"Reception staff extremely unhelpful"

I have been registered with Lakeside Medical Practice for 11 years and have generally found the doctors and nurses to be thorough and helpful. I am suffering from high blood pressure and the condition has been maintained well, with regular tests and medication reviews.

However, getting an appointment is becoming more and more difficult. With walk-in surgery on certain days of the week no longer available, appointments have to be made on the day. Before contacting the surgery I had been unwell for three days with very high fever and severe abdominal and joint pain. My wife started calling the surgery at 08.02 am, but the option (1) for appointments was not available with the automatic message "your call can not be completed at the moment, please try again later". She tried to get through 7 times between 08.02 and 08.15 without success. After taking our daughter to school she called again and got through to reception at 09.15. The receptionist asked her what the complaint was, and then told her that it looks like I have got a cold and don't really need to be seen as an emergency. My wife then passed the phone over to me and I explained that my symptoms were more severe than what you get with a cold. We would like to question whether a receptionist is qualified to make an assessment of a patient's condition without any prior knowledge of their medical history or looking at their medical records, and refuse an appointment based on their own assessment. I was eventually offered a phone consultation the following day, which did not help. No advice was given on emergency care options, and we had to terminate the call. The receptionist was neither helpful, nor courteous, first asking me to speak louder, and then telling me not to raise my voice. It is a real shame that making a necessary same day appointment has proven to be so stressful. I only attend a GP surgery when it is absolutely essential. On this occasion I was denied an appointment on 14.01.19