Not good enough !
Published 1 year, 3 months ago in My life.My husband had an appointment with a specialist this morning that had been rescheduled at THEIR request. My husband opted for the first appointment of the day to avoid delays and enable him to get to work as early as possible (he starts work at 7am and it takes him an hour and a half to get to work).
We arrived early for his appointment at 8:50am.
We heard the doctor arrive at approximately 9:15am when he was greeted by other staff.
At 9:40am we left, unseen, as we were sick of waiting.
At NO TIME were we given an explanation or apology for the delay. Even as we left, all the receptionist said was “he’ll be with you in a few minutes” ~ yeah, right !
How is it acceptable that patients are kept waiting like this ? You wait for months to even GET an appointment; then pay through the nose for the five minutes you spend with the doctor, it’s just not good enough to be expected to wait 40 minutes past the scheduled appointment time (and who knows how much longer we’d have been waiting ??).
My husband will be submitting an invoice for his time…
8 Responses to “Not good enough !”
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Totally agree pinkcow, a recent post of mine touched on the same issue. Some doctors, specialists in particular seem to think that it’s acceptable to have shoddy work practices.
If doctors don’t intend to get to work till 9.30 don’t start your appointment till 9.45. If the average time they spent with a patient is 12 minutes don’t book appointments at 10 minute intervals. Listen to patients, they know their bodies, you might just be wrong.
It’s common sense and courtesy to do these things. I appreciate doctors are under pressure at times, but so are the patients.
Well, the doctor called and apologised, he said he had been called to an emergency at the hospital. My husband said that we appreciate that ‘these things happen’, but that we should have at least been informed by the receptionist that he was running late, particularly as he had phoned in to notify them. The doctor agreed and continued to apologise. *sigh*
you are absolutely right pinkie. doctors get busy but theres no excuse for bad manners which is what it is if they dont tell you whats going on. its always just a few minutes more. if they cant organise their time better especially that early in the day then they should stop taking appointments. i like the idea of billing for lost time. daves contract rate is probably as high as the docs but he doesnt get paid that.
I hear you. My doctors appointments are made monthly and in advance. Most times I get to be his first or second patient of the day yet I am still sitting there upto an hour after my appointment time. He knows I can’t sit that long and I end up walking around the waiting room and sometimes even have to go to the nurses station to lay down. But I still wait hoping to hear my name called out. No explanation is given until I walk through his door and he always has an excuse. The staff have double booked him, there was an emergency patient (fair enough), he was held up in a meeting, held up in traffic.What choice do we have when you are told to go to these appointments or suffer the consequences. After 6 years of this I am absolutely fed up. It doesn’t matter what you say it goes in one ear and out the other. EXCUSES EXCUSES EXCUSES and no due to the nature of my injury I can’t change doctors for legal reasons.
I’ve had this happen with a skin specialist time and time again. Of course they get away with it. No one seems to front them about it, but I decided with my feet also. I feel your angst.
Good luck with the invoicing of the MR DRs. I was once in a line at telstra or optus behind a very irate gent who was insisting they pay him for his time in fixing up their mistakes. Good on him.
Specialists certainly seem to have us at their mercy. I once waited for ages for a skin specialist, then was very excited that I was finally going in to the consulting room only to sit there by myself for another 10 mins!! Apparently he has two consulting rooms so he only has to walk between them and never actually take a pause for something as mundane as someone standing up and walking into his office! I wonder if they paid some organising consultant to come up with that plan…
I hope you are able to reschedule and see your doc (or a more accomodating one) soon.
Very annoying….he was probably busy catching up with Reports that had been phoned through to Receptionist after he left the day before.
I lot of people don’t respect appointment times and I’ll wait anxiously to see your doctor’s response to your husband’s invoice…..
After all, all time is precious, and to think he’d wasted his by not even seeing the Specialist eventually….Honestly I have waited an hour and half later in the day, but first cab off the rank, there is no excuse of a bank up!….
Will your husband make another appointment with the same guy? After Hubby’s paid for his time, of course.
Hubby has rescheduled his appointment (again for 9am in a couple of weeks time), and now that the Dr called to apologise, he feels bad about submitting an invoice *roll eyes*
I actually did an invoice and printed it out too !
Heaven help them if the doc is even a minute late next time ~ I will go bananas.