5 mins late for medical appointment and reaction of HCP

[BooeyBubbleHead]

I am 34 weeks pregnant. Due to an unforeseen traffic diversion followed by a slow moving farm vehicle on a winding road, I arrived 5 minutes late for a medical appointment today. I had left enough time to have been 10 mins early, should it have been a standard journey. I think being on time is important and I would never intend to keep anyone waiting. I was unable to phone ahead as I was driving and do not have hands free, and safe places to stop are few on this route.

This is a very regular appointment and I have never been seen on time - I have always had to wait at least 10 mins after appt time, and sometimes up to 30 minutes. I accept and understand having to wait and have never made it an issue or taken it out on staff; the sheer volume of patients mean that it is inevitable and nobody's fault.

Today, HCP was incredibly offhand with me, and even implied that I was lying when I apologised (sincerely) and explained why I was late. The appointment was rushed and very unpleasant and I felt that I was being punished. There was much passive aggression and hostile body language. I did state that I was offended by her tone but this just made her more argumentative - she needed to have the last word. I arrived feeling stressed and left feeling even more so.

AIBU to expect the same empathy and understanding when running very slightly late, that I give regularly when kept waiting?

Really annoyed and considering making a complaint...

[OhtoblazeswithElvira]

flumpy

Too many cuppas? Maybe cut down on the caffeine, your last paragraph doesn't make a lot of sense.

You've never been late for anything? You're lucky - just that: lucky, not better than the next person. I feel that sometimes judgeyness goes hand in hand with lack of experience and naivety.

[Didiplanthis]

I am an hcp. In 20 years I have never refused to see someone for being late. I may have asked them to wait till the end if they are very late but I don't believe I have ever been rude to someone intentionally as a result although I may have been brisker if they have arrived 8 min late for a 10 min appointment therefore only having 2min left but invariably taking at least 10. I also run late because people bring multiple problems at an appointment designed for one, because people are sick, because people are scared or distressed. Because despite needing 20 min appointments even with 10 minute appointments there are never enough and everyone screams they can't get an appointment so halving the number to double the time is not option, there is no funding despite your 'high taxes' to employ more staff even if there were any to be found which there aren't, no where to put them anyway as there are no free rooms. To all those who value the NHS and understand this - thank you. To those that don't - I'm sorry - it really really isn't our fault. There is no excuse for rudeness on either side really but I guess human nature gets in the way of some people. On both sides .

[Aderyn2016]

Flumpy, hcp are not more important or more busy than anyone else. The people in that waiting room might be dentists, with their own queue of patients, or carers or teachers or police officers - all of whom have just as many demands on their time as a hcp.
I hope you don't talk to people at work with the attitude you have shown here!

[GiddyOnZackHunt]

I arrived at the GP a couple of minutes late once. Dd had had an ASD meltdown and the baby had poohed everywhere. I started to get the receptionist's lecture and just burst into PND fuelled tears.They did see me.
It's depressing this thread though. Patients who have been unavoidably late and apologised precisely because they understand it can delay everyone, being dealt with huffily. HCP acting as if they're the only busy state funded professionals.

Patients have to pay for parking often in advance. They may have had to arrange time off work with an uncooperative employer, be losing money if they're self employed, arrange childcare, be frightened etc etc. The HCP is stressed trying to make schedule. Most of us sit there meekly waiting our turn be it on time, 30 minutes late, 3 hours, whatever.

The real problem is the NHS is stretched too far on too little funding. 10 minute appointments aren't enough but that's a target that's set nationally, not by the GP. Everyone sniping and being grumpy on either side is a by product of that stress. HCPs shouldn't take it out on patients while patients just have to suck it up.

[Oliversmumsarmy]

Having been around dp whilst he has been going through chemo and in and out of hospital a lot of what is wrong with the NHS is not about throwing more money at it. A lot of what is wrong I just the system.
We have watched beds being changed twice, dp gets to the chemo appointment only for the nurses to be surprised that the chemo isn't ready. They know the company the blood test is sent to closes at 1pm so when they send the bloods off the day before at 4pm with appointments the following day at 9am they never fail to be surprised that the company has not processed the tests and so the chemo hasn't been ordered.

For 6 months we have had to spend 3-4 hours every fortnight wandering around a hospital whilst the nurses run around apologising profusely and being really surprised about the turn of events.
Don't get me started on the consultant who at 9am, first appointment starts off by keeping you waiting the after 40 minutes a nurse announces he I running 1 hour late.

At one point it got so bad that dp was thinking he would just give up on being treated as the amount of time he was spending waiting in a depressing waiting room was doing his head in

These are just 2 things

[flumpybear]

Pretty much every single consultant I know starts way before 8am ..... do you think their day starts with their first clinic ?! Fool!

[flumpybear]

Aderyn - I've worked in many many jobs whilst being a full time employed in London in hotels, banks, solicitors offices and even a record company !! Also been a temp, sandwich placement student, scientist, lecturer, manager of massive research departments, and locum in a clinical trials centre .... I've never seen anyone relentlessly work as hard - even in an international pharmaceutical company as they do in the NHS!!!! Even private medicine is more relaxed

[flumpybear]

Rises - perhaps doctors should have a utility belt with a cup holder for water

[OhTheRoses]

Gosh flumpy what a variety of jobs.

[flumpybear]

Yep!! That's me!! Most whilst at university for 8 years!

[JacquesHammer]

I once arrived early for my appt. I was the first appt of the day.

I was 10 mins late in whilst the nurse chatted to Sandra about her weekend, made a personal call and then got a coffee.

Boy did I complain over that one.

[GardeningWithDynamite]

Hang on... someone said that all the minutes that successive people are late adds up. Is that right? Surely if the clinic is running 20 minutes late then someone being 5 minutes late for their appointment time is still going to be there 15 minutes before they'd actually go in? Do they get their appointment cancelled so that their timeslot disappears and the clinic can catch up? What if the clinic's running 20 minute late and everyone else is on time?

[ivykaty44]

I wonder what would happen if you were late for a medical appointment due to being kept waiting at another medical appointment?

[OhTheRoses]

Ah now that I can tell you. DS was ill, aged three. I was 8 months pg. He had an emerg apt at hosp one. I had an antenatal apt at hosp two. Had to read riot act at hosp one to get ds seen on time (ish). Then ran through hosp carrying ds, drove like the clappers to antenatal apt, ran through second car park. BP so high had to go back following day.

[OhTheRoses]

Oh, because they refused to change the antenatal dept.

[ForalltheSaints]

I am with those who are like me kept waiting far too often when visiting a doctor. Double standards for a HCP to complain about lateness.

[lozster]

For the benefit of the poster who thinks everyone should allow an enormous contingency, I live in a rural area where the nearest hospital is accessible only by car (40 minute drive) and has inadequate parking. Appointment letters warn NOT to arrive more than 15 minutes ahead of your scheduled time. This is to try and make best use of the parking. I have almost wept circling the car park worrying that I will miss an appointment. Arriving (too) early also crowds waiting areas. I detest lateness but you need to draw a line somewhere otherwise you would be camping out from the night before.

At my GP I have never been late but I have, like other posters, had the first appointment of the day and have seen the GP rock up 20 minutes late, grab a coffee and a chat, spark up the computer and see me 30 minutes after the start of his surgery. To the best of my knowledge, GPs don't do ward rounds or home visits before a morning surgery. It would seem churlish then to turn someone away for being five minutes late when surgery is running 30 minutes late from the get go so their slot hasn't even been called yet.

[RhodaBorrocks]

I've had appointments at 2 hospitals, 70 miles apart, only 2 hours apart, on the same day.

I luckily managed to move the second appointment to a later time slot.

The second hospital does something called block booking - they only have 2 time slots per clinic, so 9am and 11.30am in the morning. And 1pm and 3.30pm in the afternoon. They call upwards of 30 patients per timeslot and depending on when you arrive, your notes get put into the pile and they go through everyone in order of attendance.

It means that you can in theory be late (but they do like you to call) but then you'll be seen much later. Sometimes earlier clinics run over so you're still seen late, even if you're early for your slot, last time this happened by the time I got out all the admin staff had gone home. Other times you turn up early, book in and then sail through the triage, tests and consultation in 40 minutes.

However, I will say that in all my extensive medical care, doctors who run late usually have good reason. My obstetrician was always 2 hours late. The first time we were put out, until we got in there with her. She was so thorough and I got my appointment time and more with her. As XDP worked shifts we couldn't get the early slot (and often she was late then anyway as she'd be coming straight from delivery suite or theatre) so we just got coffee and sandwiches, brought a book and the laptop and settled in!

My transplant clinic (the one I mention above) fits in so many people (me included) as emergencies and always do full tests and extra testing and treatment if needed that I expect a wait, because if they're treating others as well as they treat me then I'm happy.

The only place I've ever encountered rudeness for being 5 minutes latest was at the dentist. Most HCPs have always been apologetic and thorough with me, so OP YANBU. We all have an off day. My transplant clinic knows I travel 70 miles to them and always fit me in somehow and are kind about it because they know it's either several hours on patient transport or 2-3 trains for me!

[lunchboxtroubles]

have seen the GP rock up 20 minutes late, grab a coffee and a chat, spark up the computer and see me 30 minutes after the start of his surgery

that is unacceptable and you should complain

[shinynewusername]

It's simple. There are not enough GPs and they are retiring at a rate of knots. Those of us who are left are trying to meet the needs of our patients by providing as many appointments as possible. It would be really easy to avoid running late - all we have got to do is reduce the number of patients we see - create the slack in the system that someone suggested up thread by having more gaps. But there are a finite number of us, so what do you think happens to the total number of appointments if we reduce them to avoid running late?

Do you think we enjoy seeing 40 patients at 10 minute intervals, on top of home visits, dozens of calls and literally hundreds of test results and letters each day? It's exhausting for us, bad for the patients and makes it very hard to provide good quality care. We are doing our best and I am sick of constantly being blamed for an underfunded system.

[slenderisthenight]

I have sat in African hospitals where if you arrived after 8.30am you would be last in the queue and could expect to be seen around lunch time.

Honestly, it's not that different here.

[Stormtreader]

I think I would have more sympathy for the "theyre late because there was an emergency" argument if they werent late every single time.
I have to go in for repeat prescriptions, and 2 sets of "every 6 months" hospital checkups, and ive never been seen within an hour of my appointment time unless I get the first appointment. My GPs first appointment is 9am and even when Ive managed to get that one, theyve never been in the building before 9.15, and ive never been seen before 9.30.
They cant have an emergency every single day. Meanwhile, I have to tell my work "I have an appointment, I may be back before the end of the working day or I may not." I wish there was some kind of phonecall system "clinic is running an hour late, your revised arrival time is now x time" rather than hours and hours of sitting in a waiting room on work time, achieving nothing for anyone.

The nurses at my GPs surgery though, top notch, always get in within about 10 minutes of the appointment.

[OhTheRoses]

Interesting though. Seven GPs at my surgery. All part-time. Are you sure there aren't enough GPs being trained? They never used to work part-time to this extent. One has a private clinic he owns, three others do at least two surgeries each week attached to local private hospitals.

[lunchboxtroubles]

Interesting though. Seven GPs at my surgery. All part-time

Working full-time as a GP in the NHS is a recipe for burnout. I don't know anyone who does it for more than a few years. It's not the medicine - that's great - it's dealing with the endless stream of crap that is dealt down from te DoH and NHSE.

[OhTheRoses]

Much the same in law, accountancy, financial services but without the scope to work part-time.