Portsmouth area GP receptionists told 'I'll brick your windows' by angry patient

This includes one patient who went to a Trafalgar Medical Practice surgery and tried to book in when all GP slots were taken.

He told a receptionist: ‘This is... useless, I'm going to brick your... windows.’

The News has revealed today the extent of the abuse against receptionists, nurses and GPs in the Portsmouth area.

Another receptionist advised a patient to go to St Mary’s walk-in for minor injury treatment. The patient asked where she was from, and the receptionist said she was Polish.

The receptionist said: ‘Every time I tried to say something to her she was laughing and saying “you really don't understand what I am saying to you”.’

She added: ‘The patient understood everything I said to her before but after I said that we haven't got any appointments left, the patient became racist against me.

‘Even after her racist comments and discrimination I still managed to get the pharmacist to give her a call to see if she will be able to advise her what to do.’

Another patient told receptionists they would ‘come and smash’ the surgery door as they weren’t offered an appointment.

‘That was really scary as we never know how each patient will react and have to take each incident seriously,’ a receptionist said.

Dr Elizabeth Fellows is chair of NHS Portsmouth Clinical Commissioning Group and a GP at East Shore Partnership.

She said: ‘Demand for primary care has risen significantly throughout the pandemic and is likely to increase further as we head towards winter, but our staff continue to support our patients and do the very best job they can in what are still very challenging times.

‘While we know it can be frustrating, it is completely unacceptable that receptionists, nurses and GPs are abused by patients who may be finding it difficult to get an appointment or see a GP when they want to.’

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