One of the things we hear our patients complain/grumble about is the fact that our receptionists ask our patients what they would like to see the doctor about. The remarks we get on occasion are:
- It's none of their business.
- It's private between the doctor and myself.
- They have no right to ask me that.
- Who does she think she is?
- It helps the doctor when seeing the patient to know what the patient wishes to see them about.
- It allows our receptionists to direct the patient to the best professional to deal with their problem. (for instance certain complaints can be dealt with by the nurse better and other complaints are best dealt with by a specific doctor).
- It allows our receptionists to help patients to make the right kind of appointment (some complaints need more than one appointment as they take longer to deal with).
- It on occasion has helped receptionists to prioritise certain complaints (acute chest pain for instance should be assessed by a doctor as soon as possible rather than be given a routine appointment in a week's time).
- On occasion even a doctor will get ill. The other doctors will then have to share that doctor's work between them (including the already booked appointments for that doctor). Knowing what a patient is coming to see the doctor for, allows us to prioritise which patients definitely need to be seen the same day and which could possibly be rescheduled over the next days or could be dealt with over the phone instead.
You also have the right to state that your problem is a personal problem if you do not wish to divulge any details. It would however be very helpful if in that case you could let the receptionist know if you feel your problem can be dealt with within one appointment or whether you feel a double appointment would be more appropriate. Our standard appointment slots are scheduled for 10 minutes each with a doctor, although certain clinic appointments are scheduled for a longer period of time (15 or 20 minutes).
Please also bear in mind that we have a nurse led 'Minor Illness' clinic on most days. This clinic is appropriate for people with an acute minor illness (cough, cold, earache, sore throat, and some other minor problems). This clinic is run while there is a duty doctor available on the premisis, whose opinion can be asked for if she feels this is needed. She is able to generate a prescription for the minor complaint if this is appropriate and this prescription will then be passed to the duty doctor to be signed. This means that in certain cases it would be possible for you to be seen sooner for your problem than when you would have had to wait for a routine available appointment with a doctor.
I hope this post has been able to clarify why we ask our receptionists to ask what you would like to see the doctor about. She is not being nosy, but just following our instructions to place us in the best possible position to help you. For instance, certain doctors do not deal with specific problems. Would you prefer to see a doctor who is able to deal with your problem, or would you like to first see one doctor to then be referred to another doctor within the practice and attend the surgery twice for the same problem? I know what I would prefer in that situation. Most of our patients have quite busy lives and would like not to have to come back twice if it can be dealt with in one consultation.
