"Very rude reception staff left me in tears"

I chose to register at this surgery because of its excellent reviews here, and it may be that the doctors themselves are excellent. However, I was in tears after trying to register because of the rudeness I experienced from the reception staff.

I was pleased with the efficiency of the online pre-registration, and when the form was received at the surgery, they rang to ask me to come in with ID. However, when I found a time to come in before the 6.30 closure, which is not easy because of my job, they denied having the form and made me fill it out at length all over again. Some of the information required on the form I didn’t have to hand (like my NHS number) and so I was told I would have to come back - despite filling all of this in before online! When I pressed about the online form, I was told that the other desk might have it - so I had just wasted my time and theirs repeating information.

I tried calling a family member to ask if they had my NHS number to hand, and the alphanumeric code they supplied was not correct. When I asked the receptionist how they knew it wasn’t correct, I was told ‘because I work for the NHS’ - patently not what was being asked and a very rude response. I was told multiple times, in a patronising manner, that this was my NI number - in fact, it was my NHS number from before the 90s reforms which changed the code from alphanumeric to just numbers. Surely an employee of the NHS should know about that?

Every honest question was treated with a very rude rebuttal and I felt like the process was made as hard for me as possible. I was made to feel bad for taking up their time (despite having tried to make it efficient by only coming once the online form was done, as requested over the phone).

I am aware that medical receptionists have a stressful job and I’ve experienced snappiness at other surgeries, but nothing as bad as this. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be for people with a disability, low literacy or even more antisocial hours of work to navigate the awful mess that PHGH laid out for me to try and register. I have never seen a worse set of forms delivered with less help and support.

I am hopeful that the line manager for these receptionists will read this and remind them that people who sign up for GP services are there because they are in need of help and support, having rescheduled work commitments to be there during working hours. To be treated like this is appalling. Unfortunately the out of hours provision here is the best in the area and so I will probably still register, however I remain horrified by the lack of professionalism of the admin staff.