1 Mar 2012

The Evil Receptionist

I was a GP receptionist for eight long years. Even when I was doing mainly other admin work, the only time I was rota'd off reception completely was when I was heavily pregnant.

Receptionists: the most hated group of staff in primary care. We can do no right for doing wrong.
It's our fault there's no appointments, that the doctor is sick or on holiday, that the doctor is booked up for three weeks, and won't do home visits and doesn't want to phone you. It's our fault our available appointments only go four weeks ahead. It's our fault that all emergency appointments are gone at 8:35am. It's our fault that the doctor hasn't put your medication through, our fault that your hospital letter hasn't arrived yet and our fault that the hospital has delayed your referral. It's our fault that you don't like the locum, our fault you were misdiagnosed last time, our fault the new nurse is a bit brusque. And how dare we ask for personal information over the phone? We're not clinicians, we don't need to know, we're just being nosy. We're miserable, we're sour and we're grumpy. We think we're doctors, we're all power-mad, and we think you're scum.
These are all fairly standard complaints and voiced opinions, every day. People are oddly fine with telling receptionists how objectionable and loathsome they are.

It is some people's view that receptionists hate sick people and want to block their access to GPs every step of the way. It is their view that since all receptionists do is answer the phone (ha, I wish), they should bloody well be able to give out a million appointments a day.
And why does a receptionist need to know what's wrong with a patient anyway?

Well, mainly because we're minions of GPs. GPs vary in their working relationships between lovely, bending-over-backwards to help to absolute dictatorship. I've worked for both and all shades of grey in between. GPs, generally, own (at least partially) their surgery and are a receptionist's direct employer. They take all liability for our actions, and we do as we're bloody well told. If we don't, it's our job.

So, when the GP bellows 'no more phone calls', we receptionists must obey. When they tell us to find out as much information as we can before listing a callback, we have to do so. When the GP tells us to cancel an appointment, we have to do so.

And then, when the patient (who feels blocked, ill and frustrated) finally sees or speaks to the GP, the GP is lovely and accommodating.

So, again, receptionists get the blame. For we actually run the practice, and are in no way at the bottom of the ladder, trying to operate between a rock and a hard place.

I used to hate being on the desk when the surgery first opened and the mad rush for appointments began, because they'd all be gone in five minutes and then the incredulity in patient's voices on receiving this information would turn to contempt. And when we have to face anything up to ten hours being bellowed at by disgruntled patients, we get a bit grumpy.
You can say what you like to us, and it may get you struck off our patient list, but we aren't allowed to retaliate. Can you imagine any other sector where you might get a 6ft tall man bending over you (as you're sat down), threatening in demeanour, yelling for an appointment that you can't give them? Can you imagine being forced to stay calm and polite in that situation, when what you want to do is run away? Patients can be remarkably persistent if they take a shine to you. I was followed around by an amorous patient for some months at one point, and it's not unusual. Again, our only recourse is to ask for a troublesome patient to be removed from our list.

And our job may have no clinical responsibility, but we still get faced with life or death situations on a frequent basis. I've had patients come and bleed all over 'my' waiting room, collapse at reception, give birth in the treatment room and other dramas. And that's with plenty of clinical staff on hand to help.
A phone call can come at any time, where the patient is having a suspected stroke or, more often, a heart attack. Elderly patients are, if you'll pardon the language, a bugger for this. They're on their own, with chest pain, and they are too terrified to ring an ambulance. They think they'll go to hospital and not come out. They think it'll be a waste of time and they'll be charged for ringing the ambulance (not true, at all). They think it can wait. So, they ring us and ask for an appointment, underplaying the situation, only telling us they have chest pain after we've offered an appointment in a week or so. And then they refuse to ring an ambulance, so we do it for them. They think if we do it, we can take the blame if it's a waste of time. I've rung ambulances and sent them to patient's homes many times because when a patient dies after ringing us, it's very upsetting.

Being a GP receptionist is a seriously challenging job, considering it's an entry level admin role. And I loved it. I miss it every day, vile patients aside. I miss seeing the same people throughout the week, miss the banter, miss seeing people have a happy ending.
Be kind to your GP receptionist. They're not just answering the phone and blocking you for no reason. If they hated people as much as it's generally surmised, they wouldn't be doing the job!

No comments:

Post a Comment