"Unhelpful receptionists"

I’d like to start by saying the clinicians are great, once you get past the receptionist gate keepers! They don’t want to help you at all, I rang once for an emergency appointment late in the day and was challenged with “well if it’s such an emergency why didn’t you ring earlier?”. Also, I lost my anti depressants (my own fault) so rang and let them know and to see if I could get some more, the receptionist informed me I’d need a crime reference number from the police before she could do anything! No crime had been committed, so they’re encouraging wasting police time & having a crime reference number on my record, which would make me look like a criminal when I am certainly not one, so I can get the one thing that stops me wanting to kill myself. I understand there are rules and procedures with certain medications, but the receptionists seem to have numbed themselves to the fact that the patients are people who are in need of medical care, they seem to treat us more like an inconvenience. Things shouldn’t be so black and white, if I were ordering multiple rounds of various anti psychotic drugs then yes take some precautions, but that made me feel like misplacing my tablets indicated I was a criminal, it really upset me to be honest. I did get the medication in the end, but the initial unwillingness to help and immediate jump to getting a crime reference number was quite baffling and upsetting that the receptionist clearly didn’t believe that I could’ve possibly just lost them. I will say one particular lady is very good, she’ll do all she can to help and seems to really care which is lovely of her. I think some customer service training could be needed with the receptionists, just to be a bit nicer to those in need. Most people don’t like being at the doctors, it can be an anxiety inducing time for lots of people, and the receptionists could really do a lot to make that experience better.