Doctor receptionists **** me off

Neil79 said:
Nor should people in some form of power or in the health sector talk down to a person in a nasty tone who was originally being polite.
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Two wrongs don't make a right as they say, I would never swear on the phone regardless of who is on the line. I don't understand the people who do and what they expect it to achieve.
 
Thanks all, nice to know there is a more sensible approach

Still fustrating though, being spoken down to never sits well with me :(
 
In my eyes Neil, you were totally out of order and you should be thankful that you can get an appointment so quickly.

Last time I had to get an appointment, I phoned on the Wednesday and the earliest that I could get one was the following Tuesday. There have been times where I've phoned and the earliest day was 8 days after I called. Never once would I be able to get an appointment in a day or two. It's a joke.
 
Ahleckz said:
In my eyes Neil, you were totally out of order and you should be thankful that you can get an appointment so quickly.

Last time I had to get an appointment, I phoned on the Wednesday and the earliest that I could get one was the following Tuesday. There have been times where I've phoned and the earliest day was 8 days after I called. Never once would I be able to get an appointment in a day or two. It's a joke.
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That's a little different though, as those receptionists would look up the available dates and you'd make an appointment.

In Neil's case, they'd expect him to call up EVERY morning at 8.30am to check if there are any spaces during the day, then pull the kids from school on immediate notice.
 
Fourstar said:
I never realised these call on the day requirements were for 100% of appointments. Must be hell at that kind of surgery :(
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Yeah i still can't get my head around this.

Seems utterly insane.

But it does prove that when you try to enforce a new rigid system people will exploit the hell out of the bugs and loop holes, maybe the government should employ some pc gamers to "test" their crazy new systems to see how much they can warp and bend them from their intended aim before they roll them out.
 
Cuchulain said:
I remember calling our Health Centre to get a repeat prescription, snotty lady answered the phone and said "ring the prescriptions line on xxxxx xxxxxx" then put the phone down on me, I rang the prescriptions line and she answered it and said "there's no-one here to take your prescription" and put the phone down again! It's hardly surprising they get swore at.
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LOL!! That is hilarious, if not fully deserving of reprimand from her superiors.
 
4T5 said:
Well I don't swear in front of women or kids or to women or kids either way the woman on the end of the phone does not & should not have to hear your foul mouth.
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How sexist. Why should a woman have special protection from swear words, especially when they are being rude?
 
simulatorman said:
The doctor’s firewall, you just have to hate ’em the horrible little Hitlers.
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That is the best disription I have come across for doctors receptionist.

I changed my doctors to a country practise and never looked back.

Why you have to phone at 8.30am I have no idea, why can't you book an appointment in advance. Hardly customer service is it, imagine if overclockers ran like that or your local taxi service.
 
Yeah we have this at our docs too and its a total pain,even if you come out of the doctors room and he tells you to make an appointment for a week at reception they get all arsey and refuse to do it until you get the doctor to come back out and tell them to make the damn thing.
Worse thing they do at mine though is ask whats wrong with you at the desk with a load of folk behind you, mines not embarrassing but I need to make up the most stupidest condition up so I can say it to her next time she asks, was gonna go along the lines of tiny penis syndrome but knowing my luck I'd come out with it as half the people I know stand behind me.
 
davieg said:
Yeah we have this at our docs too and its a total pain,even if you come out of the doctors room and he tells you to make an appointment for a week at reception they get all arsey and refuse to do it until you get the doctor to come back out and tell them to make the damn thing.
Worse thing they do at mine though is ask whats wrong with you at the desk with a load of folk behind you, mines not embarrassing but I need to make up the most stupidest condition up so I can say it to her next time she asks, was gonna go along the lines of tiny penis syndrome but knowing my luck I'd come out with it as half the people I know stand behind me.
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"I'm undergoing treatment for Hyperprocrastination Syndrome."
 
Pestilence said:
"I'm undergoing treatment for Hyperprocrastination Syndrome."
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"I get rage syndrome when asked personal questions by unqualified people in inappropriately public places". :) :p

Edited because without quotes it looked like I was making a post not a comment lol
 
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The thing is they wouldnt make me a "special" appointment that differs in any way because they knew what was wrong, I'd still end up with the same doctor. It just seems an odd question to ask but its not just me, I know whats wrong with most of the doctors surgery at the moment.
 
Seems to be that any customer service trained person these days is automatically programmed to immediately disengage with the customer the moment a swear word is uttered. Even if the swear word is not too bad (in your opinion). They say 'please do not swear at me' (even though they are giving you rubbish service).

As for indirectly swearing at the receptionist, many years ago on a lunch hour I went to fetch a big load of McDonalds and then parked my car up and started to unload it all and a member of staff in a van stopped and asked me to move my car again because it was in the way. I looked at the space he had and told him he had plenty of room but he was adamant I must move it. I uttered 'ffs' and he reported me to his manager.

I was pulled into a meeting with the head of on-site security who gave me a dressing down (ex military sergeant major corp of commissionaire) and threatened to ban me off site (therefore making me un-employed).

My local GP practice operates the same as yours but with the exception of making appointments for those people who really need them (for ongoing illnesses which need regular checkup's). They also operate a website for people who can book their own appointments but again this is only for patients who have regular checkups for an illness.
 
I have to say that this first come first served thing for making doctors appointments is a pain in the backside. Most of the time I have no urgency for the appointment, so booking something in a day or two (or sometime that week) is generally all I require. But noooo, that's not possible because it might be unfair for someone else; so the answer seems to be 'make it unfair and completely random for everyone' then there's some equality thing.

The last time I went with my ex for her to make an appointment for a repeat prescription of the pill, the receptionist was one of those speak & spell folk (ok not correct terminology - generally I'd not refer to those with a hearing impairment in such a way, but this is a special case)... anyway, this receptionist repeated as follows: "SO YOU WANT TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT FOR A REPEAT PRESCRIPTION OF THE CONTRACEPTIVE PILL WITH DR SO-AND-SO?" loud enough for the entire waiting room to clearly hear. (apparently she did the same to some poor woman trying to arrange a d&c when my ex was waiting to see the doc).
Doctors waiting rooms are always quite sombre and insular places; this individual did not conform to this mood at all. She no longer works there. I wonder if she now has employment as the shouty person on parade grounds?
 
To play devils advocate for a moment...

Can you imagine how rubbish being a doctors receptionist would be? You're on the front line of the NHS. You spend your day dealing with senile pensioners, drunks, snotty little children. You have to spend 8 hours a day in a doctors waiting room, probably catching every cold around.

People blame you for NHS policies totally out of your control, people blame you because there aren't enough doctors in the surgery. You keep records for several different GPS, 1000's of patients..... all 100% confidential and extremely important, so you'd be in massive trouble if you messed anything up.

Any kind of interaction with a doctors surgery is unpleasant. Imagine if you had to be a part of it every single day. Most people would go mad.
 
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