Doctor's fucking punctuality

[AnotherTimeMaybe]

So went to doctor today and he was late again! Previous patient came late so he couldn't just chuck him out and he took me half hour later ,I was late for school pick up ended up paying late care
I don't get it, why are they allowed to be late we are supposed to accept it or leave and miss the appointment for which I had to take day off! And if we are late they wait for 5 minutes and then you go back to the bottom of the queue
AIBU ? Is this a life sentence?

Yanbu but there isn't much you can do aside from give all appointments an hour if you can. I went in for an 8:50am the other day knowing DS had to be in nursery for 9:15 but figured it would be quick and it's opposite nursery so I wouldn't be late... how wrong was I!

some appointments take longer. i try to be patient as i would hope the dr would give me the time i need during my consultation. its crap having to wait though.

We need more doctors. Hope you didn't vote for this Govt we have as they have more than played their part in making general practice a job nobody really wants

Definitely NBU I waited 40 mins for the professor in the hospital yesterday. Seriously, you have a professorship, you must be able to tell the time!

Last time I went to the gynaecologist my appointment was 8.30, the doctor arrived at 8.40 and of course saw the people whose appointment was at 8.00. DP was fuming as he'd just started a new job and really didn't want to be late!

I'm not in the uk so cat blame the NHS or the tories.

This is precisely why I only book appointments where I have a good hour or so to spare if by some miracle I actually manage to get an appointment in the first place

Not much you can do though, the amount of people that don't turn up to appointments is massive (according to the notices all over our surgery) so the Dr can't really wait to see if you'll turn up. That in turn makes everyone else's appointments delayed. It is a bit rubbish though, I agree.

Get used to it folks as it won't be getting better anytime soon.

The Consultant who arrived 40 mins late might have done so because he/she was needed elsewhere. I have seen doctors do this....visit wards to advise on or see patients and then hot foot it to outpatients,.

why are they allowed to be late

Because standing up, opening the door and stating "off you go, you've had your 10 minutes, I don't care that I've just told you you've got cancer, or that your child has died, or that I need to arrange your admission to hospital because I think you've got meningitis, or that you're suffering from dementia and I needed to take the time to ensure you and your wife understand everything I've just told you" is really not acceptable

Two hours at our local hospital with my ds who had asd. He was an absolute superstar considering the noise, hustle and bustle etc

Follow up appointment was only 90 minutes late

why book a doctors appointment just before school pick up?

some patients are quick, some take a long time. i bet there is not a doctor on the planet who manages to be precisely on time all day

suck it up

When you're moaning about a dr being late have you considered they might have been with someone whose need was greater than yours? A GP might have seen someone who was undergoing a miscarriage? Health is unpredictable sometimes.

If they get a patient with complex needs, their consultation will run over. For example, if they need to call the hospital to arrange for an admission, or even call an ambulance, this will delay them. If a patient walks in without an appointment, but with a nasty injury (elderly man fell over in the village square, made it to the surgery and was immediately seen- I think he had a broken wrist from what I saw). Some consultations simply take longer if a patient is distressed. Some patients use up their consultation time and then mention another issue on their way out (hand on the door handle, "oh actually doctor, there's something else...") Often these issues are the real reason the patient has visited, but they haven't mentioned it before due to fear/embarrassment.

Yes, it is frustrating when clinics run over, but it's got nothing to do with the 'punctuality' of the doctor. They don't do it to annoy or inconvenience you. It's directly related to the needs of their patients on that day, and the ridiculously short appointment times that they have to work in.

Don't judge. Often they are late because of someone else's emergency. Having been an emergency I would rather they are late and I am inconvenienced, even financially, than that emergency even if it fitting in someone else's Ill child etc than there is no emergency cover. We need more doctors.

Longest I have waited was 1hr 10 mins. It annoys me because they give an appointment every 10 mins to fill a quota but if they just did one every 15 mins there would be much less waiting around.

What if it was your appointment that ran over, because the GP was breaking bad news and didn't rush, if you were seriously ill and needed admitting to hospital, if you had more than one issue to sort out.
Yes in a perfect world we would be on time.
We aren't in a perfect world. We do our best under difficult circumstances with few resources. Ten minutes isn't long enough for most patients.

What Sidge said.
YABU. It's not the doctors fault.

I see a neurosurgeon at Walton and he routinely runs late. Hours late. I've sat there til 6pm for a 1.30 appt before now! Nightmare, especially as you are charged for parking according to length of stay. It costs me £5+ to attend my appointment because they are running late.

Exactly Sidge. Or people like my dad who went to the GP, had such an erratic heart beat that the Dr called an ambulance, called the hospital to prepare them to take him, administered drugs etc.
Hospital drs may have had to urgently see an inpatient, speak to another team about someone, give advice to a GP/A&E dr about a patient, call a patient to give them bad news or many other things

But they're not late because they couldn't be arsed to get up this morning or there been out on the tiles.
It's the other patients that cause the lateness. As you witnessed today even a few minutes can have a knock on effect.
Unless you just run a turn up and first come first served service, this will always happen.
Just be grateful you're not the patient who needed the extra 10 minutes of that doctors time.
Go expecting to wait and then be happy when they're on time!

Sidge
Well said.
Op, you are being Unreasonable.

I was at the hospital yesterday for my regular arthritis check up, with the nurse this time. I was 50 minutes late in. The reason she gave me was that many of her rpevious elderly patients enjoy a bit of a chat.

Now, I do understand that and can empathise. However, I had to get to work. Being late back than planned impacted on my pupils, other teachers and staff - those covering my group, the person who had to cover my break duty, etc...

I had a 9:30am appointment (which is later than I normally try and get but was unable to get an earlier one this time) and its only a 10-15 minutes thing - blood pressure and weight done by a nurse, a chat with arthritis nurse, then bloods done in room next door. I was hoping to be back at work for 10am as its not far down the road. But yesterday it was well after playtime had finished when I got back.

I have managed to get an 8:15am appointment for next time!

I was 45 minutes waiting for my 10min post discharge follow up appt on Monday.

Loads of people kept going up to the desk and complaining. The Dr is brilliant - she's also very efficient and no chit chat or anything. I knew if she was running late it would be for a good reason.

Having myself in the past caused a drama at an appointment that needed me to be kept in a spare room on nebulisers while they decided if I needed to go to a&e, or having been the person they suddenly decide they need an ambulance for then I know how these things can work.

You can have the day planned to the best plan and then a patient turns up and throws some worrying symptoms and a funny heart rate - means then need to send them to hosp, possibly via ambulance and type a letter up to go with it and also keep them safe while waiting!

I try to offer to have kids over after school as favours when possible...then it is always good to be able to call them in when needed!

I can't believe anyone is incapable of understanding why a doctor might be late to an appointment tbh. I'm taking my son to see a specialist tomorrow and fully expect to wait. You know, because people who need doctors are ill and not always conveniently keeping a schedule.