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Illness being dismissed by medical practice receptionist

Posted By Freddo1969

"Illness being dismissed by medical practice receptionist"

About: The Langton Medical Group

(as a service user),

Mid December,  I came down with an illness that I assumed was a simple cold. The next day I felt much worse. I live alone and have no one to call for assistance. I have rheumatoid arthritis and take methotrexate and have rituximab infusions which seriously compromise my immune system and it is impressed on me that should I feel something is seriously wrong, I should contact a doctor immediately. 

I didn't feel I needed an ambulance but feeling like I may pass out at any moment, a headache worse than any other before and with a fever I rang my gp emergency service to see if a gp could come out to me. I explained that the day before i had symptoms of a cold but that day I felt much worse and didn't feel I could get to my gp practice. The gp receptionist immediately replied -so you have a cold -and told me no gp could come out to me and a doctor would call me back to advise me with the doctor call back service.  Later, a receptionist called back to tell me no gp's were available to call me back and to call 111 if I feel any worse.

 I felt it was so easily dismissed. I don't think doctors receptionists should be put in a position to diagnose the seriousness of patients conditions.

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Responses

Response from Deirdre Smouna, Practice Manager, The Langton Medical Group 5 years ago
We have made a change
Deirdre Smouna
Practice Manager,
The Langton Medical Group

Submitted on 02/01/2019 at 14:41
Published on Care Opinion at 15:25

Dear Commentator

Thank you for feedback regarding your treatment. I am sorry that you felt dismissed. I can only respond to you in general terms because I do not know your name or the date and time of day, that you telephoned the surgery, so I cannot look at your record or listen to the recording of your call to the surgery, to investigate your feedback. If you would like to contact me to let me know your name and the date and time that you telephoned the Practice I would very much like to investigate what happened that day. I have a window of four weeks during which I can extract recordings of telephone calls made to or from the surgery, and after that we are not able to access the calls, so I would be grateful if you could let me know your name and the time and date of your call as soon as possible.

It would be useful to us to be able to use your anonymised call in staff training to ensure that our reception staff listen for key words that should be passed on to the clinical staff who would have assessed your request for a home visit.

Please be assured that when the receptionist took your request for a home visit it would have been passed to a clinician on our Acute Assessment Same Day Team, who would have made the decision which was then relayed to you by the receptionist. The receptionist did not diagnose the seriousness of your condition. Our learning from your feedback is for reception staff to explain that a clinician has asked them to pass a message to the patient regarding their home visit request, so that it is clear to the patient that a clinical decision has been made and the receptionist is the messenger. This is a change that we have made following consideration of your feedback.

In your comment you mentioned that at the time you felt that you may pass out at any moment. I suggest that if you feel that unwell in the future it would be appropriate to telephone for an ambulance.

Yours sincerely

Deirdre Smouna

Practice Manager

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