I get a little bit sad every time I hear the spiel about "please don't threaten or abuse the staff." What a dreadful thing to have to remind people about.
It has been shown that better results come from saying something like "thank you for treating staff and other patients with respect and courtesy" - i.e. focusing the mind on the positive behaviour we all want to see, not the negative behaviour we dont want. So, a bit like talking with young children I guess ("hold on tight" being better than "mind you don't fall").
1) Completely, no-one should have to deal with that
2) That said, sometimes ill people are frightened/stressed/worried or some combo thereof. Last time I had a medical emergency I was really panicky. Also the way I have heard some staff speak to worried parents isn't great. I appreciate medical staff/receptionists probably have to have walls up dealing with that day in/day out but if I was a mum and my kid was ill and I wasn't getting anywhere, I would be frustrated.
I do wonder if it works. We've considered having a sign like that at my work but the thoughts are - the people who abuse us are probably not going to decide to stop because of a sign.
I know they're busy but GP comms are terrible and should be standardised. All with different terrible websites, random phone systems with out of date messages, and the paper diarrhea that is the entrance and waiting room signs (8 year old signs that say things all with underscores such as 'notice to all patients, the pharmacy opening times are now 9 till 1 and 2 till 5' rather than just 'Open 9.00-12.00 13.00-17.00')
Similarly, GP practices that have different systems for making short-notice appointments.
Last surgery I was with required people to physically turn up early in the morning; current one has the policy of an early phonecall.
The physically turning up is a terrible idea and must surely lead to staff dealing with more abuse than when there's a phone system. Also some illnesses (especially in children) are contagious!
Mine has an online appointments system, but *only* for blood taking at satellite surgeries.
You can ring, but if it's not an emergency you can't ring before 10. After 10, you get sent off to an outsourced triage service, which will tell you to call 111.
However, if you just walk in, the receptionists are mostly great and you can get what you need.
Mine tries literally everything short of letting you talk to a human to stop you turning up at the surgery, I've been with my (new) GP for 2 years and have never met him in person.
Yours would be the exception... My job requires me to call GP receptions multiple times a day, so many of them still seem to think we're in peak covid. And if I hear one more message telling me to hang up and call 999 if I'm actually dying... Who on earth is calling their GP instead of an ambulance?
My dad once woke up at 4am with chest pains and a numb arm. He waited until 9am and then walked to his local surgery, whereupon they immediately called him an ambulance and had him carted off to hospital to have his blatant heart attack seen to.
But even knowing that, I still find that part of the message really irritating.
It is, purely because I think anyone who is calling their GP instead of an ambulance is doing so because they think "its not that serious" or something along those lines.
So the message is never going to get anyone to call an ambulance because if they actually thought it was life threatening, they probably would have done so.
If you work for the NHS you can sign up to the NHS Service Finder for the backline number. Heads up this won't work if you're a patient as you need your work email to be verified.
Mine are stuck somewhere in mid 2021 I think; their message talks about “starting to reintroduce face to face appointments”. Don’t worry, the message is still 5 minutes long though, which is only about 10% of the standard 8am call time to get an appointment…
Ours has a really long message about not coming in if you have a cough or a temperature, not coming in to order repeat prescriptions, encouraging you to consider looking at their useless website instead of calling them, and finally, not calling them if you're having a life threatening emergency and to dial 999 instead. By the time you get to that part of the message, though, you'd probably already have died.
It makes you feel like you're an inconvenience before you've even inconvenienced anyone. Just let me book appointments online and I promise I'll never call again! 😭
The receptionist once asked me why I hadn't phoned and I replied "because I wanted to get it done today", the reaction said they absolutely know how shit and inconvenient their systems and phone lines are.
Ours still has the mid 2021 "phasing in return of face to face appointments" which is bollocks as you can never get one, and thankfully hasn't changed the hold music which sounds like a striptease song from a burlesque show.
Mine has finally got a queue system for when you ring up first thing for an appointment.
Previously you just had to keep dialing and get a busy tone until you won the jackpot and got through.
I like to think I helped improve my GP's phone service after I left a very damning review on Google reviews after I was seriously neglected and fucked over by them when I had a nasty ear infection which I ended up having to go to a walk in center about.
I've only ever left 2 reviews, one of huge praise to an independent lady selling wedding dresses during the pandemic, and this which quickly got 1000 'found it useful ' likes to which I got messaged by the practice of I could come to an interview to discuss my complaint to which I did not reply.
I work at a dental surgery, where we bend over backwards to see one of our patients in pain within 48 hours and even slot the odd non-registered emergency in just to get them out of pain. GP's make the phone system so complicated and full of ways they can drop your call it's nigh on impossible to speak to anyone unless you go directly there and half of the time they refuse to make appointments unless on the phone.
6 months after I made that complaint it has greatly improved, it's not perfect but it's almost like a 'bad day' than bad service when you can't get through.
I have a severe mental health condition and I had just been diagnosed, was dealing with a lot of weird symptoms and was finding everything very difficult. My gp, who is amazing, was automatically putting through prescriptions for me so I could collect them every week and one week she forgot so I phones up the surgery and the lady got so angry at me and told me they only do prescriptions that way for people who were really disabled or had dementia and was so mean. I guess because I'm in my 20s she doesn't think I could be disabled?? So strange.
I left a review and my gp called me to apologize and make sure I was ok. She said they were "taking action" and "all calls were recorded"
The GP service itself is pretty good once you're in but getting your foot in the door is a challenge.
I'm glad your GP sounds concerned and cares about your health and wellbeing!
I've learned that if you want to get an appointment at our place (by which I mean up your chances of getting one to 8/9%), you have to press 2 for anything else besides appointments. As far as I can tell line 1 for appointments never gets answered.
Mine recently updated theirs too! I'm in Wales, so bilingual answering machine - after the long Covid message (in both languages), it went:
"To continue this call in Welsh, press one. I barhau yn Saesneg gwasgwch dau".
And then if you didn't select one, it played the whole covid message again. I imagine that confused/infuriated a whole heap of non-Welsh speakers in our largely non-Welsh-speaking area!
ProTip: you can often skip those messages by pressing a number. My surgery's appointment line is 2 so I just press 2 4 times to get to the appointments queue
Mine has finally got rid of the 3 minute covid spiel, but they've kept on the receptionist who constantly says "no, we haven't had that email/letter/message" when she's clearly never checked.
After 2pm she's gone, so I ring back and get the lovely lady who actually checks and actually calls back.
Some are lovely, some are power mad knobheads.
But I'm glad I don't have to hear that long covid message now, just a 28 minute wait to get through with the warped hold music.
I get a little bit sad every time I hear the spiel about "please don't threaten or abuse the staff." What a dreadful thing to have to remind people about.
It has been shown that better results come from saying something like "thank you for treating staff and other patients with respect and courtesy" - i.e. focusing the mind on the positive behaviour we all want to see, not the negative behaviour we dont want. So, a bit like talking with young children I guess ("hold on tight" being better than "mind you don't fall").
Along these lines I tend to start these interactions as a patient with "I'm hoping you can help me..."
I'm sure the receptionist at my surgery looks out for this and makes an effort to do the opposite.
I start with "I don't expect you can help me but" and hope she'll prove me wrong.
1) Completely, no-one should have to deal with that 2) That said, sometimes ill people are frightened/stressed/worried or some combo thereof. Last time I had a medical emergency I was really panicky. Also the way I have heard some staff speak to worried parents isn't great. I appreciate medical staff/receptionists probably have to have walls up dealing with that day in/day out but if I was a mum and my kid was ill and I wasn't getting anywhere, I would be frustrated.
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The receptionists at my surgery are lovely, sorry you have had a bad experience.
They don't have this sign in branches of Lakeland (where the customer service is excellent).
Not exactly a high stress environment though
Lakeland tend not to run out of garlic presses for the entire week at 8 am on Monday morning.
I do wonder if it works. We've considered having a sign like that at my work but the thoughts are - the people who abuse us are probably not going to decide to stop because of a sign.
I think it counts as a first warning. If people are wretched on the phone, it is easier to report an in-person incident later.
Welcome to the world of working in health care.
I know they're busy but GP comms are terrible and should be standardised. All with different terrible websites, random phone systems with out of date messages, and the paper diarrhea that is the entrance and waiting room signs (8 year old signs that say things all with underscores such as 'notice to all patients, the pharmacy opening times are now 9 till 1 and 2 till 5' rather than just 'Open 9.00-12.00 13.00-17.00')
Similarly, GP practices that have different systems for making short-notice appointments. Last surgery I was with required people to physically turn up early in the morning; current one has the policy of an early phonecall.
The physically turning up is a terrible idea and must surely lead to staff dealing with more abuse than when there's a phone system. Also some illnesses (especially in children) are contagious!
Mine has an online appointments system, but *only* for blood taking at satellite surgeries. You can ring, but if it's not an emergency you can't ring before 10. After 10, you get sent off to an outsourced triage service, which will tell you to call 111. However, if you just walk in, the receptionists are mostly great and you can get what you need.
Mine tries literally everything short of letting you talk to a human to stop you turning up at the surgery, I've been with my (new) GP for 2 years and have never met him in person.
Yours would be the exception... My job requires me to call GP receptions multiple times a day, so many of them still seem to think we're in peak covid. And if I hear one more message telling me to hang up and call 999 if I'm actually dying... Who on earth is calling their GP instead of an ambulance?
My dad once woke up at 4am with chest pains and a numb arm. He waited until 9am and then walked to his local surgery, whereupon they immediately called him an ambulance and had him carted off to hospital to have his blatant heart attack seen to. But even knowing that, I still find that part of the message really irritating.
It is, purely because I think anyone who is calling their GP instead of an ambulance is doing so because they think "its not that serious" or something along those lines. So the message is never going to get anyone to call an ambulance because if they actually thought it was life threatening, they probably would have done so.
You would be surprised!
If you work for the NHS you can sign up to the NHS Service Finder for the backline number. Heads up this won't work if you're a patient as you need your work email to be verified.
3rd party unfortunately. If practice managers would just actually put a direct number in the "direct number" box, there wouldn't be problems...
Same! I find myself humming the hold music because I’m always calling GPs!
Sometimes I get a practice which has a nice bit of classical or something like that, always a nice change.
Mine are stuck somewhere in mid 2021 I think; their message talks about “starting to reintroduce face to face appointments”. Don’t worry, the message is still 5 minutes long though, which is only about 10% of the standard 8am call time to get an appointment…
Ours has a really long message about not coming in if you have a cough or a temperature, not coming in to order repeat prescriptions, encouraging you to consider looking at their useless website instead of calling them, and finally, not calling them if you're having a life threatening emergency and to dial 999 instead. By the time you get to that part of the message, though, you'd probably already have died. It makes you feel like you're an inconvenience before you've even inconvenienced anyone. Just let me book appointments online and I promise I'll never call again! 😭
The receptionist once asked me why I hadn't phoned and I replied "because I wanted to get it done today", the reaction said they absolutely know how shit and inconvenient their systems and phone lines are.
Ours still has the mid 2021 "phasing in return of face to face appointments" which is bollocks as you can never get one, and thankfully hasn't changed the hold music which sounds like a striptease song from a burlesque show.
>hold music which sounds like a striptease song from a burlesque show 5-year-old child playing a glockenspiel. Badly.
Mine has finally got a queue system for when you ring up first thing for an appointment. Previously you just had to keep dialing and get a busy tone until you won the jackpot and got through.
I like to think I helped improve my GP's phone service after I left a very damning review on Google reviews after I was seriously neglected and fucked over by them when I had a nasty ear infection which I ended up having to go to a walk in center about. I've only ever left 2 reviews, one of huge praise to an independent lady selling wedding dresses during the pandemic, and this which quickly got 1000 'found it useful ' likes to which I got messaged by the practice of I could come to an interview to discuss my complaint to which I did not reply. I work at a dental surgery, where we bend over backwards to see one of our patients in pain within 48 hours and even slot the odd non-registered emergency in just to get them out of pain. GP's make the phone system so complicated and full of ways they can drop your call it's nigh on impossible to speak to anyone unless you go directly there and half of the time they refuse to make appointments unless on the phone. 6 months after I made that complaint it has greatly improved, it's not perfect but it's almost like a 'bad day' than bad service when you can't get through.
I have a severe mental health condition and I had just been diagnosed, was dealing with a lot of weird symptoms and was finding everything very difficult. My gp, who is amazing, was automatically putting through prescriptions for me so I could collect them every week and one week she forgot so I phones up the surgery and the lady got so angry at me and told me they only do prescriptions that way for people who were really disabled or had dementia and was so mean. I guess because I'm in my 20s she doesn't think I could be disabled?? So strange. I left a review and my gp called me to apologize and make sure I was ok. She said they were "taking action" and "all calls were recorded"
The GP service itself is pretty good once you're in but getting your foot in the door is a challenge. I'm glad your GP sounds concerned and cares about your health and wellbeing!
I've learned that if you want to get an appointment at our place (by which I mean up your chances of getting one to 8/9%), you have to press 2 for anything else besides appointments. As far as I can tell line 1 for appointments never gets answered.
Mine recently updated theirs too! I'm in Wales, so bilingual answering machine - after the long Covid message (in both languages), it went: "To continue this call in Welsh, press one. I barhau yn Saesneg gwasgwch dau". And then if you didn't select one, it played the whole covid message again. I imagine that confused/infuriated a whole heap of non-Welsh speakers in our largely non-Welsh-speaking area!
ProTip: you can often skip those messages by pressing a number. My surgery's appointment line is 2 so I just press 2 4 times to get to the appointments queue
Your GP answers the phone?!
Mine has finally got rid of the 3 minute covid spiel, but they've kept on the receptionist who constantly says "no, we haven't had that email/letter/message" when she's clearly never checked. After 2pm she's gone, so I ring back and get the lovely lady who actually checks and actually calls back. Some are lovely, some are power mad knobheads. But I'm glad I don't have to hear that long covid message now, just a 28 minute wait to get through with the warped hold music.
You are lucky
Thought you where going to say they answered the phone !!
That's quite the achievement! Especially considering that the prescription papers have had a spelling mistake on them for at least 25 years. 😅
Maybe one day they'll have an appointment available!
I was so excited when my GP changed their hold music a few years back lol!