to expect there not to be 11 people in front of me when I arrive at my appointment on time

[June2008]

I went to take dd2 to have her third set of vacs today, arrived a couple of minutes before her appt time, checked in, only to be told that there were still 11 babies to be seen before her.

AIBU to expect not to have to wait 40 mins after the appt time, without a seat (because they're all taken) with a four month old to be seen by the nurse?

Made even worse by the fact that I had dd1 with me (2 1/2 yrs) who needed entertaining too, as at the moment I have no-one to look after her. Grrrrr.

What should have been a 25 min outing took nearly 90 mins.

I had similar yesterday. I was waiting for my appointment. I happened to notice that acouple of people went in before me who arrived after me. Glad I checled after half an hour as I hadn't been booked in. Thought i was ano show!

Oh good god. Can't they do clinics or something for baby vaccination so it isn't a regular appointment.

I have some idea why appointments run behind, at hospitals anyway.

I had a hospital appointment last year. The clinic appts are regularly 90 minutes behind schedule. I had the first appointment of the afternoon at 1pm. The clinic only runs in the afternoon. I get there early, 1pm comes and goes and I haven't been seen by the nurse yet. I get called in by the nurse at 1:15 to have pre-appt checks, weight, BP etc. Then back to waiting. It was at this point that I realsied that the consulting room doors were all open bar one and nobody was in them. So where the hell were the doctors?

At 1:35 in walks my consultant. He has clearly not been on urgent business in the hospital as he has an overcoat on and carries several bags. Then the door that is closed opens and out walk the other two consultants who were in a room talking about personal stuff. They continued there conversation in the open clinic about how gruesome the snow is. They all faff around deciding who's getting which consulting room and start setting up.

I then get called in at 1:45. My consultant told me he had just come from the park looking at the Chrismas displays and shopping...... Oh never mind that you have patients to see. But I bit my tongue. other than that it's good care.

PS beware of the other thread on here about vacciantion, they'll be up in arms and feel sorry for your vaccinated DD {GRIN}

"It's horrible enough going for jabs. It needs to be done as swiftly as possible.
yanbu"

PaisleyLeaf no the jabs should be done as safely as possible.

The current childhood immunisation programme is complex, especially if a baby or child attends that is out of sync with their vaccs, late to attend or from overseas with a different imms schedule.

It is essential that we check and double check all records, the imms to be given, the health of the baby/child and that the parents understand what their baby/child is there for and what to expect afterwards. This all takes time. The actual injecting part takes seconds but it's all the other stuff that takes so long.

Trying to rush it is potentially disastrous. IME practice nurses are very aware of patients waiting, we don't make patients wait on purpose. I can only speak for myself and my colleagues but we try and make patients/parents aware of any delays so they have an idea of how much longer they will need to wait.

Baby imms clinic is hell on earth. Nobody likes injecting babies, so there is no way we would prolong the agony any more than we need to!

our drs and receptionists are brilliant. I once turned up a day late for 2 appointments and they fitted me in that day

Have only once had comment about being late, and ws only 5 minutes late with 2 dc's. I was really aannoyed and thought it a bit of a cheek when earlier that week we had to wait 50 minutes after our appointment time, plus the 10 minutes that i was early with 2 dc's who were getting fractious.

I?d much prefer to a sit and wait system rather than an appointment system where you have to call in the am for an appointment line opens at 8, is usually busy from 08:000000001 seconds till 9ish which when you get through you get told you should have called earlier and then get offered an appointment for 6 months time.

But what really pisses me off is the waste; OH is allergic to fish and has to carry an epi-pen. The epi-pen runs out of date every 6 months; you have to have a medication review every 6 months. . .
It is a total waste of an appointment; after all he?s not suddenly going to stop been allergic to fish; seeing the doctor is not going to change what he needs the GP?s hands are tied because some minister who has no clue about the realities of health care has decided this is needed.
Wow I feel better now.
(Steps off soap box and puts in cupboard till next time)

My current GPs are brilliant. My previous surgery was awful. They didn't have an appointment system.
Well, they did - but only for mornings between 9am and 12 noon (which was OK if you had mornings available - I did not) They then closed for an hour, and had drop-in clinics from 1pm-3pm.
For any other "appointment" after 3pm, you just turned up and waited your turn. Surgery was open until 6pm, and I finished work at 5.
The amount of times I turned up straight from work, and was turned away as there were too many patients waiting....
As I say, my current surgery is fabulous - very accommodating, great doctors, rarely runs late.
but doesn't this thread just highlight the massive differences and discrepancies in the current system?

If the doctor or nurse starts on time and then is running late because of patients I don't mind at all.

But several times I have had the first appointment of the day or session and the doctor/nurse/midwife has wandered in 10-20 minutes late with a coffee, looking relaxed and stopping for a pleasant chat with the receptionist on the way in.

That I mind.

My doctors is brilliant. It's open 7 days a week, weekdays til 8pm. Four or five times I have phoned worried about DS who was premature and is prone to chest infections and they have seen him the same day, sometimes immediately.

The only thing that gave me the rage was when I needed to see the midwife who worked on Mondays from 2-3pm [hmmm]. Because of my commute I had to take the whole afternoon off and she was invariably running very late after I rushed to get there. However she did spot the problem with DS and probably saved his life. So can't complain, but I did wish she was available more, even if I could see her somewhere else. And I always had to make an appointment for 4 weeks time, and 'the system' only did 3 weeks. PITA having to repeatedly phone from work to try to get latest appointment.