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?

YABVVU

Next time your waiting for an extra 30 minutes, think about why you're waiting- the Drs has probably just spent extra time treating or talking to someone who's having a much harder time than you.

And the person who said "they are professionals, they should know how to tell the time" should be ashamed of themselves.

Hahaha! Spot the corrective text error above. 'Twats'= 'years'

GP appointments have also risen because so many things that used to be dealt with in hospital outpatients, are now dealt with by GPs. I go about once a week. I would have been seen at outpatients 5 to 10 years ago.

Thanks for the data rae

When Ds was 8 weeks old he was critically ill, the best consultant to save his life was due to start a clinic at 9am. At 8.45 he was called to Ds and him - and a number of other Doctors and nurses - spent the next couple of hours saving his life. I am sure that had a knock on effect on the clinics which is annoying but it means Ds is alive.

We have also been the ones at a consultants appointment where things were more complicated than they seemed so we were in for 40 mins, 20 minutes of that with two doctors in the room. I would love for Ds to be a simple in and out type patient but sadly not!

We have also has spent lots of time waiting to be seen, we go prepared to wait because we know it's not due to the staff sitting around drinking coffee,

Thanks for all the support out there.
I usually manage to run about 10 minutes late on about 8 appointments. Today I was 20 minutes late as some of my patients were interesting and complex. We don't allow patients to book doubles unless it's for an internal exam or we need an interpreter. If some one has a lot of questions/problems I go through their list, prioritise, organise investigations and then bring them back to discuss further with a double if I feel I need it. At least if I have blood results at the 2nd appointment then things are easier.
If I have a depressed patient I will often give them doubles over the course of a few weeks until I feel they are getting better.

If I start late it's because I have been sorting out something from the morning, or the day before or overnight that needs to bet sorted. I am usually in work between 7 and 7.30 with first appointment at 8.30 although on Fridays I often do extended hours which start at 7am (and no we don't get to leave early that day)

Late patients, I do sometimes see but it depends how rushed I am, if I am duty doctor I am usually seeing all the extras too so someone beings late pushes all the people who arrive on time even later.

Sometimes we have horrendous traffic jams outside which occur if there is an accident on the city bypass so everyone turns off and comes past our surgery. In those situations we do make allowances and if some one has just come for medication we will cancel their appointment and give them more to tide them over to their next appojntment.

I do suggest you read the link, what do GPs do all day.

Everyone who comes in to our surgery says they couldn't believe what we did.

Now I thought you were going to have a rant about Doctor's turning up late for the first appointment (our GP's don't staff the OOH) and I was going to join you. There's one GP at our practise who is rapidly pissing off a lot of people because she never turns up until 9.15/9.20 despite her first appointment being at 9am. The reception staff even seem to be getting hacked off with it (for the past 2 years it's been 'Oh that's just Dr X, she is quirky...'), but I don't think anyone dare say anything as there is a massive shortage of GP's already. They can't get anyone to take up a partner role at our surgery, one of the partners wanted to retire ages ago, but has agreed to stay on when there were NO applicants. We used to have 7 full time GP's and 4 part timers - there is now 6 GP's and I think 2 are only part time (despite the fact the town is expanding at a massive rate and they are being forced to take more and more patients).

However, in the afternoon? No chance. They generally run late for good reason. My relative's cancer clinic is always a minimum of an hour late, but it's just the way of things. Last week my relative, in her 40's and hit with a terminal diagnosis recently, broke down when she was weighed. No-one could have predicted that would be the appointment where she needed longer. Do you suggest the Dr say "Really sorry Ang, you've had your 10 minutes, you'll have to go and cry your tears and express your fears elsewhere?"

Think that's a disgusting comment to make about someone who is trying to help and care for you! Allow more time... doctors , by the nature of their job, have to adapt to circumstances and may run late.
If it is a recurring problem, raise it with the PM as they may be able to adjust things a little, but phrase it a bit more politely! You admit in the OP the last patient was late ..so why pick on the doctor.
What has the world come to that people are so demanding and so denigrating about people who are trying to help you, and run late because the patient before may have been unwell or upset.

(I don't think applicants is the right word for a partner, but you get the jist)

YABU - it isn't the HCP fault. I have some health issues that have meant that an appointment takes longer than ten minutes, is the Dr supposed to chuck me out mid exam? Or should we, collectively as a society, perhaps voted in a government that would allow patients and HCP the time they need?

It can be frustrating to have to wait if you're in a hurry, but it's not like the doctor's are just messing about and trying to deliberately annoy patients.

I think the biggest problem is the short length of the standard appointment - even if all the patients have relatively straightforward problems, it doesn't take much for times to start overrunning. And of course, if someone has a complex problem, or there's an emergency, the doctor quite rightly has to deal with that before moving onto the next patient.

Although the last time I went to see the GP, I got there about 50 minutes early (long and boring story), and was called in 2 minutes after I arrived. I'm guessing that the patient who was meant to have that slot hadn't turned up, and the GP wanted to get ahead while he could.

And as for your "absolute fortune in tax" - if you want a small state, why don't you piss off to Somalia or Yemen? VERY small state there. Who needs roads, or healthcare, or education, or police?

Musical thanks for everything you do.

Well let's say the go sees a patient every 10 minutes 6 hours per day 5 days a week that's 36 a day or 180 per week let's assume it's a 2week wait for a routine appointment,

So now we decide to give every one 12 minutes instead of 10, so 5 per hour or 150 per week, however now at the end of week 1, 30 people have not been seen so wait is now 2 weeks and 1 day, within 5 weeks waiting time for an appointment would be 3 weeks not 2 and within 10 weeks of the new system the waiting times would be over a month, is that really better than possibly been kept waiting an hour??

I wouldn't blame the doctor. I work for a dentist who is always running late because people literally won't leave the surgery and stand there asking 1000 inane questions and chatting.

Clinics have to overbook, they have a massive amount of people that just don't attend. It's time they can't afford to lose.

At my last GP visit I went in precisely on time but sadly for the next patient was in her room for 45 minutes. I felt bad about this. My fault, not the GP so on behalf of all sick people who take up too much time and inconvenience others who are waiting, I am very, very sorry OP and will try harder to be less sick next time.

And for the avoidance of doubt my surgery does not offer double appointments.

YABU
I know it's annoying but I'm sure the doctor doesn't enjoy being late. What do you think they were doing, having a leisurely lunch?
They were probably dealing with a medical emergency which involved, you know, saving someone's life.

It's not unusual to sit and wait at least half hour at my doctors. Also the dentist was 45 mins behind but I waited over an hour with a 2 yr old charging round the waiting room. Bloody nightmare, but what can you do?

When you're sat in a doctors office getting bad news, let's hope they are not rushing just so the next appointment is on time, rather that they are taking the time to explain things properly and give you the time and information you need to process what you are hearing. Yes it's incredibly frustrating but you are not the only person who needs a doctor and someone else is probably having a much worse day then their appointment running late

I understand completely why doctors are sometimes running late, and I'm quite happy to sit with a book and wait.

But I do wish sometimes there was a "fast lane" of sorts. I know all I need is a refil of my prescription. Blood pressure, maybe weight, write prescription, done. In and out the door in 5 minutes having paid €50 for the privilege

Although maybe you have that under the NHS? Nurse practitioners or something? Something that could free up the precious 10 minute slot for someone with a more complex issue than not wanting to get pregnant this month thank you very much

But until then, it's bring a book, settle in, and hope the boss doesn't go mad if it overruns past the end of lunch time.

I don't think you can blame the NHS, or govt healthcare systems anywhere. Here (I'm in the US) many doctors are part of private healthcare groups and they must follow the procedures set up for them. Finding a doctor in private single practice is pretty rare because of the exorbitant cost of malpractice insurance. Group rates are cheaper.

Our doctors frequently run late. It's a combination of overbooking and people just taking longer than expected. My own doctor's group practice books every 15 minutes which isn't reasonable no matter how you look at it. I've just learnt to request the first appt of the day or an appt at 1pm (which is when they reopen after lunch) for routine or minor things. Obvs not easy to do if you're really ill, though. If you have to be worked in, you can figure on waiting an hour or more.

This isn't a new problem, though. My son is 27 years old and I can remember waiting 2 or more hours for my routine OB checks when I was pregnant. There were 4 doctors and the office staff finally worked out a system by which they'd call you if you had an afternoon appt and there was a 2 hour or more back up by noon. I can remember being called regarding a 2 pm appt (which was their last of the day) and being told to come in at 5!!

my list ran over today because of an unexpected dead baby on a routine scan. lots of experienced staff need to confirm the diagnosis and counsel the poor couple. People had to wait, I missed school pick up. its shit for everyone but we are so overstretched there is no time to catch up.

My Dh was "that patient" last week.

He went to the GP with (sodding) earache and found himself being admitted to hospital. Earache! Presumably the doctor was thinking "yay! Good chance to get ahead!" - it doesn't take long to explain that they don't give penicillin for ear infections anymore and prescribe some drops.

Took one look in dh's ear, said "oh dear" and spent 25 mins getting him admitted to hospital. It seems that very very very very rarely ear infections can be fatal.

The way I see it is if the doctor is running 45 mins late each day then he/she will find themselves doing 45 mins unpaid overtime each day. So the doctor very incentivised to being on time. So if the doctor is running late then it must be something they can't help.

I've lived in several countries with non-NHS type insurance-based systems and always had to wait just as long as in the UK for GP appointments. Some patients just need more time. I will say that it is far more difficult to get appointments in the first place in the UK, in my experience.