Jel is absolutely right. The punters happily try and play the GP off against the A&E staff and we wrongly end up
seething at each other. I find it very useful to tell the patient that the GP surgery should be open and I'll just ring up to
see why the person couldn't be fitted in. Of course it rapidly transpires that they didn't go to the GP, "as he'd only have
sent me here anyway","/My/ GP's on holiday" (so?), or, "I thought I should have an X-ray"(Oh, did ye noo?) and the
practice have said on every occasion, "send x up and we'll see them."
Whatever we do we must NOT let belief in a punter's comments sour our relationships.
With the boot on the other foot, I had a GP ring me up angry that the patient had attended his surgery, "having been sent
by the triage nurse" to obtain an X-ray form for a hand injury as it had been indicated to him that he would get seen
quicker if he arrived with an X-ray form. In fact she had said, "you could always...if you don't want to wait..." and he had
taken her at her word! The sting in the tail was that he did indeed get seen and out of A&E quicker than if he had
waited....
Best wishes,
Rowley Cottingham
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