To think the mw could have waited?

[lurcherlover]

Probably need a bit of perspective on this but I'm fuming!

Community mw appointments at our surgery are Fridays. Mine was today and the last appointment. I hit unexpected traffic on the way, and as I know it's the last slot I phoned the surgery to ask them to tell the mw I was going to be late. They did this. I got to the surgery seven minutes late for my appointment, to be told that she'd gone and I'd be re-booked next week. Given that I'm normally kept waiting about 20 mins for my appt, aibu to think she could have waited seven, when I'd let her know I was coming? I know I shouldn't have been late but there's surely a tiny bit of flexibility in the system?

Perhaps she had home visits to do elsewhere? Perhaps she had somewhere she needed to be straight from work?

It would have been nice if she could have waited but unfortuantly circumstances doesn't always mean that can happen

YANBU to be fuming but maybe she had to pick up her child or something

But I would be annoyed given you rang to let them know and it was only 7 minutes

I don't think you ABU as you phoned ahead to let them know and 5 minutes is neither here nor there. She must have packed up before your appointment and flown out of the door! How annoying. And YY they do like to keep you waiting, which seems fine when it suits them.

Maybe there is another reason she had to hot-foot it out? An emergency call, a family commitment, childcare or the pub on a Friday afternoon??

She could have had any number of things to get to, she could have had an emergency or home visit or just worked a mammoth shift and need to put her feet up. She wasn't to know you would only be 7 minutes late if there was traffic.

I can see why you're annoyed but if she's on 12 hour shifts she might have get straight to the hospital or a home visit, or she might have had a personal thing that she couldn't be late for. She didn't know how late you'd be, so she just left. In future leave plenty of time to get to your appointments.

Generally speaking, YANBU, but as Sirzy said it's possible that the MW wasn't able to wait on this occasion for some reason.

I was once 10 minutes late for a haircut and was made to re-book as the hairdresser couldn't wait. Particularly annoying as they're almost always running late and I usually end up waiting for them!

7mins late?

It´s a wonder she wasn´t still with the previous appointment.

Shame they couldn´t have told you before you got there!

The surgery said she had gone back to the hospital. I phoned five mins before my appointment and said I would be a max of ten mins late, which was true. I just find it hard to believe she couldn't have waited ten mins, when her clinic is usually running really late anyway.

Surely your appointment would have taken 10-15mins and she should have been "booked" to be there, not needing to dash off 7mins after your appointment was due to start.

YANBU. How long would your appointment have taken? 10 mins at least? So it's unlikely that she needed to be somewhere before the time you arrived.

What MrsAmaretto said. The appointment itself would have taken more than 7 minutes, so why did she leave?

are you sure the surgery staff passed on your message? maybe she thought you weren't coming?

in any case, people often say "maximum ten mins" and are later, she had other things to get to. you could have anticipated traffic, YABU.

I'd be asking her why at your next appointment. 7 minutes and she's gone
I work in NHS (not a MW) my appointments are 20 minutes and due to the nature of "all patients are different" some take longer to get ready/I have to write a letter/phone a Doctor/some are late - (you get the picture) I do often run late myself.

My last appointment is booked at 3.50 (I start earlier and finish earlier).
If they haven't arrived by 4.00, I start tidying up what I don't need. If they are 10-15 minutes late and are apologetic or obviously difficulty getting there, I would see them.
20 minutes, most likely not. (Our work has a 10 minute 'leeway' so we are not obliged to see a patient 10 minutes late. I always do, but I tell the patients that alot of my collegues won't under any circumstances)

One of my grrrrr at work- phoning in to say "I'll be late" doesn't stop time.
I've said to our booking office (some do, some don't) that if someone phones after their appointment time, they should be rebooked.
Some will say "Oh if you're 10 minutes late they might not see you".
So they come up, park, get to the waiting room (and wait because I'm with another patient) and I get the grief face-to-face.
Instead of them getting another booking and going home.

It's not reasonable to expect to be seen when you are late. If she had seen you she would then have been running late herself, and therefore late for her other patients in hospital. GPs/midwives etc don't run late for laughs: they are either late because their patients are late, or they are giving the patient the best care within the limited appt time.

Even if she had seen you, the appt would have been rushed and things could be missed as she would be working under higher pressure. YABU.

YABU - yes it was only seven minutes and an appointment is usually (but not always!) longer than that, but if she had then started the appointment and done a full one she would still have been seven minutes late leaving for the hospital - where people were waiting for her.

If you had had an issue to discuss in addition to the standard check up as many people do (this is usually the reason mw etc run late) she would have been even later leaving.

It wouldn't take much to stretch that seven minutes into ten, fifteen or twenty, and then the people at the hospital who DID get there on time would be waiting for a late MW because you didn't get there on time. She may have been relieving a colleague at the end of a twelve hour shift who was waiting to get home to her family.

You were late - you were inconvenienced. That is how it should be. Or are you suggesting that other people be inconvenienced so that you don't have to be even though you were the one that was late?

And is traffic ever truly "unexpected" on a Friday afternoon?? Busiest afternoon of the week everywhere I've lived....

It was unexpected in that I was coming from a different town - normally I go from work and know how long it will take. I did allow an hour, which evidently wasn't enough! I know I shouldn't have been late and it is my own fault, I just find it hard to believe that she didn't have a spare seven minutes. I work with the public myself and always give people at least ten minures' grace before deciding they're not coming, and I had told her I would be there. If her clinic had been running late as usual she'd have been half an hour late back to the hosp anyway...