Qualified receptionists!

[Yellowbluebell]

I will take this further as this isn’t the first time our doctors Pitt bulls have refused to either arrange urgent appts or have not passed on test results to gp. My daughter ended up with a kidney infection because the receptionist decided my daughter(26) couldn’t possibly know she had a urine infection and even if she had it wasn’t urgent enough for a same day appt!

As for doctors 55 comment he admitted it was more common than publicised but still felt he should refer me just in case it isn’t pmr. At least he isn’t just going with his first thoughts no matter what, although he is quite sure he has diagnosed correctly.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

It wasn't the receptionist who I had problems with - it was the senior partner who had decided I'd played the system for OH to get past his gateway of incompetence and took it out on me and our daughter. As it happened it had been OH's colleagues - and they saved his life. When the GP refused to do things I just mentioned it on the ward and they changed what they sent out and the GP had to comply. He didn't like it at all.

I voted with my feet and the new GP was amazing - even called to see how OH was long before he agreed to change to his practice. He had this misguided sense of loyalty - which could have killed him.

All the best in your quest...

[PMRCanada]

I was diagnosed with PMR at age 55 as well by my gp. He sent me to a rheumy "just in case" it was something else. Waste of time, the rheumy, over 3 appointments continued to suspect I had something else (in part due to my young age which said was "atypical"), and talked about retrieving fluid from my knee to examine it, but she never did (nor did she instruct my surgeon to do so as she said she would). My two RA tests came back negative, and despite 3 physical exams, she could not (did not) find anything to confirm I had something other than PMR. All of this just caused me unnecessary stress as I was doing my best to deal with my initial diagnosis.

I'm sure my gp got it right with my PMR diagnosis, and I've since given my rheumy the boot.

Good luck with the receptionists. I was an administrator and later a social worker for years and there were certain codes of conduct that were adhered to. Should personal client information ever be shared with others (unless it was in the course of supervision with existing staff), it was grounds for dismissal. I trained many admin staff to not discuss such details while in the public, open reception area.

Medical receptionists are dealing with vital medical information therefore their conduct has the potential to do real harm health wise. Glad to hear you are following up accordingly. Doing so will likely save negative experiences for other patients. Good for you!

[Yellowbluebell in reply to PMRCanada]

I worked for the nhs for nearly 20 years and if any of my staff had acted like this they were out of a job. As a non medical department (complaints and litigation) we were always having to deal with staff who completely ignored the rules believing they were supposedly helping our harassed doctors. On more than one occasion I have ended up in the coroners court with staff accused of all sorts of things that had led to a patients death!!

I really don’t like doctors receptionists and usually have a lot to say to them but I can only assume being ill just made me want to ignore them!! It should settle down now and we will see what the Rheumy has to say. If I think they are wrong I will definitely say so. Thanks for your support.