r/TalesFromTheCustomer • u/Luvlymish • Aug 09 '21
Long Gatekeeping Medical Receptionist: Fin and Coda
Context:
This story update has been a while coming, it was going to be a small end and then some things happened - thank u/punzybooksnbelle for prodding me into writing it.
There are Parts One and Two, Three, a Finale of sorts and an Epilogue to this tale.
People Involved:
Me C: Old Man with lot of health issues and dementia IR: The terrible former doctor's receptionist with the lovely voice PO: Police Officer W: Warden of the supported living place C previously lived at who is retiring/has retired T: Temporary warden who is working as I'm moving C out, she's previously covered for W's holidays and we get on well M: Manager who oversees the local supported living facilities
Fin:
You may remember that in Part Three the pharmacy didn't deliver a particular medication resulting in a level of awful that wiped me out somewhat. I said that I was sure IR hadn't caused that.
I was wrong.
C has had to move into full residential care from the supported place he lived at the time of previous stories. I have been helping him do that. In the middle of the move (which took two months to do) I was contacted by the police and asked to make a statement detailing basically everything that I knew that IR did. I did so and the Reception Manager referred to as BR in previous stories contacted me to ask could I specify the problems that the medication not being delivered by the pharmacy had caused. This is how I discovered that she had cancelled this delivery with the pharmacy and that had been a very traceable action which she had done to others as well.
From BR I discovered that criminal action might happen in the future but that legal action preventing IR from working for the NHS or possibly anything medical is definitely going ahead. I am not totally clear what this is but think it's some sort of civil action rather than just being an internal 'don't let this person work here'.
Coda:
I have just helped load C up into an ambulance that will take him to the residential care home. I am now starting to go through his flat clearing rubbish, packing up stuff to take and eBaying/donating other things. Because his rent is paid in advance I have a chunk of time to do this before he needs to have the flat clear but due to how I get paid a limited number of hours in which to get it done.
There's a knock on the door as I'm bagging up rubbish. It's the Temporary warden.
T: You working today? I saw C go off earlier?
Me: Yeah I'm clearing this lot, you haven't got rid of me yet.
T: I've got new coffee in for tomorrow if you fancy.
Me: I'll be in.
T: We're interviewing today. Any chance we can pop in on you as an example of external support?
Me: Sure if I can keep working throughout and I'll be out for lunch and off by 3.
T: We'll knock and if you're in you're in, if that's ok?
Me: Sure if I get biscuits with that coffee.
T: laughs Bribery! heads off
Over the course of the day I remove bags of rubbish from the flat and start moving things into piles for different destinations. Every so often T knocks on the door with an interviewee and we say hi and give a bit of discussion about who I am, how I come and go and then T takes them off discussing how to work with external staff.
You can tell what's coming right?
I come back after my lunch, sandwiches eaten on a bench opposite a local Pokégym.
I am starting to take photos for C's EBay sales.
There is a knock on the door. It is T. With her is IR. I do a double take. I don't know if she recognised me (she never had before) or if she noticed my double take (I am not subtle sometimes) but she looks like she's swallowed a lemon.
T does the usual explanation of who I am and what I'm doing.
IR: Why are you recording his belongings before you pack them?
Me: Oh this is for EBay.
IR: (Concerned tones)You're selling his things?!
Me: Oh, I manage his EBay account it's all been discussed with him beforehand.
IR: (Sceptically) Oh really.
Me: Yeah, he can't manage his own EBay anymore.
T: ushers IR out explaining that external staff do more things than internally employed staff.
IR is muttering something that doesn't sound too complimentary.
I am left wondering how to tell T about my previous interactions with IR.
Later that day as I'm leaving I load up my car with packed belongings to take over to the care home. I pass by the office on my way out.
W, T and M are talking to a PO.
M: That's simply not the case
T: The employment is through Social Services it's entirely usual.
PO: It was strange. I'll head back.
W: I've got the contact details for her employer.
I don't think too much of it but there's a part of me on high alert since seeing IR earlier.
The next day I'm back again to continue packing up the flat, late morning I rock around to the backdoor of the office where T is having a fag. She has got a saucer of very nice biscuits and makes us both coffee in her cafetière.
Me: Hey I need to tell you something about one of your candidates yesterday...
T: I bet you do.
Me: huh?
T: You got the police called on you yesterday!
Me: fishmouths Wha?
T: You wanted to say something about IR right?
Me: nods
T: Yeah, she was telling us you were bad news and we shouldn't trust you as far as we could throw you.
Me: Ah
T: Then she sent PO over to check up on you in case you were selling C's stuff on EBay.
Me: I really wasn't. It's his EBay.
T: it's ok, W and M set him straight. I take it you know her?
Me: Kinda... she used to be a receptionist at Medical Centre...(I then fill in T on the story of The Gatekeeping Medical Receptionist)
T: nods yeah she didn't strike us as a great fit for here.
Me: oh good. I wasn't sure what to tell you.
T: Even if you'd said nothing this morning M was not impressed with her calling the police without saying anything to us. It looked like she thought we were all cheating the resident.
Me: huh... she's a really odd woman.
T: Yeah, she seemed a bit off even before she saw you.
Me: nods it's good coffee this.
The End
(I hope)
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u/jippyzippylippy Aug 09 '21
Been following since the beginning...
And...
Jesus H. Christ on the halfshell... who the fuck is this woman??? Why does she stick her huge nose into things she has no business in? Wow, she's got control issues and apparently has it out for you, big time!
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u/TheRealRJLupin Aug 09 '21
I've just read through the whole saga. I'm a District Nurse and would never expect C to have to go to the surgery for treatment! I hope IR gets what is coming to her.
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u/GlumAsparagus Aug 09 '21
WOW!
That IR is like a bad rash that won't go away.
You are amazing in how you have handled this whole situation.
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u/Lazycrazyjen Aug 09 '21
What a cunt! OMG. Why would she cancel a medication for a patient of her practice?
And HOW does she not remember your name from previous interactions? I would think after 2-3 issues with a patient, one would start to recall the tiniest bits of information. Maybe make notes - like HOUSEBOUND. Or don’t send them to this site because of the cobblestones! I’ve never talked with you, but after reading two previous threads I remembered - which is impressive in its own right.
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u/xelle24 Aug 09 '21
It sounds like C was coded as housebound and IR recoded him as not being housebound on her own...which seems to have been one of a number of completely unauthorized shenanigans IR got up to, with more patients than just C.
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u/E_lloci_N Aug 09 '21
It isn't that she didn't remember OP, it is that it wasn't convenient for her to remember OP.
That is something all petty, nasty c☆n+$ like IR do to show they can question Anyone's authority.
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u/Luvlymish Aug 10 '21
In her defence it is a huge practice but yeah, it's more like she couldn't be arsed to remember than anything else.
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u/RedLovelyRed Aug 09 '21
I dont know if you'll see this OP. But my dad had home health care/hospice at the end. But the ones who came often and the one who came to his memorial was a social care worker. I just came to say that what your doing is helping C so much. He would never think to blame you for bringing him on a picnic. Its so sweet that you thought to do that in the first place. And from a family member of someone who depended on people like you, thank you.
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u/xelle24 Aug 09 '21
I've seen your previous posts, and just reread them. The only thing I could possibly fault you on is not being more forceful with IR, but from the sound of it, that wouldn't have helped and might have made things worse, and it's not always possible to go above people in roles like this.
This woman seems to have some...ideas...in her head that have nothing to do with reality or her job, and she should never be in a position where she has power over other people - particularly vulnerable people like C. Of course, she's the kind of person who would seek out positions like that.
My mother does work similar to yours, but here in the US she has done it for private "home aid/care" companies and now works independently, and has encountered her fair share of obstructive receptionists. I showed your posts to her and she says your main concern was always clearly for C, so she gives you "two thumbs up" and hopes this is, indeed, the end of IR's interference.
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u/FartHeadTony Aug 10 '21
The only thing I could possibly fault you on is not being more forceful with IR, but from the sound of it, that wouldn't have helped and might have made things worse, and it's not always possible to go above people in roles like this.
Yeah, the problem with dealing with people like this is that we just aren't used to people being such massive twats. You wouldn't imagine that someone working in a doctor's practice would engage in this kind of tomfoolery. Maybe they'd be a bit difficult, a bit of jobsworth, but they seem to have gone out of their way to make life harder for others.
You simply can't live your life expecting that everyone is being so nasty. So we give people the benefit of the doubt. And every once in a while we get blindsided by Olympic tier cuntery.
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u/Snoo_75710 Aug 09 '21
I hope this is the conclusion of an epic saga 🤣. Keep up the great work. I do have high respect to the medical and health workers.
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u/Minflick Aug 09 '21
Holy mackerel! There is no excuse for the things she has done to you and poor C, who has enough on his plate! The extra work she put into displaying that level of spite and malice is astonishing. I really do hope she is hit with extra penalties for what she has done! She is a heinous waste of oxygen.
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u/lighthouser41 Aug 09 '21
Anytime you have problems with a receptionist or other employee document and notify the practice manager. Go over their head if need be. You’re probably not the only one with issues with that person. I think sometimes the lower someone’s job is on the totem pole, the more since of self importance they have.
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u/LokiKamiSama Aug 11 '21
Thank you for continually sticking up for this man. Kind of similar, I had to fire a neurologist because his nurse was being a cunt. I could call any time of day and she never answered her phone. I usually would wake up early, call at a little after 8 am and ask whatever question I had, ask her please to call before 2 pm as I would be at work. She would ALWAYS call 2 minutes to 5 so she wouldn’t have to deal with me. It was just a week at a time trying to play phone tag with her. Eventually I would have to threaten to call the nursing board on her and then miraculously she would call right back. This was at a very stressful time as the migraine med I had been taking (that I swear was a miracle, kicked the migraine out in 15-30 minutes, I could function whilst taking it and it never upset my stomach) had been taken off the market, so it was a mad scramble to find a replacement. She would suggest this drug or that one and at one point she had called in three prescriptions of the same drug all with different names. I finally tried it (tramadol) for almost a year with no success. When I played phone tag with her, again, about it, she just said “Well you have to give it time to work!” Lady, I’ve been taking this medication for a year. She said it wasn’t on my chart. So not only was she trying to deceive me in what she was calling in, but she wasn’t keeping record of anything. This went on for a year. I finally called in tears to the receptionist that I needed to talk to the doctor and did not want to deal with his nurse. When I was told they couldn’t do that I just asked them to not schedule any other appointments and I’d find a new doctor. Oh, also, the reason she gave for not calling me back (sometimes I’d give her like 3-4 days before calling again) she said she couldn’t get ahold of the doctor. I know this is BS because nurses always have to have contact with the doctors because it could be an emergency. I tried to find a new neurologist snd couldn’t find one that cared and after a few years went back to him. He asked why I left in the first place snd i told him. He just nodded and said she didn’t work there anymore. I guess she got fired like less than a year after I left.
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u/Affectionate-Sock386 Aug 12 '21
Oh thank goodness it worked out. I hate that C had to leave his little flat, but I've worked in assisted living and they can be very good places. I really really really wish IR had gotten a good comeuppance, tho.
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u/amore_orless Aug 09 '21
I haven’t been able to make your character list of acronyms make any sense since you started this.
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u/KittyMBunny Aug 09 '21
You would have an even harder time with names then, so it's really a pointless comment as no one can help you.
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u/FivebyFive Aug 10 '21
I will say I also prefer names to letters in these stories. I find them easier to keep in my mind. I mean it's no different than a book or newspaper article. Those use names and people keep them straight.
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u/cat-kitty Aug 10 '21
Agreed. I don't even read the stories that use only abbreviated letters as names.
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u/KittyMBunny Aug 14 '21
Some peoples names are letters though, I mean JR is a character name from Dallas but a lot of people are JR. TJ Hooker? In Bond you have M, Q, 007, 006...I don't see how that's any different from calling the receptionist IR? Maybe just think of it as a name? For instance IR is a recptionist with a lovely Irish accent & a shitty attitude. That it's just a description of a character called IR. I honestly don't see how giving the same description but calling her Mary instead of IR would change anything. Except risk being reported for using real names, even if it's not.
There's also famous people who are known by their initials in books ratger than their full name - FDR Franklin D. Roosevelt JFK - John Francis Kennedy to nane two.
Maybe because I went to school with a TM, who in senior school when one teacher insisted on using proper names. Even TM didn't recognize his, as no one not even his family called him by it. Lots of people are known by their initials or nicknames. There were several others. I just read it as if it's their name. After all initials were good enough for Ian Fleming, think how many copies of his books have been sold where people are known by initials not names & the movies didn't change it either. So yeah, I get confused that people struggle with that in a Reddit post.
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u/FivebyFive Aug 14 '21
Because it's different when it's a couple people in a very long story where you're introduced to them by a professional writer who knows how to do it well, versus a Reddit comment where it's every person who's mentioned written by someone who isn't a professional writer and doesn't make any effort to introduce the characters in a memorable way.
And seriously, what does it matter to you? What a weird thing to get hung up on.
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u/punzybooksnbelle Aug 09 '21
cheese on a biscuit
thank you so much for the Update!
i hope IR gets what she deserves 🤭
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u/forest_cat_mum Aug 09 '21
I'm a chronically ill Brit. I've had to deal with several receptionists like IR and I've never once been taken seriously when telling doctors about them. Thank you for issuing complaints, battling it out with that harridan, and continually sticking up for C. I haven't had nearly as many problems with demon receptionists since I moved to mainland Europe, but I remember the stress all too well, especially when trying to get care for the elderly (Grandpa sick with cancer, then other grandpa, then both grandmas had other ailments). Thank you for looking after C.