recptioinsts are the first people a patient sees or speaks to so they should have empathy understanding and compassion. A normal healthy person will become vulunerable and even scared, down and low when ill.  So when a recptionist is rude or insists a patient goes home and rings through for an appointment between 8 and 10 knowing full well it is almost impossible to get through  between those time, especially if the patient has children of school age and are rushing around while being sick or struggling to breathe or suffering with other symptoms. It would not hurt for the receptionist to offer some support instead of overstressing their rules that can never be broken in a very rude way.  A very vulnerable patient could be pushed over the top, I take it that the recptionists are not allowed to read a patients notes, so have no idea of ongoing symptoms, so in that case should be considerate and kind.  if they feel the urge to snap and be rude then maybe they should consider a career change.  If a shop assistant is rude to a customer they would be dicsaplined

I have been reduced to tears by recptionists.  I had tried to get appointments in every way possible when I had rectual fistula for 2 weeks and in the end paid to go private where I was diagnosed   with anal cancer and then on going back to the surgery for support and understanding I was banned ftom the sugery.  My mother was riddled with cancer when she died, for five years my timid mother refused to book an appointment as she felt intimidated by the receptionists. She suffered in silence. When we tried to get her to see a doctor she would get so upset and said she could not face talking to the receptionists because they were so rude   She felt she was making a fuss over nothing.  She came from the age when people had the upmost respect for doctors and should never cause a scene or make a fuss.  When will it be taken seriously that these doctor receptionists  are rude and should go on a course on how to talk to patients.  They only need the basic office skills to become a receptionist.  They should need a qualification in health care