member who worked as a GP receptionist for several years before moving to care work. Not a single person is saying the staff in any way deserve to be abused or should take abuse in any way. That has nothing to do with the topic at hand, which is how much information a receptionist should get vs how much information people should be willing to say to a member of staff who does not have medical training and does not have a registering body.

Flinty997

The word 'easy' isn't in what you quoted.

People don't trust the receptionist's to be professional enough to do their job, or handle anyone's data. Or be an interface between doctors and patients. Fine.

But that's what they do. They are administration.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119790782#Comment_119790782

What a load of rubbish.

But off course you would have more, and actually expect others to have more - empathy for the poor "abused" gatekeepers, than the actual patients they are meant to be facilitating. You know, the ill people who just want to see their doctor without having to go through an interrogation or divest themselves of their privacy or their dignity in order to be deemed worthy of an appointment?

I've worked in difficult public facing roles, and I've taken abuse from the public - but I've witnessed some of these receptionists in action and they are on another level altogether and I'm not surprised many of them get abused. Some of them act like some kind of little gods, and take pleasure in their little power trips, and this was going on long before covid or any crisis of staffing. Doctors seem to have a talent for finding and hiring these people. Gatekeeper #1 in the OP's original post sounds like a nasty piece of work, and definitely one of that type.

Flinty997

There you go the crisis in GPs is a load of rubbish. Guess that sums it up.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119791467#Comment_119791467

No, the rubbish I was referring to, was your opinion.

You like trying to misrepresent what other posters say, don't you Flinty997?

Glad to see other posters have noticed the same.

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119791393#Comment_119791393

Excllent post. It was very very bad in the UK and I still wonder if the GPs ever realised how the reception staff treated the patients... and of course these are patients in a stressful situation often.

Ave Sodalis

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119791326#Comment_119791326

The word 'easy' isn't in what you quoted.

Sorry, is "Absolutely nobody here is saying working as receptionist (in any field) isn't a difficult job" better? Being disingenuous isn't helpful to anyone.

Doctors, nurses, consultants, even vet med staff are held accountable by a governing body. Receptionists are not, so I can see why people may not be happy saying exactly what's wrong with them. It can already be difficult enough for some people to tell a doctor who is sworn to secrecy, in a private room about certain topics, never mind a receptionist who is not under such constraints and may be within earshot of the general public. The OP gave more than enough information for the receptionist to use to make an appointment.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119791467#Comment_119791467

Once again, not what the poster was saying.

The OP gave more than enough information for the receptionist to use to make an appointment.

This, exactly.

Taking this thread back to what it was supposed to be about, the OP rang for an appointment, explained the situation her daughter was in as best she could, asked for a female doctor and explained - when asked - that it was a delicate private matter.

I don't know what more she was expected to say, or why the receptionist kept insisting that she "needed to know" exactly what the private matter was.

The OP hasn't come back to the thread, but I hope at least, she realises not everyone here thinks she was the problem.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119791660#Comment_119791660

I said difficult situation not job. Being disingenuous isn't helpful to anyone.

The OP gave this thread more information (and had to delete it) than the person on the phone. There's a logic disconnect with that, IMO.

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119791660#Comment_119791660

And it really is none of their business what is wrong with the patients who all have a right to see the doctor with no such hindrance.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119791635#Comment_119791635

The instructions they are following are usually coming from the GPs and/or practise manager. It very unlikely the Admin/Reception staff are deciding how to deal with patients on their own. They would have meetings where the procedure to be followed is set down. If in doubt they would consult with the doctor. Where a patient won't deal with the admin staff it will be up to the doctor to deal with them as they see fit. As some have mentioned thats often a call back from the doctor. They would review incidents and situations that arise and revise accordingly.

Depends of course if its a large practise with many doctors. Many GPs are on their own, with just one admin person, who may not even be full time.

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119791606#Comment_119791606

I don’t think Flinty was arguing that anyone should have more empathy for gatekeepers, he was pointing out the lack of any empathy whatsoever in this thread.

I understand exactly where you’re coming from, but gatekeepers aren’t asking standard questions with the intent of depriving anyone of their dignity or privacy in order to deem anyone worthy of an appointment. You’ve decided to characterise their behaviour as such, based upon your own bad experiences and those who you’ve heard of.

I wouldn’t expect anyone in any employment to be accommodating towards someone who is treating them with suspicion, let alone outright contempt.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119791606#Comment_119791606

The bit you quoted says its a service in crisis. If you want to selectively quote I would suggest copy and paste and quote it specifically.

If its sweeping comment. Perhaps make that clearer. I don't have a problem with you disagreeing with me. It's a robust discussion.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119791781#Comment_119791781

My sole interest was the process. The system. How does someone triage a list without enough information. People say the gatekeeper had enough information, what they mean is, if someone says I want to bypass the queue because its urgent, and go straight to the doctor, they should be allowed no questions asked. But there's all sorts of problems with that approach. but people won't hear that.

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119791660#Comment_119791660

The thing I still don’t understand is the receptionist explaining that appointments are only for urgent matters. That doesn’t make any sense, but apart from that, I do understand a receptionist asking for more information if they have immediate concerns about the patient. They’re not making any medical decisions or anything, just trying to gauge the extent of the issue if they’re informed that the issue is one of a particularly sensitive nature and the person sounds stressed and all the rest of it.

That doesn’t seem like they’re being unreasonable to me tbh, I’m well aware of the type of people who are like that. I don’t actually want to know the details, but they’re obviously stressed out or concerned about something, and that in itself is an added issue on top of whatever else is going on with them. Attempting to alleviate that distress IS because of empathy with the person. I’ll freely admit that their intentions are sometimes misinterpreted as being unhelpful depending upon the individual themselves and their circumstances.

And then yes, there are some people who love nothing better than to break people’s balls, but those people are, thankfully, in a very, very tiny minority.

I see it a bit like this. When you arrive at a hospital A&E (unless it’s by ambulance where the paramedics will hand over medical case presentation & treatment notes to triage nurse) the first person you encounter will be the receptionist/admin staff, who will ask you why you have come to the hospital as well as name, address DOB etc data.

If you say eg, you have a persistent pain in the abdomen, they will send you to the waiting area, to be called when triage nurse is ready to make initial assessment. If you were to report you had vomited a worrying amount of blood and were looking pale & clammy, they would summons nurse to assess you quickly. There is are certain criteria which trigger a code red, which even an admin staff is trained to call for expeditious care. Now that bleeding might be coming from somewhere “embarrassing” that you feel a bit uncomfortable reporting to a receptionist, but it’s important to emphasise, eg “I passed what looked to be a very large volume of blood from my bowel, and am feeling very weak”. They need to know this information to know it’s a code red situation.

I’ve even had admin staff approaching me in A&E after being brought in by ambulance and it was during a very embarrassing time as I had total bowel obstruction & was actively vomiting in a particularly unpleasant manner. All staff in any medical setting, from the receptionist to the cleaner, are likely to be dealing with your most intimate moments. There’s no way whatsoever of avoiding it.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119791819#Comment_119791819

I quoted your entire post first, and then posted a clarification based on your response, which was an attempt at misrepresentation, just as this is

Stop with the messing, you know damn well what was meant and are just being tiresome now.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119791897#Comment_119791897

Appointments are only for urgent matters.

In my experience if the appointment book/queue is full. The only appointment slots left are for "urgent" patients. Whatever that practise has decided is urgent. Or it might be all the doctors are off sick, and they are really only providing urgent cover with a temp doctor or no doctor and just referring to other services. Limited services in effect.

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119791870#Comment_119791870

I hate thinking it but some people really do come off as though they want a personalised or tailored personal service from their GP, absent of any recognition that their GP has hundreds of other patients on their books. Of course there’s a system in place to make sure all patients are receiving the same standard of healthcare. Part of that is a standard set of questions, but if a person is only occasionally visiting their GP, it might be off-putting for them. It’s understandable from that person’s point of view, but I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect GPs should change their policies to accommodate the small number of people who are like that who rarely use the GPs services anyway. I dunno, maybe it’s because I have a good relationship with the receptionists in my GPs surgery anyway that I don’t view them as gatekeepers.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119791971#Comment_119791971

It could be argued a bit of "I'll only deal with the manager" vibe. But assuming it isn't. What's being suggested is unworkable (always get the doctor) with resources to hand. It would be likely that some patients will be flagged on the system for priority (or barred) so that someone unfamiliar with the patient has some instructions to follow.

You get the same issues everywhere there is a queuing system. It's not unique to GPs for sure.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119791928#Comment_119791928

This is it, absolutely the same in hospitals be it A&E or outpatients.

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119788797#Comment_119788797

It is called queue- jumping. Inexcusable and selfcentred in the extreme.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119792205#Comment_119792205

For me it's not really about the OP it's about why the system operates as it does.

The mod deleted the OP comments. So I think we should respect that. Let's assume the best of the OP and hope it all works out for them.