Health Centre Receptionists

[weeneldo]

Health centre receptionists - on the whole, you are great. You help me fix difficult problems, you squeeze a moment in for the doctor to speak to me, you reprint scripts and fax them. You keep the surgery running in many ways and without you, the health service would be impossible. I take my hat off to you.

However, you need to answer me this question. Is it a legal requirement that every surgery must have one receptionist who deliberately makes things much more difficult than they need to be, who is short with you over the phone, who makes up rules that don't apply with anyone else and treats you like you're a waste of everyone's time? It seems every surgery has a load of great receptionists, then just one who acts as a human shield to things getting done. The person:

- Who makes the doctor sigh when you mention their name.
- Who makes you hang up and try again til you get someone else.
- Who demands that your 90 year old, bedridden, dosette box patient of 20 years must for some reason now personally request their medication from the surgery for the first time ever.
- Who tells you that no, they wont fax a prescription because its their policy, despite the surgery faxing scripts to you several times a day.
- Who will make you explain literally everything to them in detail before still refusing to put you through to the doctor, the receptionist instead making a stab at the solution on their own.
- Who tells you that, in order for them to send you a replacement for the script that they made a mess of, the patient must hand in a stamped, addressed envelope to the practice.
- Who will speak to you like you just asked them to go back to school, study for the relevant qualifications, go to uni and do 5 years of medical school, do the appropriate foundation and registrar years, qualify as a GP, wait for an opening at the surgery to come up, apply for it and successfully get the job and personally change a script for you, rather than just pass it on to the doctor in the next room to get done.

All to often us folk that phone a surgery up for assistance, whether we are Health Care Professionals, carers, relatives or patients, forget the many helpful receptionists and only remember the evil one. If we can eradicate evil receptionists, maybe we can all stop angrily pressing the "end call" button and swearing to ourselves.

[hibernia]

If health centre receptionists have a forum I'm sure they often complain about all the ill-mannered, bad-tempered pharmacists out there who think they know more than the docotor and think receptionists have nothing better to do than answer the phone and find repeat prescriptions.
It cuts both ways and although there are some horrors out there nothing will smooth your day more than building up good relationships. A box or chocolates or a tin of biscuits at Christmas can be a very sound investment.

[Pharmanaut]

Old saying - you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar - well applied here.
Usually just be nice to them!
Most of the time I chat to the patient as most oddball combinations have a hospital consultant behind them.

Sending them boxes of treats could be viewed as unethical.

[hibernia]

Sending them boxes of treats could be viewed as unethical.

It could be and I'm not suggesting high value items - just a token of appreciation, even a simple thank you card.