Own pressures to deal with...

Gone are the days you’d be at the reception dealing with patients one to one. Now there’s people queuing to speak to you.”

But Nicola said many situations can be quickly defused with a friendly, understanding manner.

“A smile can disarm a person,” she added. “If you are sympathetic it can make such a difference.

“The best part of the job is being able to help people and for them to say ‘thank you,’ knowing that you have made a difference.

“We do get a lot of compliments and our team are brilliant.”

Susanne Davies worked as a receptionist in Swansea for 16 years before becoming the reception manager at Tynycoed Surgery in Sarn, Bridgend, 12 months ago.

It’s her job to oversee the receptionists at the Merfield Close practice, which has more than 10,000 patients on its books.

“You get some patients who are really understanding and sensible – but there are others who simply don’t understand the situation we’re facing,” explains Susanne, 51, a mother of two from Caerphilly.

“Some patients feel their issue is more important than anyone else’s and that it’s their right to be seen straight away.

“You can encounter some quite unpleasant people.

“I’ve had new employees in tears because they’re not used to being spoken to like that.”

On a typical day the Sarn practice’s phone rings constantly between 8am and 9am, while more than 20 people queue outside, hoping to be seen first.

As well as booking in appointments, reception staff are also tasked with “screening” patients to ensure the GP is the most suitable health professional to see them.

In some cases, patients are referred to a nurse practitioner, physiothera- pist or other NHS expert in primary care instead. Rather than being paid by their respective health boards, receptionists are given their wages by the practice itself as they are run independently.

While Susanne says she has a great working relationship with the partners at the practice, she feels receptionists are “poorly paid” for the amount of responsibility they are given.

“The patients can often be really aggressive with us, but then go to the doctor and be nice as pie, so it can be really frustrating for us.”

She admitted that while receptionists can come across as abrupt, the public needs to understand the pressures they are under. As much as we’d like to sit and chat about their illnesses, we haven’t got time to do it.

“You have to get on to the next patient as quickly as possible as everybody needs to be spoken to.

“A lot of the staff know the patients anyway, so that builds a nice relationship. We are not trying to be obstructive, we are just doing our jobs.”