Should a gp receptionist ask you your personal business
Yes, because sick people are really just enjoying begging GP receptionists for appointments.
Sounds more like battle with people's own stubbornness to get their own way.
I'm just pointing out its not a barrier for people who can afford it.
You need a filter and the medical secretary/receptionist is currently that filter. The examples people are giving here in no way justify saying its doesn't work.
The reason people are struggling to get in, is because the system is completely overloaded.
Urgent does not always mean "emergency". Urgent to me, would be needing treatment to prevent something turning into an emergency I would need to go to hospital for.
"A stitch in time, saves nine".
I wouldn't even waste my time trying to see my GP in an emergency. Pre-covid, you could call and reasonably expect to be offered a face-to-face appointment within 1-2 days. Post-covid, suddenly, it's minimum one week and a phone consultation at best - and then maybe you'll be offered a face-to-face consultation, which won't be for another week after the phone consultation.
It's not good enough, and it's no use if a patient needs treatment quickly. It's not only the practice I attend either, there have been similar threads with others experiencing the same issues.
I'm actively looking for a new GP, after 40 years with my current practice, as I feel they are putting patients at risk.
A small charge makes people think - even your so called richer people wont want to pay the extra if they're ailment is not urgent. It could help to reduce the amount of patients wanting to see a doctor urgently. I pay €60 per GP visit - I certainly wouldnt want to pay extra if my ailment wasnt urgent. If I really really needed to see a doctor though I would pay it.
What do you propose to rectify the issue. Is it acceptable that a sick person cannot get to see their GP because appointments are clogged up with people with minor issues?
Who said anything about volunteering additional information?
FFS, getting an appointment to see your doctor when you are ill should not come down to a battle of wills between the patient and a receptionist.
General practice is a specialty in and of itself. There's no other type of doctor who will see a 3 month old with a chest infection, start an SSRI for depression, add on extra pain relief to a palliative care regimen and change a contraceptive pill due to poor side effects all before 11am on a Monday.
For better or worse GP receptionist are forced to triage due to the limited number of GPs available to take appointments. Something like 1 in 4 GPs are over 60 with nowhere near enough training places to keep up with demand. Someone has to make a call that gential herpes is more pressing a yearly checkup. Without this information how can you expect someone to attempt a triage and give out the last appointment of the day. Unfortunately it's been thust on people unqualified to do it, but that's the situation we're in. Running a medical system on a first-come-first-serve basis is one of worst set-ups I could possibly think of.
It's also important to remember that dealing with the general public is a nightmare as anyone working in a public facing role will tell you. Working with the sick general public is even worse.
You can see it in this thread, the creep of American snowflake consumer culture into Irish life and especially healthcare. People threating to report others to their regulatory bodies for doing their job as best they can. Putting people's professional registration on the line because you're mammy's special boy or girl and need it all done five minutes ago.
Primary care, especially general practitioners and pharmacists are burning out and leaving or worse not entering primary care at an astonishing rate due to the above. We're staring down the barrel of a crisis becoming worse ever year and have no solutions in place to deal with the root cause.
So in short give a vague idea to the receptionist so they do their best to give you an appropriate appointment. They don't care what's wrong with you and can see your medical record anyway.
A charge. So you want richer people to get priority.
People will all say it's urgent. It's like priority boarding on Ryan Air. It become over used then pointless.
50 yrs ago our population was 2.9 million and our life expectancy was much shorter. https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/IRL/ireland/life-expectancy
But the system can't cope with the demand. That I agree with.
I agree that receptionists shouldnt be allowed to filter patients - Maybe an extra charge for urgent appointments would make sense and turn off people from attending with minor problems. Also I think there should be a charge for medical card holders who want to be seen urgently. Extra charges make people think twice and think if they really need to see a doctor.
Getting an appointment in my GP practice is an absolute nightmare. You cant get to see a doctor if you are sick which is shocking - often the best they can offer is an appointment next week or the week after which isnt good enough when you are sick. They dont even seem to have the capacity to deal with patients who need to be seen urgently. You are advised to go to A & E or out of hours doctor which is clogging up their service and creating other problems. I went to the same practice as a child and there was never a problem getting an appointment - you rang in the morning and you would be seen that day. Our health service right from the bottom up is going backwards. Sick people had better care 50 years ago.
The receptionist if in doubt can refer the decision of urgency to the doc. But if every other call requires that then it's constantly dragging the doc or nurse away from their job.
Can you see the conflict in what you are saying?
You want an emergency appointment, but you don’t want to explain why you should be given priority over others, you blame a GP/Receptionist for unnecessary delay, but you don’t want to give them the information necessary to decide if you need an emergency appointment.
If I were you, I’d let someone else book your appointments.
One of the biggest issues GP's have is no shows for appointments. There also hold open a few slots for genuine emergencies.
Some have a online prescription renewals now also.
Basically they have to drag the information out of you.
Usually because when you argue with them they can suddenly find an earlier appointment and then act like they're doing you a favour by letting you have it.
This is why my GP brought in an online booking for same day Urgent appointments. It runs from 10am-4pm every day & you book online. 1 issue only allowed & 10 min app. That said, it rotates the doctor in the practice so no guarantee of who you're going to see out of the 5 GPs in the practice.
I get the whole argument about receptionists not making medical decisions but I know prior to this system in my GP, if you rang looking for an urgent appointment out of the blue (unfortunately I used to have to get urgent appointments every couple of weeks due to a condition so they knew about that & would schedule without asking), they would ask the reason & consult with the GP requested before scheduling it. It wasn't the receptionist making the decision but the GP. The receptionist was just the one gathering & giving the info to the GP & the patient.
OP I get your frustration & your daughter seems to have been through a huge amount but generally if people ring for an urgent appointment, they're not fussy about what time it is as they need to get in & see the GP. That could have been why they had their heckles raised. When I've rung before for an urgent, I'll always ask for my preferred time but honestly, I'm happy to accept any time if I really need to get in to that GP.
Not sure that you're getting thats there's a staffing crisis with GPs (all staff doctors and nurses) like the housing crisis, and a massive capacity issue. That is why they refer people onwards. It's not a best practise, its desperation last resort measure.
Unless you ring up looking for an urgent last minute out of hours appointment without telling them why (as the OP did) your scenero's are irrelevant.
How would the Receptionist/GP know if the patient is unnecessarily delayed if you won’t tell them why the appointment is necessary?
It isn’t the Receptionist making that call, it is the practice policy on emergency appointments.
My GP had a Dragon receptionist for years who I used to dread when she answered, she was young, probably 30 yrs when she started. The rudest and most unfriendly person I ever met. She was there for 10+ years. She left the practice around 2 years ago, thankfully. I was at a GP appointment there last year. I said to the GP, 'you have a new receptionist' ... she said 'yeah, the other lady left us last year'. I replied 'probably too many receptionist of the year awards' ... the GP looked at me with a naughty smile, and said I wasnt the first to make such a comment. Sounds like no one said anything when Dragon was there (out of fear!), as soon as she left, patients telling the GP's she was a right wagon.
We all bitch about these Dragons at home, but I suspect if we were to make a compliant to the GP practice, they'd male your life hell regarding appointments.
Retired nurses might like that kind of work. The receptionists in my GP surgery are all well over 50.
Or - if there is a question over the urgency of an appointment, pass the call to the practice nurse to make a judgement call - something the OP in this case actually asked for. Most surgeries will have one. Mine has two.
Something can be urgent without being life threatening. I personally have a respiratory condition - I know if I get a chest infection I need treatment quickly, antibiotics "in a week or two" are not of any use to me. Likewise someone with a young child with an ear infection, or an elderly parent they are caring for.
The public are repeatedly asked NOT to go to A&E without trying to see their GP first, so what is someone to do if they feel very ill themselves, or have an ill child / parent / spouse who needs an appointment and are told by a receptionist they can't see their doctor for a week or two? Not good enough.
In the England of most of my life we called them " dragon receptionists.." As if trained to deter visits to the GP.
Getting an appointment was an ordeal and the only way was often to turn up.
And yes, there were consequent emergencies that should and could have been avoided. On more than one occasion when I finally got though to the dr they were horrified that I had not been prioritised. And " call an ambulance" was ordered more than once.
it it has been easier here but that is because I have lived mostly deep rural. You tend to get easier contact with the GP directly and I am on a medical priority now .
Okay, I'm not going to keep arguing the same points with you.
Its not just a "scheduling issue". If they unnecessarily delay giving someone an appointment, it could have very serious consequences for the patient. I've seen that first hand - and reading the google reviews for my GiPs surgery, I'm not the only person who has had a very ill family member end up in hospital because the GP's receptionist decided they didn't need to see the doctor for another week. That should not be their call to make.
You keep emphasising "looking for an appointment for someone else" - so what if the appointment is for someone else? I made medical appointments on behalf of my mother all the time. Doesn't lessen the urgency.
What's has any of that got to do with emergencies or Irish GPs.
But in many countries you can make an appointment to see them that day . Some even do walk ins.
So your definition here is pretty poor.
People should note. A lot of people are referred to A&E because the GP has no capacity. They complain about people doing this but the system is broken and over loaded.
GP isn't an emergency service.
All sorts of people rock up to GPs saying non urgent calls are urgent trying to skip the queue.
There a capacity crisis's like housing going on for years with GPs. They can't cope with demand. They can't retain staff. They can't take on new patients and their queues are massive.
You're not going to get a nurse to work as an receptionist not on the low wages they get paid.
If something is urgent you should be going to A&E not a GP that operates office hours.
The issue with the OP was not urgent, wanted to skip the queue to avoid having to go to A&E because that takes too long. The reason people are sent to A&E and DDoc is for out of hours "urgent" cover. Also where they are at capacity. By insisting on going to a GP and getting a not immediate appointment, it implies it's not urgent.
Also if you ring back later you might get a cancellation that wasn't there earlier.
The number of people who attend A&E for non emergency treatment suggests otherwise, those who are not priority end up having long waits in A&E waiting rooms after being triaged. Patients often think their issues require emergency appointments even though they do not. Given the number of patients registered in each Clinic and the volumes of calls per day, having some protocol for assessing who needs to be given priority is essential.
GPs decide on emergency appointment protocols, Receptionists follow their instruction.
Having deja Vu then I realized you've opened two threads on the same issue.
https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058227077/doctors-surgeries-receptionists#latest
They’re not making any medical decisions though, they’re making scheduling decisions. Confidentiality agreements are part of any standard employment contract and I wouldn’t assume medical receptionist’s contract of employment are any different.
If a person is looking for an urgent appointment for someone else, then it’s not unreasonable in those circumstances for a medical receptionist to ask for a reason. ‘Women troubles’ might cut it with an employer if they need a few days off, but for an appointment in a busy surgery where the GPs will have many patients to see already, and someone wants to make an urgent appointment? Gonna need a little more information, else the person can decide not to provide the information and take the next available appointment, and still have no guarantee of a GP of their preference.
It’s not asked with the intent of meaning to make anyone anxious or embarrassed, it’s asked with the intent of being able to explain to the GP that a person needs an urgent appointment and would it be possible, and what they need the appointment for.
I’m aware that some people are a bit ‘off’ about the idea of having to explain themselves in certain circumstances or the idea of feeling that medical receptionists passing judgement on them, but sometimes it’s necessary, because medical receptionists have to be able to do their job, part of which is managing their GP’s appointments.
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