Should patients be vetted by the receptionist before they can see a GP?

A GP’s time is too valuable to spend on trivial complaints so, unlike Dr Max Pemberton, I believe receptionists vetting patients is sensible (Mail). But in my GP surgery, the reception desk is part of a large, open waiting area with seating for 50 patients. All are within earshot of any conversation with the receptionist. That is going to put off a lot of people from using this triage system.

R. HAVENHAND, Nantwich, Cheshire.

AS A GP receptionist, I have seen a monumental shift over the past three years in the way we are instructed to work. Overnight, our job title changed to patient adviser, with little or no training and all for a basic wage. We book routine appointments while urgent, on-the-day appointments are triaged by the on-call GP. Patients are ‘signposted’ elsewhere if appropriate. For example, those with a minor eye condition are advised to consult their optician. Our doctors work flat out from

8am to 6.30pm, but their working day is far longer. Having more GPs would help, but so would patients taking a little responsibility for their own health.

Name and address supplied.

THERE’S nothing new about being screened by an unsympathetic receptionist. This tried-and-tested formula has gone on for years.

KEN THORPE, York. TEN years to qualify as a GP and ten minutes to train a receptionist who thinks they are the doctor. ANNA BROOKS, Tarporley, Cheshire.

IT CAN be a battle to get through the triage system at my GP surgery. You

have to argue to be seen by a doctor, but when I have succeeded in getting an appointment, the waiting room is almost deserted. The sole aim seems to be to prevent patients from attending. GPs earn a handsome salary by working only two or three days a week, but still seem to want to divert patients to overcrowded A&E departments. The Government needs to sort this out in its review of the NHS.

Dr FRANK PALMER, address supplied. I WAS on the phone at 8am when the switchboard opened at my GP surgery. When I heard the automated message ‘You are 39th in the queue’, I hung up.

At other times I have held on for 25 minutes to get through.

B. RICHARD, Cranage, Cheshire.

I WAS up all night coughing, so I phoned the surgery at 8am. I was number four in the queue. A care navigator — the new name for a GP receptionist — answered ten minutes later. I told her I had a chest infection and needed to see a doctor, but she would only give me an appointment with the nurse practitioner. Why do I have to consult a care navigator? What has happened to doctor/patient confidentiality?

M. CHUNG, Great Missenden, Bucks.