NHS piss takers. Selfish, self absorbed people

[ThornsWithin]

Without going into specifics, I work in a clinic and see people by appointment. They have an allocated time slot ranging from 10 minutes to 40 minutes depending on what I’m seeing them for. Since I started this job I’ve become amazed and frustrated with how many people think it’s fine to stroll in late. Sometimes upto 30 minutes late and still expect to be seen. Once they’re 10 minutes late we can mark them as non attenders but half the time, they stroll in after that time and get at the receptionists about how they “must” be seen - the receptionists then come to us panicking and we end up seeing them to keep the peace. These people don’t give a shit that their behaviour puts the clinic way behind, makes other people’s waiting times much longer, causes staff to be off late ... and half the time they don’t even have an excuse for being late! We get “sorry, I forgot” or “sorry, I got talking in the shop” or even “sorry, I didn’t want to get up this morning! Hehe”

It’s a joke. What makes it even worse is when they stroll in late, check in and then bugger off to go to toilet or get a drink! You’re already 20 minutes late ffs! At least get a shift on once you’re here!!

AIBU to literally refuse to see people once their 10 minutes late thing is up? It would make me unpopular with both patients and staff but I’m sick of the piss taking. I’m sick of getting home late because people can’t be arsed to turn up on time.

I wouldn’t dream of strolling into an appointment 10 minutes late, why do people think this is ok??

Or should I be more tolerant?

Btw the clinic is not mental health related or urgent care.

Years ago I arrived for a 9am appointment and the consultant didn't roll in until 9.30, didn't see us until 9.45 and no apology or explanation for being so late. So it works both ways and if you are starting the day 45 mins you are going to be hard pushed to get back on time.

Wow what an attitude. And private as well, how does he treat his NHS patients.

*Yanbu as long as

• your clinic provides free adequate parking
• none of your patients work or have family commitments which can even with good organisation and planning result in a slight delay in getting to a specific place within a specific ten minute window booked several months in advance prior to other matters surfacing on a day filled with, as days generally are for most people, many other considerations and tasks
• traffic on every route to your clinic is never problematic
• there is cheap, reliable public transport from every possible starting point to your clinic that is never subject to delays
• you cancelling appointments in a hissy fit over a fifteen minute delay doesn't mean that patients then have to wait six months for another one.*

You are being ridiculous but I’m sure you already know that. I resent having to wait extra because of late comers when I myself always manage to arrive on time Even though I wouldn’t be able to tick any of the criteria you’ve listed. Why is somebody else’s time more important than mine?

I've had that with the dental hygienist too - if they say have a 3pm appointment and I have a 5pm appointment they'll call and ask if I can do 3.30 instead. I don't mind if I can do it, but I wouldn't expect them to cancel the appointment if I can't.

My GP is fab though. Yes he's always late because 10 minute apps are ridiculous but I recently moved 300 miles away and could not find a GP who would take me on within 2-3 weeks and couldn't dispense the medication I need to function with chronic pain.
I emailed him to ask if there was any possibility he could send a prescription for my drugs to my local chemist and he did it that day.

Don't see them. I'm left waiting almost half an hour and sometimes even 40 minutes for an appointment at my doctors surgery, sometimes with my son in toe who is bored waiting that long and sometimes when I've come out of work saying I'll only be half an hour. I'm well aware that it's not the doctor or nurses fault and usually patients that are late but it's still stressful, annoying and angers me that there's threats all over the surgery about how if someone turns up late or doesn't cancel an appointment, it will be at the discretion of the surgery to possibly remove them from being a patient but they never seem to because years down the line, I'm still waiting ridiculous amount of times at every appointment due to these arseholes.

I'm always 5 minutes early because you know, I have respect for people that need to see numerous patients a day, get a lunch break and go home on time! Some people just really don't care. Refuse to see them

Like many on here I have had to wait upto 2 hrs to see a dr or therapist

Isn't that like going to A&E or waiting to see a vet or waiting in for a plumber though? The job can't run to time, if the dr or therapist you're waiting to see ends up dealing with an emergency they can't wave a magic wand, they have to see it through until the job is done and they can safely move on.

Yes, it's bloody annoying and frustrating when you're the one sitting in the waiting room, but if you were the one having the crisis wouldn't you want them to stay with you until the job was done? Isn't it one of those things where you accept the inconvenience because one day it might be you?

Perhaps the answer is to charge for late/missed appointments. People assume it's free, but actually it costs other people - all of us paying for the NHS - money, so - 10 minutes late, missed appointment fee, rebook. If it takes you two hours to get there when it "should" take one - leave two hours for the journey. The issue is that all the other bits and pieces like travel and parking etc cost the patient time and money, so people try and shave them. Not the clinician's fault that life is difficult. Not a Dr's job to sort out the tube. If you want to see a Dr, you have to do what is needed to see one.

I charge my patients 30 dollars for a missed appt or later than 30 min unless they call us and let us know that they are delayed. it’s very rare they do

@ThornsWithin I'd charge repeat offenders, no doubt folk would arrive on time then.

When I worked in practice as a dentist I refused to see people who were more than 15 minutes late. I very rarely ran more than 15 minutes late myself though, the only times were when I was dealing with a medical emergency, or squeezed in a patient with pain/trauma.

We could see repeat offenders and I knew my patients so knew who had what going on in their lives etc. So there was some leeway

Private patients are by far the best attenders, and were rarely late. Non-fee paying NHS patients DNA way more than fee paying or private patients, and are late way more. People don't value things they don't pay for.

Now in hospital the consultant can run an hour late, this is because his clinics are often overbooked seeing emergency patients, patients with cancer. He gives patients as long as they need, and so yes he runs late. However this benefits all the patients care, because when they need the extra time they are given it, when they ring up with an emergency they get it. If the clinics weren't overbooked our wait times would be insane. He will squeeze someone in who needs to be seen.

When someone is genuinely late for a reason they will ring up and explain. And then I will either see them or if it is too late explain that don't worry we will rebook you when it is convenient for you. I tend to find they will also come in and apologise straight away etc. But lots of people waltz in 20 minutes late, no apology and expect to be seen. The answer is no.

If elderly patients are late they are normally very apologetic, often they will write apology cards and things like that. They do value their appointments more. And I would squeeze people who are apologetic in if I could.

At the end of the day it's not fair on Bob who turned up 10 minutes early for their appointment for me to see sam who is 20 minutes late and then be 20 minutes late for Bob. It's not fair on everyone who has made it in on time.

And if I do run an hour late you don't have to see me, you are welcome to say actually I don't want my appointment and I would understand and rebook.

The number of times I have arrived early for appointments to walk in & see a sign that says clinic is running 1 hour late or arrived for the first appointment of the day on time or early for the doctor to stroll in 45 minutes after the clinic should have started. Yes it costs money to run a clinic, but it also costs patients money to attend a clinic, lost wages, money to travel, payment for parking, the longer you are kept waiting in clinic, the higher your parking charge will be. But patients are supposed to sit there & be grateful that they are being seen makes me think that patients time & money isn't seen as being worth anything.

I’m autistic and hate being late, running late is very stressful for me, likewise is being seen late/ clinics running late. I am also severely disabled and use a powered wheelchair to get around and a WAV with a pull out ramp at the back. Going anywhere with my wheelchair and WAV is very stressful, as the winch and locking mechanism for Securing my wheelchair In the car, are both notorious for being difficult. Add onto this the nightmare that is finding a parking space suitable for a WAV and with clearance space at the back for allowing me to get in and out. Because of the frequency of these factors, we make sure to leave early, however there is no way to know in advance that the main road will be closed due to a fatal car crash - meaning we will be understandably redirected via an alternative route. I always call and either cancel or pre warn the clinic that I am stuck in traffic- allowing them to decide whether to re book my appointment or advise me as to whether I will still be seen.

I do think, however, that if a clinic is running very late, then a text warning patients and offering the opportunity to rebook their appointment would be helpful. Likewise, an announcement explaining the length of time the clinic is running over and offering patients the opportunity to re arrange their appointment would take some of the pressure off at clinics.

@billben no, I'm pointing out the flaws in the OP's stance.

If I have a day with more than two meetings in it, I know that the day itself won't pan out as planned - I'll probably leave late/get a shorter than 30 minutes lunch break/not get through as much else as I'd want to because that day involves coordinating with multiple people. It's just what happens.

So if the entire structure of every working day I had consisted of say fifteen points of coordination with fifteen different people all of whom could bring unexpected issues into the meetings then I certainly would not expect my day to pan out in reality exactly the same as it looked in my schedule at 8 o'clock that morning. Why would I?

I have missed one appointment in my life and it was a couple of days after my Dad has died. My lovely GP rang to see if I was ok, I have multiple health issues and was very unwell at that point.

I never expect to be able to get parking at the health centre so factor in extra time.

People that are generally crap at time think it’s a 15 min drive to Doctors so I will leave with 15 mins. Whereas I will be leaving 30 mins early for an appointment to factor in problems en route.

@KTheGrey how do missed appointments cost the NHS money? If someone doesn't turn up are all clinical staff, admin staff, porters etc sat around doing nothing for twenty minutes? Or do they see the next patient instead?

I had an ultrasound booked for 12:15pm. It was boiling and I arrived early to the hot waiting room.
Everyone around me was called into a room and then left.
It got to 1 before I asked what was going on. They said the receptionist had forgotten to mark me as there so I'd been classed as a and no show, by the time they realised the sonographers had went on their lunch break and I had to wait for all them to return from their lunch break.
I asked why no one had let me know considering it was easy to spot me as I was the only person in the waiting room.
I was hot and thirsty and could have went for a walk and got a drink if I knew I was going to be waiting for the next hour.
I think arseholes come in all shapes and sizes, sometimes the patients, but staff aren't faultless either.

YANBU. If people are late for genuine reasons, and they call to let the clinic know they are late and apologize, it’s still annoying but sometimes that’s how it goes, it’s not a perfect world we live in. But those who are obviously taking the piss, should just make a new appointment.

Though I have to say, it does bother me that some medical professionals have the habit to let patients who have an appointment wait a long time - more often than not!

I am never late for any medical appointment, yet my dentist managed to keep me waiting for over an hour last time without any notification such as ‘you might have to wait a little longer’. I was not impressed and complained about it, hopefully they understand now that doing this to their patients is also not on!

MistyKoala
The thing is, one of the reasons clinics run late is latecomers. So in order to try and run on time for everyone a zero (or close to) tolerance would be more efficient.

I freely admit that it is one of the reasons, others are that patients are in for longer than the allotted time due to taking multiple issues in as it takes such along time to get an appointment.

Others are emergencies that crop up.

but others are due to poor time management.
Or even in the case of when I was the first appointment of the day the dr not starting on time.

I have even been to places where the specialist completely missed my appointment, and in the case of one woman where she wasn't told where to go correctly and found the specialists room after someone else had been caused.

It would also be nice to know how far behind they are when you enter the waiting area.

But here is a thing

Something has changed at my dr's, I don't know what, but now instead of running late somehow they are now on time or early.

@fuma
Sometimes, yes. Or they work overtime for free, or they do more than they should in the time available. Then they leave the NHS because they are too tired and stressed to do it any more. The fixed overheads mean that not using facilities efficiently increases the per capita cost as well as the human one.

I totally agree with you OP.

To be honest it’s the management that are in the wrong fir letting this happen. If you’re late, you’re late. You can’t expect to be seen unless the practitioner has no one else waiting. As you say, why should the rest of the patients have to be disadvantaged because of one person being late.

Don’t get me wrong these things happen at times for reasons beyond their control, but that’s unfortunate and another appointment should be made.

If it wasn’t so easy to say ‘oh but I need to see them now bla bla’ then they’re invited in, they probably would make sure they were on time next time!!

I arrived recently 40 minutes early and was still 10 minutes late entering the clinic as there was no parking at all. None. Just 100's of cars circling around. The person I was delivering is in a wheelchair so I can't just use any old parking space, only a disabled one. There's about 8 for an entire hospital!

You might be thinking- oh well, they could set off even earlier then to allow for at least 50 minutes sitting in the car park- nope, the person is incontinent and so journeys door to door of more than an hour are difficult if you can't use a loo/get a change.

The lady with a clipboard huffed at us when we finally made it, 'sodden, into the clinic. I felt entirely justified in asking to be added to the clinic list as we were late, and yes, we did use the toilet!

I get most people don't have those impediments, but dragging everyone into central hospitals with inadequate parking, very stressful busy corridors and chaotic clinics is a stupid thing to do quite a lot of the time, especially for older, disabled or patients with dementia/additional needs. By contrast our GP's surgery is local, parking is always within 5 min, the atmosphere is calm and they run on time pretty much!

They should turn up on time but NHS keeps people waiting for ages sometimes. Cuts both ways?

We have never strolled in 10 minutes late but we have been 10 minutes late because ds has become so anxious and distressed that we have been unable to safely get him out of the house into the car and have had to wait it out until he calms down. He is a teenager so not a toddler you can just bundle under your arm or hold down whilst you strap him in.
Fine to have a general rule about not seeing people but you need to allow for exceptional circumstances.

@KTheGrey, that's kind of a house that Jack built way of looking at the concept of "cost" though, isn't it? What about actual cost, using the meaning of the word in the way it is generally understood?