GP surgeries

I think you really need to put your foot down with the receptionist, ring back and say your Dr wants to see you and you want a face to face appointment. Take no nonsense.

There is a long thread about this on MN. People in despair, rude unqualified receptionists insisting upon knowing your symptoms, shouting details for all to hear. I am glad you are being seen Paddyanne, but it really shouldn't be this way. Precovid I had some surreal conversations with the receptionists at my late Mother's surgery; no I couldn't make an appointment for her, yes, she would have to start phoning at 8am to get an appointment. My mother had alzheimer's and and frankly anyone who doesn't have the intelligence and sensitivity to deal with this situation has no place in a surgery. Sorry, but I feel very strongly about this

It does seem to be very variable. Our GP website has a form to fill in explaining your problem/ concern. A GP usually calls within an couple of hours.. obv. depending on what time the form was submitted. That might lead to a f2f appt. Calling at 8 a.m. to get an appointment does mean waiting in line after listening to various messages but I have always had an appointment, either f2f same day or a phone appointment ..then if needed f2f. I have no complaints. But I have friends in different towns who have real difficulty accessing GP services waiting up to 3 weeks for an appointment .

Glad you got seen Paddyann.

I didn't mean , I meant !

Oh well at least you saw a doctor. Three weeks isn't very long to wait for a hospital appointment these days
Good luck.

Aveline they only do on the day appointments ,so if you try to get through at 8'30 and you're in a queue chances are any appointments have gone.As happened to me twice last week.Shame the receptionist didn't mention I couldn't get a face to face appointment then when I told her I was to see the GP .she didn'tmention it ,anyway the GP called and I saw her late ths afternoon and she has refered me to the gyn clinic for investigations.Might take 3 weeks though,lets hope its not serious !!

That receptionist sounds like "a piece of work", pa. Here's hoping you get seen asap.

I thought that GPs gave appointments out if they thought you needed seen. That's what happened to me: telephone appointment, GP checked appt diary and gave me the time to turn up which I duly did.
Next phone appt ask her to do this?

You need to complain to the practice manager. The receptionist is out of order. She cannot possibly know whether a face to face appointment is needed or not.

I rang today and told the receptionist I would just like to speak to my doctor about it and she was fine and I have got an appointment with him on April 6 which I don’t think it’s too bad

Your GP should have written in your notes that she advised a F2F appointment - ask the receptionist to check that. Or if you speak to the GP, ask her to make the appointment for you, there and then. That’s what my GP did - they can access the booking system, I’d have thought.

Also, tell the GP the receptionist is being obstructive.

Infuriating paddyann, it seems the insistence we treat staff with respect and dignity can be a 1 way issue

Oh yes Baggs ,I told her .Then I got a long spiel about how its not like the old days when patients were sat in the waiting room in long queues.That times have changed etc etc etc.
I did tell her that even in the OLD DAYS ,we weren't waiting in room in queues, the appointments were made, we turned up were seen and left .Vile woman then said Do you STILL want an appointment ?
I said of course I do, I need this seen ,she said doctor will call you and hung up .
I was fuming ,still not calmed down .

Fortunately we haven’t needed to see a GP and our couple of telephone appointments went well.

Last week though we were sent details of a computerised system via a third party operator that is now in place in our surgery.

No telephone calls, log in online and then it asks you the questions that the receptionist would ask you, I imagine it will then decide what it does with you, either an appointment or a telephone one, if you log in too late to get an appointment, then you have to start again the next day or ring the NHS number. Not sure how it will work though.

Whatever , I already don’t like it and I assume if I am ill, I will like it even less.

Paddyann54, sorry for my long rant. I hope you get seen soon and treatment started

The pressure on General Practice seems to be overwhelming the service. Paddy of course you should be seen, the receptionist sounds like the dragon type who see their job as putting patients in the wrong.

Our outstanding practice operates a policy where for emergency, you phone the receptionist who arranged for the doctor to call, usually within the hour. For routine, you complete a form which is triaged by the doctors. My last form resulted in an appointment with my doctor of choice. She was thorough, friendly and said how good it was to see me after 2 years. When I asked how she was, she talked about the doctors disliking the new system as much as patients do. She agreed with me that it’s causing stress all round. She looked exhausted.

I read that GP’s are seeing three times the number of patients than their union considers safe. They’re fearful of missing or misdiagnosing. I had to use the 111 service at the weekend. Started to phone at 12 noon. Call answered at 1.40pm. Spoke to two brusk operatives, both took me through a long questionnaire, many questions in no way related to my problem. At 5pm I was called by a local nurse practitioner. She said I’m phoning about this head ache, do you really need to be seen? I breathed deeply and explained what was happening. She immediately agreed I should be seen urgently. The appointment was for 6.30 , I was seen at 7.45pm. The good news was the doctor was from my surgery, knew me, was very thorough, kind and prescribed immediately. He advised me to call the surgery if not beginning to improve in 48 hours.
The system is overwhelmed. No wonder people arrive at A and E in desperation

Our Doctors surgery and really changed since Covid, impossible to see a Doctor. I had to have some blood tests a couple of weeks ago and last week the receptionist rang up to discuss my results, initially I thought I was talking to the practice Nurse, she wanted to give me advise about my elevated creatinine levels. She talked about having a glass of water every hour, no alcohol and keep testing my blood pressure. When I asked her to explain about my creatinine levels she said oh I am not medically trained and if I want to know more she recommended a NHS site for kidney disease. I was horrified realising she was the receptionist. I complained but got nowhere and made to feel as though I was unreasonable!!

Complain to practice manager.

I've only read the OP.

Did you tell the receptionist that the GP told you to make an appointment to see her, paddyann? If so then the receptionist was definitely out of order, but in general I think they are given training to try and reduce unnecessary appointments.

I hope you get to see the GP very soon.

If a doctor says she wants to see me and then the recpetionist started grilling me I would just tell her that the doctor had said she wanted to see me and it was not the recpetionist's job to double check the doctor.

The receptionist at my surgery are all lovely and if it’s something I don’t want to discuss with them I just say I’d rather talk to Doctor about it and they are absolutely fine with that..

I went to our surgery last week the first time for over two years I was sent text to get blood tests. The surgery was empty and just the one receptionist who has worked there for years was on duty. I asked about seeing a Doctor I was told I had to ring in. I got home rang the surgery to get a long message about COVID and times when to ring in for consultation. I was ringing at the wrong time of course so I waited until the following day.
I rang up again to get the same message then the recorded message ended. I said hello? the receptionist who had told me to ring up then answered the phone. I was promptly told appointments are not made. I will be get a phone call in a fortnights time.
No wonder the accident and emergency departments are packed getting to see a Doctor is near impossible. People are obviously panicking about symptoms they have and don’t want to wait for phone consultations.

The GP who phones should be able to book you in to see her. Ask for that. In our practice it is the GP's that make the appointments not the reception staff. It is a total waste of time and causes unnecessary suffering as sometimes you want the privacy of making an appointment without being overheard by anyone else in your house.

You are not ! How on earth can they diagnose over the phone ? You need to be seen. Hope you get a face to face appointment soon..