Waiting For A Doctor's Appointment

Angela Channing

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Thankfully, I rarely have to visit my doctor so it came as a surprise when I needed to make an appointment that there is a TEN day waiting list to see him. I heard that waiting times were getting longer but 10 days is totally outrageous and completely unacceptable. Somebody could die during the time they have to wait to see their GP.

How long do you have to wait to see your doctor?
 

Daniel Avery

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Thursdays are typically the easiest day for me to get off from work, so I always try to get my appointments on that day just out of convenience to myself and my co-workers. If it's just a check-up it's never a problem to get an appointment within a day or two of the call, though. If my regular doctor isn't available he has three or four associates in the practice, so one of them will always have a free hour or so if something unpredictable (un-schedule-able) comes up.

I agree that waiting ten days--especially if it's something critical like the flu or injury--is outrageous. I'd find a new GP if they were always booked solid like that; I hate feeling rushed in the doctor's, and I would assume a doctor with that many patients would feel obligated to keep the line moving. When my doctor needed my blood work done, he was sending me to a separate facility "in my network" that was horrible. Granted, it was a walk-in place (no appointments), but sitting for an hour waiting for the vampires to get hold of you and being treated like cattle was misery. I ended up "firing them" and finding another lab service on the other side of town that had me in and out (minus some blood) in less than half an hour. The extra $40 or so for out-of-network was worth it just to be treated like a human.
 

Angela Channing

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I would change my doctor but apparently a 10 days wait isn't unusual around where I live.
 

Sarah

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It can be up to a month. It really is ridiculous.

Mine offer emergency appointments, but you have to queue from 8 in the morning (surgery opens at 9) and it's like the first lucky 5 get the appointments.

I can totally understand why people just go to A and E.
 

Mel O'Drama

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It can be up to a month. It really is ridiculous.

Yes. At my last GPs surgery, some practitioners had a waiting list of over a month... but their diaries in the appointments system only covered the next three weeks. So it was effectively impossible to book an appointment with a specific doctor.

Having moved a little while back, my new GP is an improvement. But only just.
 

Angela Channing

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It can be up to a month. It really is ridiculous.
A month for a GP appointment? :eck: That's not ridiculous, that's totally outrageous. I thought 10 days was far too long.
 
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Sarah

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Yup. That's why I say it's better to go to A and E if you really need to be seen. Why on earth would you say 'yeah I'm sick but I'll take an appointment in a month'.
 

Alexis

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I agree that a month waiting time is ridiculous you could have gotten over all kinds of illness by that time. The purpose of the appointment is to find out what is wrong and be treated to alleviate the symptoms/pain.

I guess somehow that your overall health plays a factor though. I remember when I was what they'd call typically healthy I always had to wait ages on appointments. Now I have been diabetic for 6 years and when on the odd time I need an appointment I get it in a week or less.
 

Toni

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Thankfully, I rarely have to visit my doctor so it came as a surprise when I needed to make an appointment that there is a TEN day waiting list to see him. I heard that waiting times were getting longer but 10 days is totally outrageous and completely unacceptable. Somebody could die during the time they have to wait to see their GP.

How long do you have to wait to see your doctor?

In Spain, last time I had to wait a month to see my GP, in a place that´s usually 2/3 empty. When I saw him, I was cured of my cold of course, but I have little things to spare, so I used my visit for that...

upload_2019-11-17_0-59-7.jpeg
 

Rove

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It's kind of hit and miss here in Australia. On Friday (just gone) morning I phoned and requested the next available appointment. I was expecting sometime next week but was pleasantly surprised when the receptionist informed me a cancellation had just opened up so I took it. In the past though my local medical centre has been booked out all week. Thankfully laws were changed here in Australia where I can walk into my local chemist and request a sick form to present to work, which at $25 dollars is a hell of a lot cheaper than visiting a doctor. I remember at the time the doctors were up in arms about this but as most people said, "If I'm suffering from a common cold I know a few days rest and plenty of water will have me up and running in no time."

But what really peeves me off is arriving prior to my appointment and waiting...and waiting. Why is it Doctors cannot stick to a schedule? I get sick just sitting in the waiting room.
 

Angela Channing

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But what really peeves me off is arriving prior to my appointment and waiting...and waiting. Why is it Doctors cannot stick to a schedule? I get sick just sitting in the waiting room.
That's what happened to me today! I finally had my doctor's appointment after a 10 day wait. My appointment was at 11:30 am and I arrived in plenty of time at 11:20. I was eventually called to see the doctor at 12:10, 40 minutes after my scheduled appointment but after waiting 10 days another 40 minutes wasn't worth getting stressed over. All that waiting and I was in and out in less than 5 minutes.
 

Daniel Avery

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One of my doctors back in Georgia had that inability to schedule properly. He was a great doctor, but if you had a 10am appointment, you'd sit in the waiting room until at least 10:20, when some nurses' assistant or intern or something would bring you into the exam room to take vitals, then abandon you for half an hour. At least in the waiting room there were decade-old magazines to read o_O but in the exam room all you have to do to keep you busy is plunder through their cabinets or read pamphlets for diseases you know you don't have. Why not just let us go back to the waiting room?

Someone ought to smuggle in a fake skeleton and prop it up in the exam room just to let the doctor know how long you waited.:D
 

Rove

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Someone ought to smuggle in a fake skeleton and prop it up in the exam room just to let the doctor know how long you waited.
This reminds of a very funny incident when I was in my teens and had a an operation on my foot. Because the surgery was minor they decided to numb the foot. My father was back at the waiting room and was informed by the surgeon the operation wouldn't take too long...perhaps 2 hours tops. When my operation was finished the lovely nurses wheeled me out of theater and left me in the hallway and said the wards-man will be along shortly to transfer me onto a wheelchair and be taken to the car. An hour later and I'm still lying on the gurney and not a soul in sight. Poor father must have become stressed because 3 hours had come and gone so made inquires. Hospitals tend to have long hallways so I could see my father in the distance walking with a nurse towards me. I calmly pulled the white sheet over me and kept still.

I can't quite remember if my father said is that a dead person or the nurse said my goodness but as they got next to me I sat bolt upright. Well...the looks on their faces was priceless. I probably gave the nurse nightmares. My dad just about wet himself but on the way home couldn't stop laughing.
 

Michael Torrance

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In the insurance I have in the US, a GP will tell you they are not for emergencies (for example, the flu) and that you need to visit an urgent care clinic for that. The co-pay to see my GP is $10, and for the clinic $50. But even when I do see the GP, I don't get a sense he really looks at me--maybe because he is on his computer screen the whole time reading his own notes on my file. These notes are also accessible to me as a patient, and they are so useless no wonder he spends so much time trying to figure out who I am and what my state of health is. Ironically, when the GP is unavailable and I have to see his assistant, a physician's assistant, she is amazing. So what I really need is to get a hold of his calendar to know when to avoid him.

BTW, what I really love is that even though he does not take walk-ins, I still have to wait 30-45 minutes in his waiting room to get in, and another 10-20 minutes in the exam room. A nurse then takes my blood pressure and comments "it is kind of high" to which I always reply, "but an hour ago when my appointment was, it was fine."
 

Daniel Avery

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Well, great! My doctor can't take his eyes off his computer, and I can't take my eyes off my doctor who can't take his eyes off his computer.

Is this how they justify raising my deductible?? :cool1
 
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