How to get past the receptionist...

Rachylou1981

I am a Medical Secretary and I'm sorry you have been treated this way although to be fair it is not always the secretary's fault that you are still waiting for something to be resolved. The doctors do have busy schedules and they don't always have time to deal with every single message every day and even though the secretary has passed it over, it doesn't mean the recipient is going to deal with it quickly. There is also often delay becaues you need to get a patient's medical records to put with the message so it all makes sense and they know who they are dealing with.

An email is a very good idea, if a patient has ever emailed me (and I give mine out freely and it is on my letterhead) then I would forward to consultant and print out and it is often filed in the medical record. Handwritten letters are dealt with the same.

Hope you get sorted. Obviously every secretary/consultant is different in the way they deal with messages but I know I wouldn't wait longer than 2 days before informing someone of an update even if it was just to say 'sorry, I don't have an answer yet'.

Speaking to specialist nurses is also a good option if they are available in the department you need

victory

Rachylou1981 wrote: »

I am a Medical Secretary and I'm sorry you have been treated this way although to be fair it is not always the secretary's fault that you are still waiting for something to be resolved. The doctors do have busy schedules and they don't always have time to deal with every single message every day and even though the secretary has passed it over, it doesn't mean the recipient is going to deal with it quickly. There is also often delay becaues you need to get a patient's medical records to put with the message so it all makes sense and they know who they are dealing with.

An email is a very good idea, if a patient has ever emailed me (and I give mine out freely and it is on my letterhead) then I would forward to consultant and print out and it is often filed in the medical record. Handwritten letters are dealt with the same.

Hope you get sorted. Obviously every secretary/consultant is different in the way they deal with messages but I know I wouldn't wait longer than 2 days before informing someone of an update even if it was just to say 'sorry, I don't have an answer yet'.

Speaking to specialist nurses is also a good option if they are available in the department you need

No it is not the secretary's fault, her take on it is that she has past the message on and washed her hands of it (fair enough) it is up to the consultant to make the call to me which has not happened, the secretary has done her job.. the secretary has never rang me informing of anything, the secretary sees it that she has past the message on and that is the end of it..

victory

DKLS wrote: »

A good medical secretary or PA, is the gatekeeper to her consultant, and will be well trained at fending off pharma reps so fending off patients comes easy.


You need to get her onside, not trying to get past her.

Past her in the sense of putting me through, allowing me to speak to the consultant, on side- please ,thank you and good morning is just fine:D

lostinrates

cllola wrote: »

This would depend on which hospital they are at wouldnt it? The hospital i work for does not currently have this facility.

Forgive me, but I thought they all did now? (I didn't initially raise this point) but my consultants recently at four different hospitals have all accessed my records on line. (One was a private hospital and it surprised me, but they do NHs work).

Is it planned for them all to?

Rachylou1981

victory wrote: »

No it is not the secretary's fault, her take on it is that she has past the message on and washed her hands of it (fair enough) it is up to the consultant to make the call to me which has not happened, the secretary has done her job.. the secretary has never rang me informing of anything, the secretary sees it that she has past the message on and that is the end of it..

I'm afraid that is something you will need to accept then, she obviously can't help you further. The message is with the consultant and it is up to them to get back to you directly, there is little else she can do now. Hence the option of email, letter, speaking to a nurse in order to get your message content to the consultant. I assume you have just said to call you rather than relayed the message? As if you have relayed the whole message then consultant may not feel a need to acknowledge this or respond back (often the case where information is just passed on).

victory

Rachylou1981 wrote: »

I'm afraid that is something you will need to accept then, she obviously can't help you further. The message is with the consultant and it is up to them to get back to you directly, there is little else she can do now. Hence the option of email, letter, speaking to a nurse in order to get your message content to the consultant. I assume you have just said to call you rather than relayed the message? As if you have relayed the whole message then consultant may not feel a need to acknowledge this or respond back (often the case where information is just passed on).

Sorry having a very dense brain, thick moment here today I really don't understand what you mean? I relayed what the GP said to the secretary who interrupted me on Day 1 and said 'Oh, oh, right right I will pass this on to x and she will call you'(must be not for secretary to give opinions on hence the passing on) not sure now what you mean that the consultant may not feel a need to acknowledge this or repond back?

belfastgirl23

I'm so sorry for calling again and I appreciate that I'm hounding you and there isn't much more you can do about this but I'm really worried about x and the implications for my child's health. Do you have any advice for me on alternative routes to get to talk to the consultant? I really don't want to end up bombarding you with calls but I'm so worried about my child that I don't really have much choice right now.

That way you give her fair warning you're going to torture her and give her a get out route. If there's a possible health implication from your query not being dealt with in a timely way it's worth saying that politely too:

Of course if my child has a seizure (or what consequence is relevant) I will be asking questions about why the consultant didn't have time to call me back over a 5 day period...

And then follow up as you say.

Spendless

I'm reading Racheylou's comment as does the consultant think you are informing him/her of something that he needs to know about but doesn't need to discuss it with you ie he will take that info into account when deciding the next course of action for your son

or

are you asking him to ring you back in order to discuss something with you?


When my Mum got nowhere with consultants, she went back to her GP and they made the phone call - that made a difference.

Rachylou1981

victory wrote: »

Sorry having a very dense brain, thick moment here today I really don't understand what you mean? I relayed what the GP said to the secretary who interrupted me on Day 1 and said 'Oh, oh, right right I will pass this on to x and she will call you'(must be not for secretary to give opinions on hence the passing on) not sure now what you mean that the consultant may not feel a need to acknowledge this or repond back?

I was unsure if you had just said "can I speak to consultant about my son" and have been waiting since or you had said "can I pass on some information to consultant" and then gave it.

Obviously if the secretary told you that you'd receive a phone call back then that is of course her responsibility to get back to you with an update if the consultant doesn't do that and of course she should expect you to follow her up on this if no-one does.

I meant that if the secretary gave the message then they (consultant) may have just left it at that and do not intend acknowledging or getting back to you - something which you need to find out.

I would ring again and said that you have waited X amount of days for a phone call and can she clarify what is happening and why the delay.

DKLS

victory wrote: »

Past her in the sense of putting me through, allowing me to speak to the consultant, on side- please ,thank you and good morning is just fine:D

It would be fine it just doesn't quite work like that, In my day job I have to make appointments with clinicians who are usually at the top of the field and their diaries are notoriously hellish, but I always manage to get an appointment after learning how to work with secretaries and PAs.