"The reception staff were extremely rude..."

What I liked

The reception staff were extremely rude and most unhelpful. When I asked if I could ask them something, they said, in a very gruff voice "Well....what is it?" without bothering to open the window on the reception desk. They then buzzed for the nurse, who seemed very busy although there was a patient waiting when I arrived and they were not with him. The reception staff told the nurse that I had buzzed for them when I certainly had not. The nurse took lots of my details down and then proceeded to call the man from the waiting room into a room, and they were with him for over an hour. 4 other people arrived during this time and the nurse came out of the room with the patient left in there, in response to the buzzer (that the reception staff most definitely had not pressed) taking very long winded details on ethnic origin, next of kin, profession etc being logged into the computer. Not only does it seem that they are short staffed at this hospital but I would have thought that there was some discrepancy about who is meant to do what job. Certainly I cannot see what the reception staff role is apart from being an extremely unhelpful and rude 'front of house'. At no point did they attempt to take any strain away from the nurse, in fact they added to their work load. I have never needed hospital treatment in the 25 years that I have lived in Gloucestershire. However, should I need any assistance from now on, I will drive to Cheltenham where at least the staff are helpful and courteous