What's the longest you waited to be called for an appointment in the hospital?

[Beeches24]

I was due to have an appointment at 8.30am. I'm still waiting at 09.28am to be called.

I never have appointments so don't know what's usual. My anxiety (not the case for the appointment) seems to raise the longer I wait.

What's the longest you have waited to be called?

They do know I'm here before anyone asks and I can hear if they call me.

just over 90 mins and I had dd in tow in the pram

Totally depends - maybe an emergency happened, who knows. Hopefully you get seen soon.

2-3 hours. Recurrent miscarriage clinic. I always knew if it was running very late then someone was having a nightmare and needed the time to get the care they needed. When it was me having the disaster I knew the other women waiting understood.

I hope you get seen soon.

I think it's more than reasonable to ask if there's an expected time to be seen as they're running an hour late. I've seen notices saying to ask for an explanation if they're running more than 30 mins late for example. Speaking to someone will allay your fears they've forgotten you.

Couple of hours. I used to have to go to Opthamology very regularly and I looked at the appt time as a general suggestion of morning or afternoon. They do the best they can but for every booked appt there is someone who is slotted in as an emergency, they then prioritise based on need.

Just find a comfortable seat and settle in, they'll call you in as soon as they can.

3 hrs in orthopaedic outpatients (gave up and went home)

3 hours. Others waiting for the same consultant were being seen by other doctors to try to relieve the pressure but I and one other person were told we'd have to wait for the head doctor.

It can differ from department to department.

The eye clinic my grandad was at were Always running hours over and it was a nightmare to get appointments. We once had an 8.30am appointment and we're still there at 1pm. How do you run that far behind for your first or second appointment? 😒🙄

We once had three appointments in a row for him I was dreading (same hospital different areas) for tests. We were in and out that place within an hour! (again these were timed to be first few appointments which helped)

If they haven't called us within 45 mins of an appointment time I do go ask for an update.

4 hours - the consultant got stuck in an urgent surgery.

Over 5 hrs to see midwife/have scans/bloods etc. Kept telling me I was next. I so wasn't.
Got there for 11am. Was seen after 4pm and promptly fainted as not had anything to eat.

I was first here. 8.30am is first appointment of the day.

Clearly based on above I need to settle in. I wish I had snacks to keep me going.

This department is unlikely to have an emergency.

I finished 10hour night shift at 7am so was hoping to be out of here and in bed by now.

3 hours when I had an antenatal appointment it was very busy and they had a notice up saying the wait is likely 2 hours or more because it was so busy

Certainly seems well managed. Hope they were apologetic.

Up to 3 hours was standard for antenatal appointments with DC2. I didn't realise the first time and had said to work I'd be back in about 2 hours (allowing time for driving there, having the appointment, getting back, plus buffer time). In the end it was about 4.5 hours, I missed important meetings, nobody knew where I was as there's no signal in that hospital, and they have patient wifi but it wasn't working. Ugh. That continued to happen for pretty much all my antenatal appointments though there was one when I was seen within about 20 min; it was very unpredictable. One of them led to me being in the hospital for about 6 hours (3 hour wait, appointment, told to go for an extra scan, over an hour to wait for that...) and I was going to miss collecting my eldest from school so had to borrow a nurse's phone to call someone else to go get them! It was only supposed to be a quick discussion about my upcoming C section!

6 hours in the Foetal Medicine Centre. Nature of the beast though that emergencies get you bumped down from your appointment time. I was one of those emegencies a couple of weeks later and literally everyone came running so other women must have been waiting hours (all worked out well in the end!).

Around 2-3hrs with daughter at ENT appt.

4 hours once in an out patient clinic they routinely double book in the nhs

I think a few hours - I left as I had to go to work.

They seemed baffled that I would need to work my hours to be able to pay for food the following week and couldn’t just wait all day for them.

I’d walked 2 miles there and had to walk 2 miles back as I couldn’t even afford the bus fare.

This is what takes the piss about the NHS. I was waiting for my 'first appointment of the day' consultant appointment during pregnancy only a couple of years ago now, half an hour passed my appointment time a dishevelled looking bloke rolls into the waiting area, headed out back and then another 25 mins later I got called for my appointment. The dishevelled man who I thought was perhaps a lost homeless person was in fact my consultant. I was so annoyed (and he was useless) I asked him directly why he was so late and that I'd waited 1 hour to see him meaning all his other appointments would be late that day too. He had no excuse but didn't realise I'd overheard him whilst the nurse checked my blood pressure etc telling him colleague about his 'heavy night out'. I refused to leave before getting a second opinion from another consultant (waited another 2 hours to see them) and then made a formal complaint about lack of care and him potentially still being under the influence at work. It was promptly swept under the rug of course but I was raging.

Some of the NHS is just brilliant with fantastic staff but many are underworked, overpaid and very complacent.

2.5 hours. That was with the rheumatology consultant, who always over-runs.

If I'm seeing the rheumatology nurse, it's never more than a 10 minute wait.

A couple of weeks ago, I had an eye clinic appointment. I waited about 1.5 hours, but that was because reception hadn't told the nurse that I was in the waiting room. For the follow up appointment, I waited three minutes.

My GP surgery do this but consistently. Book an appointment for 8.30 then the non GP clinician walks in at 8.45 and doesn’t even apologise for the wait.

Its not as though we all have jobs to get back to.

Why don’t they make the appointments start at 8.45 ?!

Update: so after all that consultant said they wouldn't even see me and that I'm meant to be community led. Cue a poor midwife explaining this to me.

The condition they referred me for wasn't even requiring consultant led.

I nearly cried and was so upset so they're at least going to fit in a doppler or scan.

Couple of hours. Haematology first appointment. Turned out my consultant always overran, but he really was fantastic and spot on with his treatment plan. And he always took the time to answer my questions.
But all the clinics I have visited ( and I am old so get called to a lot of screening), have notices to ask you to notify reception if you are more than 20 minutes past time.

Oh that's ridiculous treatment. That's so unprofessional.

I would make a complaint. The consultant should have at least seen you just for making you wait that long. Ridiculous.