General Practice start up expenses

Re: General Practice expenses

If there are few or no customers in the early days, I just wonder what the receptionist is actually going to be doing? Is this a luxury that a startup organisation can afford? A virtual service would ensure that the phones get answered and appointments can be made, but without incurring a huge fixed cost.
 
I can see the sense of that..........logically! By definition anyone who walks into a GP practice is ill or fears they are ill. It is a highly anxious situation. Perhaps there are individuals who would put up with whatever they find (e.g. an intercom for admission, 'online booking only' and a (young, inexperienced) medic fafing around searching for their stored data on a p.c. and answering the phone). Personally I wouldn't (and no-one I know would!) It probably has to do with how much self-respect one has and one's concept of the physician/patient relationship - as opposed to paying for a sick-note or a prescription or something of that kind which I wouldn't (personally!) define as medicine.

Potential patients will form their own conclusions and vote with their feet and the 'intercom and D.I.Y.' enterprise will be a different entity to a serious, well-run and properly funded and managed practice where the doctor's focus is not mucking up the patient's health further.
 
Please stop exaggerating. This is nothing to do with self-respect. I never mentioned intercoms, and I wouldn't recommend any intercom or similar system that would involve interrupting the doctor while with a patient. I never mentioned or implied 'online booking only', and a virtual receptionist would indeed be able to make bookings by phone. The virtual receptionist would mean that doctor would NOT be answering the phone, as calls would be directed to the receptionist and could be returned by the doctor on his own time.


The doctor's receptionist adds little value to my visit. I check in with her on arrival. I pay her by cheque and get a receipt (unless the appointment is after 5pm, when I pay the doctor himself). I'm sure she probably does some stuff with the files before/after my visit. Patients will indeed vote with their feet, and a doctor that realises that internet generation form an important target market may well build a successful practice.
 
The receptionist should also carry out basic bookkeeping functions, organise blood test processing, order supplies, organise files etc. They do more than just front of house stuff.
 
Purple said:
The receptionist should also carry out basic bookkeeping functions, organise blood test processing, order supplies, organise files etc. They do more than just front of house stuff.
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Indeed. And there is no reason why the vast majority of this work has to be done by a person sitting behind a desk in a surgery. It can just as easily be done by a person sitting in a call centre 100 miles away, who can probably share the work of 3-5 GPs instead of being a dedicated cost for just one GP.
 
True but with a female GP in a surgery, which will have a considerable amount of prescription medication to hand, there is also a security consideration.
Anyway a receptionist will be paid between €10 and (at the most) €15 an hour. That's €300-€600 a week depending on hours worked. I'm not sure what sort of a saving there would be and if that saving would balance out against the negatives. It is an interesting concept though and in a surgery with a number of doctors I do think it would be beneficial to us that model rather than employ a second of third receptionist/ secretary.

Are you aware of anyone offering this kind of service at the moment?
 
I'm sure there are significant security considerations, regardless of whether the GP is male or female. I'm not sure that the average GP receptionist (female, middle-aged) would do a whole lot to address these risks. Perhaps some technology solutions (panic buttons, emergency alarms, CCTV) would be more effective.
 


Having a second person on site is a significant deterrent, no matter what age or sex. My wife is a GP, I base my opinions on her experiences.
 
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