"GP feedback - reception staff"

This complaint is not related to the medical staff at the centre but the extremely poor service at reception. I understand that working as front-line staff in a walk-in centre has it's challenges but after visiting this centre 3 times with family members in emergencies and having observed how other patients are treated whilst having waited a combined total of about 6 hours through the 3 visits I must say I am truly astounded that such public humiliation of patients is permitted.

The service staff at the reception desk are impatient, brusque, unhelpful, rude and seem to do their best to dissuade patients from making an appointment. Information that is provided is often incorrect or incomplete. I have caught one receptionist twice giving incorrect information. When patients approach the desk, they are asked to fill in a form with their details and their ailments. They are then publicly asked what is wrong with them and even to physically show the receptionists the problem. One family member I came with contracted an infection. They needed an emergency prescription to prevent the infection from spreading and getting worse. They entered this information on the form and how the information was contracted - this could have been read easily. The receptionist then asked what the ailment was, even though it was clearly written on the form. The information then had to be related verbally to the receptionist within earshot of all the other reception staff and patients. The receptionist then asked 'Where is the infection?' very loudly and with no discretion. The reply was 'On my scalp.'

I wonder what would have happened if the infection had been somewhere more intimate. Another patient came in with a badly sprained ankle and was also asked to 'show' the receptionist the ankle. Basically, one is given the impression that one might as well strip naked in front of the reception staff and everyone present and show everything in graphic detail. An older gentleman who approached the desk and quite obviously had severe breathing problems was spoken to rudely, harassed in the same manner and asked to relate his health problems in public. He got very upset at which the receptionist said they would no longer speak to him but get the information they needed from his wife. Yet another patient protested against being asked for this kind of information - All of this in one visit and it's the same every time. The reception staff are not trained doctors or nurses - they are admin staff and are not qualified to assess the condition of patients and to decide who needs to be seen first. Causing people distress by asking them to divulge very private health or medical information in public is a breach of the data protection act.