Bad reception

alTHougH I’m an experienced medical secretary, alarm bells sounded when I read that gP receptionists are being allowed to vet patients first (mail) to cut down on ‘unnecessary’ appointments.

often medical receptionists can be quite bullying and could put patients in danger by their attitude.

more than 30 years ago, I had my first bout of breast cancer. I was a medical secretary at the middlesex Hospital in london and went home to Somerset at weekends.

I’d found a lump in my left breast and rang the surgery to make an appointment that Saturday morning. The woman was very discouraging and I very nearly didn’t go. That would have been a death sentence.

For a woman like me, a medical secretary who rarely visited the gP; why wouldn’t I have been taken more seriously? I was obviously not a malingerer. Yet how close I came to not bothering because of those officious attitudes.

unless you have someone highly trained, probably with a nursing background, don’t let this happen.

my lovely gP when confronted by my saying: ‘It’s probably nothing,’ replied, ‘I’ve heard of these “probably nothings” before!’ and proceeded to take it seriously. No thanks to his receptionists. Marianne sTevens, halls head, australia.