GP receptionist

Unsurprisingly, GPs and their staff remember when that happens, next time around it doesn’t work so well.

Again, Receptionists follow GPs protocol on urgency, they don’t diagnose, they don’t treat, they ask the relevant questions as per the GPs instruction. They then pass the info to the GP.

Considering all GPs have receptionists, and they book the appointments, you will struggle to by pass them.

That could be one way of looking at it, the other way is that they don’t suffer fools easily.

TL:DR.

Bottom line, just how much detail do you expect a patient to go into with a receptionist in order to tick enough boxes to satisfy them (a medically unqualified person) that an appointment is needed?

Taking this back to the case of the OP (again, not me) she rang and asked for an appointment (for her daughter - irrelevant) and said it was urgent (she did not say it was an emergency). When asked why, she stated it was a problem of a very private and personal intimate nature and she requested a female GP. That right there, should have been more than enough information for the receptionist to book the appointment on, but she continued to press the OP for more details, and stating she "needed to know".

Her daughter's issue was not the kind of emergency that needed a visit A&E, but I think it was fair to say it was urgent, and not something that could be left unchecked and without treatment for weeks.

From the OP's account, Gatekeeper #1 was snotty and difficult from the get-go.

Now, to cut through all this bullshit back and forth, as far as I am concerned, Gatekeeper #1 was the problem here, and a complaint about her handling of the situation from either the OP, or the OP's daughter, to the GP is absolutely warranted, and I hope they make one.

We don’t have issues, both GP and Dentists lists are closed to new patients as they are at capacity. We have experienced staff who deal with people such as yourself on a daily basis. The reality is that not every patient can get the appointment they want, when they want. So the GPs set protocols to be followed when gaining the information from the patient, which in turn allows them to prioritise people who need to be seen sooner. If you don’t want to tell the Receptionist why you need an urgent appointment, I don’t see how you expect to be given priority over other patients looking for appointments. If you lie, then obviously the GP will become aware of this when you attend, which of course makes them suspicious the next time you call. And they do remember, and attach a note to your file about it.

You think editing posts illustrates some issue?

My staff are very professional.

Out of curiosity, if you are concerned about/object to giving the Reception staff your symptoms, what difference does it make to you if the symptoms you give are truthful or not? You are still informing the Receptions about symptoms.

And you have admitted that you would lie about your symptoms to get an appointment, how low is that? Would it not bother you that you could be taking a priority appointment ahead of someone with a genuine need of an urgent appointment? it really is disgusting.