I wonder if this could be a thread to share tales of frustrations with surgeries, and mainly getting past the dreaded receptionists.
My surgery has recently gone back to the 'ring for an appointment and hope for the best' system. When you try to make contact (it can take dozens of tries before you get past the engaged tone) on any particular morning they will tell you nothing is available for two weeks, and if you want to see a specific GP then you will have to wait until it snows in the Atacama desert! There is a way around this though, and that is asking for an emergency appointment. Now again you need to ring at 8am, but it can take ages to get through by which time the morning ones have gone and you get told to ring after 1pm. Easier to get through at this time but the receptionist becomes extremely protective of the 5 or so slots open that afternoon. She has to make sure you are worthy of getting emergency treatment normally by asking 'is it really an emergency, can't it wait till the morning?'. So you have to persist and say you need to see a GP. Her next line of defence in her armoury is 'oh, ok but can I ask what the problem is?'. Now this is what gets me. Are receptionists now fully qualified Triage Nurses? What problem in their eyes wouldn't be worthy or an appointment? Who would be held accountable if the patient couldn't communicate their need for seeing a GP coherently enough, got refused then fell seriously ill during the night (or committed suicide) or worse with something that could have been helped with medical care? Do the GPs actually endorse their staff to ask these questions?
Saying that they have never refused me and I am always honest with why I need to see a GP. That turned into a bit of a rant, although overall apart from that it is a decent surgery and I have had no serious problems.
