Surgery that won’t let you see a GP till you pass interview with receptionist!
PATIENTS at an under-pressure surgery have been told they cannot see their GP without first being quizzed about their health by a receptionist.
Kennington Health Centre near Oxford wants to deal with people by phone as it struggles with a shortage of family doctors and a growing elderly population.
From Monday its 6,700 patients will be barred from demanding an appointment to see their doctor. Instead they must provide a receptionist with details of what is wrong before a GP will call them back for an assessment.
If the doctor cannot deal with the problem over the phone, they will either order tests and book an appointment for a later date or arrange to see the patient that day. However, critics say the trial scheme will wreck the patient- doctor relationship.
They fear patients will not feel comfortable having possibly intimate conversations with front desk staff and emergencies could be missed.
Last month the Daily Mail revealed how Jasper Allen, two, who was struck down with the worst case of chickenpox his doctors had ever seen, was initially denied a GP appointment by a receptionist who told his mother she was worrying unnecessarily.
The story prompted thousands of comments from readers who have also faced surgery staff they said behaved like ‘despots’.
In Kennington, where the percentage of over-75s is nearly twice the national average, some are angry at the new system.
Michael Wheble, 67, said: ‘It’s a disgrace. They are never going to be able to diagnose what’s wrong with patients over the telephone. Maybe people won’t want to tell the receptionist what’s wrong.
‘It’s going to cause deaths. I’ve never heard of anything like it.’
Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said she was worried about receptionists recording notes on patients’ illnesses.
‘Not only does this mean that patients will have to disclose information they may not wish to, but there are clear opportunities for serious errors or misunderstandings to occur which could result in grave consequences,’ she said. ‘A GP service that reduces the number of direct meetings with patients is not a patientcentric service. By not having a patient in front of you it is easy to miss vital presenting symptoms.’
Joyce Robbins, of campaign group Patient Concern, said the pressure on services from doctors retiring or moving abroad and a growing population meant more GP surgeries were relying on receptionists to take medical notes over the phone.
‘It shouldn’t happen, it is not ideal,’ she said. ‘The situation is really dire at the moment. Nobody would want to see it go this way but if we have not got enough GPs working I don’t really know what they are to do.
‘As a country we have let ourselves get into this position.’
Dr Tim Ballard, vice chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: ‘With waiting times to see a GP at an all-time high, and general practice facing such intense resource pressures, surgeries are looking to innovative methods in order to prioritise those patients most in need.
‘As with any initiative, it will be important to see the results of this pilot and learn from them.’
Kennington Health Centre has four partners and one locum. It has brought in the new system after failing to recruit another doctor despite advertising for four months.
Partner Dr Richard Erin, a GP at the centre for 20 years, said: ‘We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. We’re just trying to do something that may improve access at a time of relative crisis. We’ve got a very difficult practice and not enough doctors.’
Receptionists are highly trained and doctors will try to ring back at requested times rather than patients having to wait by the phone, he said. ‘We’re hoping it might suit us but you never know until you try it.’
He denied patients would be put off telling receptionists about their problems but admitted: ‘They don’t have to give the information to the receptionist if they don’t want to. The only trouble with that is I don’t know what’s wrong with them, and what if it is something urgent.’