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Inefficient reception staff

Story from nhs.uk

"Inefficient reception staff"

About: The Lindley Group Pract.

I suffer from a severe back/spinal injury and had to attend HRI A&E twice in 3 days, the second time by ambulance. the service at A&E was second to none. I required an urgent appointment with the doctor to be referred immediatley back to the consultant neurosurgeon. The receptionist told me there was no emergency/urgent appointments and no doctors available to see me. I tried telephoning the day after to be told that I would have to go the the drop in appointments clinic the day after. After waiting 45 minutes I saw a very good doctor, who on reading the letters from A&E explained they would look in to why I was refused an urgent appointment. I repeatedley telephoned the neurosurgeon's receptionist at Salford hospital only to be told that the urgent referrel had not been received. On telephoning the doctors surgery again, 6 days after eventually seeing a GP, I was told the referrel was dictated on the day I saw the GP but the receptionist did not know when it was typed up and sent through the post 1st class. The Salford hospital gave me a fax number so the referel would be received immediatley, which I had to give to the receptionist. I, as general public should not have to provide fax numbers for emergencies.

The GP's are excellent once you get an appointment but the reception staff really need more training and learn to prioritise urgent appointments, they seem very inefficient and have in their incompitance not set the wheels in motion for my specialist treatments.

In this day of technology 1st class post is not a very good way of sending urgent matters and this really needs addressing

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Responses

Response from The Lindley Group Pract. 7 years ago
The Lindley Group Pract.

Submitted on 09/02/2017 at 11:56
Published on nhs.uk on 11/12/2017 at 17:19

Good Morning,

Having reviewed your medical record and on speaking to staff/Doctors, I would like to make the following comments:

1. You attended A&E on 28.1.2017 and 31.1.2017

2.

On 31.1.2017 it is noted that you brought a hospital letter to surgery complaining that you had contacted us that morning for an appointment but was advised we had no routine appointments or urgent appointment left.

The receptionist checked with all the staff working that morning and nobody can recall a person phoning to ask for an urgent appointment for back pain.

Also at the time you came into surgery, the surgeries had finished for that morning but there were some urgent appointments left that afternoon with the on call Doctor.

We are not an emergency service and cannot see patients ad hoc who come outside surgery hours.

You were advised to come to the Open Access surgery the following day.

3.

You attended Open Access on 1.2.2017 and the GP agreed to contact the Neurosurgeon in Salford who you are already under, to expedite your appointment.

4.

The letter was dicated, typed and posted the same day, I am sorry you feel the receptionist did not relay this to you, however, their job is not of a secretarial role and perhaps the medical secretaries were not available.

5.

You claim you had spoken to the Neurosurgeon receptionist to be advised the referral had not arrived, this is not to say that the letter was in their system somewhere.

Hospitals are very large organisations.

6.

Having spoken to the Neurosurgeons receptionist, you obtained a fax number.

Faxing of patient information is not a secure/safe method of sending patient information and the majority of hospital departments are now removing their fax machines.

7.

I feel your comments about the inefficiencies of the receptionist are unfair, they work tremendously hard under the increasing pressures/expectations of NHS and are in front line firing line.

You could have seen a Doctor on 31.1.2017 in an urgent appointment that afternoon.

The letter was dictated and sent in a timely manner and hopefully your appointment has now been expedited.

Thank you.

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