I phoned this morning to see if my daughters prescription was ready they said it was so i thought i'd walk down with the dog (over a 4mile walk there and back). Got there and she said oh the doctors not signed it can you call back later!!
So i said ok well here is a urine sample of Maisie's, She says "why?" i say "because she has an infection" she says " how do you know" I say "because it's strong and smells" she says "ok i'll do a stick test" i say "it won't show up, please send it off to the hospital".
She says "did the doctor request a sample" i say "no but i know my own child and she has an infection"
She says "well ok i'll do a stick sample and if nothing shows will you pop another back in tomorrow and i'll send it off"
Arghhhhh! Little hitler's they are..
You phone up for an appointment and they always ask why, you say it's personal and they ask "well what kind of personal"
roflmao..........Ok rant over. :D

Been there and done it with the Drs receptionists.  Eighteen months ago, after several doctors appointments and tests I called to speak to the doctor (as he requested).  The receptionist asked why I had to speak to him.  I told her it was because I had a test that came back positive saying that I had gallstones.  She told me there was nothing they could do for that and was about to hang up on me when I told her that I still wanted to speak to the doctor as he had asked me to call.  Having now had my gallbladder removed, which has stopped all the problems I had, I know that there is something they can do!

I wish I'd made a formal complaint about her at the time, but I was in so much pain and so distressed about the whole thing that I didn't bother.  It's not the first time I've run into problems with her!

DRs receptionists have a god complex (or the ones at my doctors have) you phone up for an emergeny appointment and they say that will be a week on thursday,the last time they did this I hit the roof so they got me in that day, so I saw the doc and he sent me to the hospital as I was leaving I told the receptionist that it was a good job she fit me in or who knows what would have happened she was very appologetic and I fely very smug and acted like it aswell lol.

Nickie.

I used to live in an area with a really busy practice whose receptionists were just like that, they always used to remind me of the checkout girl character Caroline Ahern used to do.
It also used to take three weeks to make an apointment to see a doctor or you could wait for three hours at their open surgery, but we recently moved to a tiny village, where we can see a doctor anytime we want usually the same day you make an apointment with a receptionist who is lovely!!

Steve

Six months ago you couldn't make an appointment unless it was for a fortnights time, now you can only make same day appointments, if you want one the next day, you have to ring then and hope they haven't all gone.

You cannot now make an appointment now for a fortnights time, "we are not allowed to do that". Patients don't come into it anymore, it is all about making their figures.

Got me on my soapbox on that one, I believe all doctors receptionist must go on a course on how stubbon and awkward they can be to a patient.

Sandra

sandra ours has changed the same way too, you have to phone up on the day or you can only make afternoon appointments 1 week in advance!!
And then when you do phone up on the day it has to be an emergency!!! and the receptionist will have to determine if it is an emergency! lol.
I got married and had to change my name so she says in front of a packed waiting room (always bl**dy is isn't it) are you changing your daughter's too? "erm no" "oh why not" "my husband isn't the father" "oh shame" ?????
The only shame there was on my face!

My Dr told off the receptionist.  Basically what happened is my daughter 2 days old developed a temperature so I made and appointment, easy. Well I admit I arrived 5 minutes late due to the fact I walked (painfull) and getting out with a new born is like a military operation.  Anyway receptionist told me to go away and come back next week.  The Dr heard her,  tore a strip or two off of her. To add insult to injury the Dr passed me the receptionist cup of tea which she had just made and said come on through. How smug was I.

I am lucky as out of four receptionist only one is a dragon ! :D

The rest are lovely people who bend over backwards to help ! One is also one of Flo's friends mothers who when I was unable to get out the house used to drop by after she had finished work with any prescriptions for me :)

You also don't need appointments either in the morning ! :)

Oh i'm not calling them all lol, i think out of the 4 only 2 of them are a bit stuffy.
I have phoned up on the morning for Maisie's prescription after she has run out and they have got it to me by the end of the day instead of the 2day wait.
But the other 2 ohh! Mini doctors!

Im afraid the caring professions do attract the control freaks and receptionists are specialists in domination. Mind you if Doctors were better at organising their work and didnt despise administration we wouldnt have so many Amatuer Quacks.

I work as a practice manager at a gp surgery.  Please don't put down doctors receptionists until you've tried to do the job. Ok there are some that still give us a bad name but the rest of us are trying our best to cope with a shortage of gp's and increasing patient numbers.  The government has imposed the rule about being able to see a dr within 24 hours and most of the gp's I know are against this but we have to comply.  Receptionists are not trying to be nosey when they ask what the problem is but we do have to put patients in with the most appropriate person, which nowadays could be a dr, nurse, phlebotomist or healthcare assistant, we get it in the neck if we book appointments with the wrong person, so please, next time you ring for an appointment, spare a thought for the receptionist, who has probably already been shouted at 20 times that day because there are not enough appointments, which isn't her fault. If you have a genuine bad experience with a receptionist, speak to the practice manager, we do really want to know.

Fair point rose  i think it's just swings and roundabouts what could be deemed as an emergency to a parent may not be seen that way with a receptionist but sometimes when you have been up all night with a burning up child and the receptionist says have you tried calpol it does sometimes try your patience. (Even if calpol is the solution)

I don't envy your job though lol :)

Years ago at our old surgery the receptionist was known as "Hitlers Sister" she had a nasty habit of asking what was wrong with you in a VERY LOUD VOICE so that the whole waiting room could hear

She asked my father once too often and his reply??  "I have an extremely contagious and nasty venereal disease so you'd better get tested too" in an equally loud voice.  It didn't help that the doctors fell about laughing either, but it almost cured her, at least from then on she whispered. :)

My Mum has just retired and was a doctors receptionist. It was THE most stessful job she has ever had in all her working life and she was very glad to leave. I think sometimes we don't realise how stressed out these receptionist are and how many times a day they are shouted at. My mum has been threatened after the surgery has cloased and the doctors have left, she has also been asked for her opinion when she is not qualified.
I am a mother of two children and yes, at my surgery there are some 'mini-hitlers' but sometimes I wonder if they are just like that cause of the stresses of the job?

JB :)

I know there are ppl out there that are hypochondriacs that phone in and demand an appointment for a splinter or because they sneeze, but the receptionists tar all the patients with the same brush (in my surgery), in my old surgery they were great and really helpfull which is surprising because it was a big surgery, this might of been cos they had the no appointment system in the mornings so you got to see a doctor when you wanted and that left the afternoons for routine things like test results and talking to your doctor about serious problems, I wish I could still go to that doctors but 40 miles is a bit far to go lol.

Nickie.

Our doctors surgery has the same system and it seems to work very well, I don't understand why they can't all do this, at least you get to see a doctor when you need to.  Ours will also see you at the end of evening surgery if its really urgent.  I've never understood why anyone should have to wait 2 or 3 weeks to see a doctor, how can anyone plan to be ill that far in advance?? also some things can flare up and be quite dangerous if left without treatment.  I could have died if I'd had to wait that long the last time I was ill

I for one understand what you are saying about the stressses, but when you get refused an appointment as not being urgent or refused a repeat prescription on the grounds that you've had to many, from someone who is not qualified, it does get your goat.

Years ago when my son was about 6 he got ringworm from a neighbours cattle. When I rang for an appointment the receptionist asked me what was wrong. When I said I think he has ringworm she snootily asked me "How do you know, have you actually seen any worms!" I know they have to make sure that the urgent cases get priority but they should have medical training to do that. It could make the difference between life and death.

They do have a hard job to do though, my friend is now a receptionist at our surgery and she was off with stress last year and she's quite a tough nut. It's very stressful seeing babies very ill, dealing with distraut parents, and patients that are grumpy because they're feeling rough and an overloaded system. On the day she returned to work a patient dropped down dead and had to be resusitated.

Kath.

I used to be a medical secretary/receptionist in a busy practice many years ago and ame to hate it.  The doctors would say "don't book any more patients in this morning" the patients would say " I must see a doctor - NOW!" - if we did book them in we got in it in the neck from the doctors and if we didn't the patients got abusive - we could not win.

One particular hate was all the old people (who made up the majority of the practice) who would not come in before a certain time - they could not take the earlier appointments because they did not get up early enough.  tt was not as if most of them had animals that could not be dealt with till after daylight or children or husbands to get off to school or work just that they refused to get up that little bit earlier.

I could go on but won't :D

I have to agree with all the point's given as i do think it is swing's and roundabout's, but i do belive that the hospital's are worse. I have had to have 6 operations in the last 4 years and am still waiting for more but the waiting list is a year long and in the mean time it is down to my poor G.P to try and sort out medication and pain relief. My son has A.D.H.D and for this we are always going back and forth the hospital but it is alway's left to my G.P to write the letter's for the school or continue to do the prescription's needed, but i am lucky in that my doctor trust's my judgement as a mother and most the time i do ask for him to phone me and he will do the script over the phone and i just collect it. I remember one time having to phone the out of hour's doctor's but because my surgery was opening in 5 minutes they said it would be quicker to take our daughter straight to them and ask she is seen immediatly. She was 4 month's old with a temp of 40.5 and had developed rash :-O , you can imagine what we were thinking. Anyway we got to the doctors and the recepsionist refused us as we did not have an appointment, i begged and explained the phone call, told her our suspicions but still she refused and this point my hubbie lost it and said we havent got time to argue we would take her straight to the hospital. Luckily she had a nasty case of measels and had had to stay in for 9 days but made a full recovery, but i did go back and make a formal complaint and the doctor was full of apologies and said the recepsionist had been spoken to. She still works their now but i have no problem and just go about my business as usual, but i do think our G.P's are under a huge amount of pressure and therefore being a recepsionist to them must be hard and i respect them for that and hope one day the goverment wake up and realise that they must do more to help them, Emma.

Kerioak,

I don't know what those OAPs were on but around here they tend to be at the surgery before the receptionist arrives!!  (I think they must camp out the night before :) ) consequently you can arrive at our surgery a 8.45 and find 20 OAPs already there and the surgery doesn't open until 9am!!

Sadly tho for some people this isn't possible.  My mother has to get up at 6 to arrive at 9am as she has rheumatoid arthritis in her hands and other joints and it can take an hour and a half just to get dressed :(

Regards
Dill

I'm sorry dill i know i shouldn't laugh but i think the same applies in this area. I went one day as Maisie had an operation on her back and the wound site was very red and weeping and she was in so much pain , i got talking to an old lady (she was nice) and she was asking about maisie then she says "i'm here because i have wind"?? Honestly!

I do antenatal clinics locally and regularly get women missing their appointments.  The GP's have approx 250 missed appointments each month from patients booking appointments and not turning up.  Think how many people could be seen instead.  The receptionists on the whole are very hard working and try their best to fit patients in.  They are asked to screen patients by the GP's so it really isn't their fault when they ask you why you are going.  As for hospitals, last week on the antenatal ward we had people complaining at being kept waiting but what they didn't know was that 3 women had been admitted with very high risk problems.  They had been prioritised to be seen first due to the severity of their problems.  I know its very frustrating to be kept waiting but there are only so many staff to go around, and we try to do our best.  Many of us do a lot of extra hours to try and help out, so please try to be more understanding.  If you have genuine complaints, it's much better to write to the Chief executives of the trusts rather than complaining to the ward staff.
Lorna