Options
Hospital appointments where you arrive on time, but still kept waiting for ages!
cassetteboy
Posts: 18 Forum Member
Not so long ago, I had to go to hospital for a hearing test, and I arrived at just before 10 o'clock as the appointment was at 10 o'clock. However, I was kept waiting up until just past 11:30! What's the point in the appointment being at 10 o'clock when I am kept waiting for ages? :mad:
Also, the actual appointment itself only lasted for just over 5 minutes! :rolleyes: Oh, the irony of being kept waiting for ages for something that only lasts for 5 minutes! :rolleyes:
Have you ever gone for an appointment, only to still be kept waiting for ages, despite being on time?
Also, the actual appointment itself only lasted for just over 5 minutes! :rolleyes: Oh, the irony of being kept waiting for ages for something that only lasts for 5 minutes! :rolleyes:
Have you ever gone for an appointment, only to still be kept waiting for ages, despite being on time?
0
Comments
Fracture clinics are a nightmare, but I don't mind waiting. Hospital staff are usually extremely busy.
deleted
I often have to go or take someone to the Doctors or Hospital and it's not unusual to get in a hour or more after your appointment.
I was scheduled for a colonoscopy on Wednesday, so I took Tuesday and Wednesday off work. Tuesday I took the hideous preparation they give you to "clean your bowel", which didn't really kick in until late evening, so I didn't sleep much. Anyway, got to the hospital Wednesday morning only to be told they'd changed the appointment and didn't I get the letter? No I bloody didn't get the letter.
GRRR. I'd rather have waited a couple of hours and actually had the damn procedure. Now I have to do all that shitting again, and take more time off work to do it.
It is power for the course in outpatient departments. An increase in demand and a lack of resources.
The appointment system books short time slots for patients but in reality many patients take a lot longer than their alloted time. If they booked in less patients - then people would have to wait longer for an appointment.
When my daughter was born she had weekly hospital appointments and it was just horrendous trying to keep her happy, as she got older the waiting would get harder to endure, sometimes she'd succeed in her endeavors to ransack the entire department while waiting.
In fact, I was in and out in under 15 mins, and the parking is free for under 30 mins.
Oh and turned out there was nothing wrong with the test results.
As a patient I have also overheard a consultant moaning they where scheduling patients appointments for the same time the consultant where due to start. So much for giving them chance to review the patients and split up the list effectively!
Anyway by the time we got called it was 12:30 2 hours after the orginal appointment and went in to see the Stuent for the ususal "learning" in note taking.
She disappeared to talk to the senior doctor and appeared back to say to come back at 1pm as they were going to lunch. By the time I got home after picking up a prescription it was 3:00. I'm sure A&E would have had a shorter wait
Don't be so sure I have had to wait 7 hours in A&E before
I love this
its annoying to be kept waiting but hey, what can you do?
i got there at 730am had blood test and was sat in my gown.
i was nil by mouth.
i had a nurse tell me that the op should be late morning now.
then about 12 someone said it will be early afternoon. then at 230 i was told it will be about 4 30.
then someone came over about 4 40 and said its been cancelled due to an emergency.
they told me they will write with a new appointment but i not heard nothing and its been about 3 weeks now
I take myself off for a walk (sometimes along The Thames to Tower Bridge and beyond for a few hours as her appointments are long) and when I return she's still sitting there waiting to be seen. :eek: I know things run late, but it is hard to understand how things can run so late.
I've ran out my battery waiting on a docs app before!
i went in at 5 i had a drink at 1 am!
we was even waiting before i even had a bed and pillow
Perhaps when you booked the appointment you misheard the appointment time?
i work in an outpatients dept on the administrative side of things and unfortunately this does happen a lot but it does depend on the speciality, for instance, we have a lot of neurology clinics and the slots are ridiculously spaced 15 minutes apart but some patients can be in there for a lot longer...it depends what they have to discuss. We have a lot of respiratory [chest] clinics where quite often they break bad news ie cancer results so y ou can see why they take time, you cant rush things like that but i suippose unless you have inside knowledge you cant appreciate factors like that..
some of our orthopaedic clinics espeically the trauma ones are heavily overbooked due to the nature of the injuries etc like fracture clinic, its how the clinics are set up i suppose but we have to have slots created or it would be a free for all. Most patients are fine with it, especially if they are regular reattenders and will wait, some wont be as patient but once we explain then they are usualy fine, some well, you cant please everyone!!
we do appreciate people have other things on their minds and places they have to be but sometimes it cant be helped
im sorry the OP was kept waiting so long,
we usually make routine announcements once we are aware clinics are running late and some of the letters tell patients to allow at least 2 hours for an appointment, but not every letter. I can see why people get frustrated but i've only come across 1 very hostile individual in the 2.5 years i've been there so i suppose i've been lucky, most people are fine with us if they are kept informed