"Some abrasive receptionists giving surgery a bad reputation"

My mum has recently been diagnosed with insulin dependent diabetes and is under the care of the diabetes specialist nurse Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline which she says has been fantastic.

Unfortunately, she tells me some of the receptionists at her GP practice have been anything but. I think the appointment booking system is inefficient but that is not the least of it.

One morning she was phoned up by a receptionist. My mum told me the receptionist said to her, in these words 'I am phoning about your diabetes care, or rather, the lack of it.' My mum felt like this receptionist then proceeded to berate her for not attending any of her hospital appointments and demanded that she come immediately for a blood test to the surgery. In fact, my mum attended all her appointments, her blood sugars are well controlled, and we believe the receptionist had misfiled her clinic letters. I am not annoyed about that as I know mistakes happen, I feel more annoyed at the fact that they immediately accused her of being in the wrong without getting to the bottom of the matter.

Every time my mum tries to book an appointment to see the GP she says she feels like she is met with rudeness; she feels that some of the receptionists act like a barrier between her and the Drs/nurses.

Some of them also frequently mix up me and mum's records (we have similar names) and it has been more than one occasion that I have been sent a repeat prescription for diabetes and hypertension medications.

I feel that this surgery is getting a bad reputation and I think it is all down to some of the abrasive receptionists as the medical and nursing staff are all very good indeed.