Forty minute wait - is this OK/normal?

[Lizzie]

I had a routine appointment to see the nurse yesterday - or so I thought. They would just take my blood pressure and weight and give me my prescription. The whole thing would take less than 5 minutes.

I ended up waiting 40 minutes - ten minutes after the practice closed. The reception staff had to wait with me, my boyfriend was waiting with me too. I was embarrassed to make these people wait.

When the nurse appeared she offered no apology or explanation. She seemed to think a 40 min wait was normal. I don't. Am I right to be angry? What do the rest of you think? When pushed, the nurse mumbled that she had to give each patient the time they needed, but surely there is a limit to that? Surely there is a time when she has to say, look I am sorry but the practice is closed now, and I still have a patient waiting, please can we wrap this up?

 

[Steff]

Hi Lizzie
Last time i was in GP's getting weight check etc etc i waited 1 hour 05 minutes i was going up the wall i had to ring some one to pick my boy up at 15.00 mind when i got in there she apologised and said she was working between 2 surgeries 3 mile apart and she had been held back unexpectadly there, mind i wasn't really in the mood to hear her excuses but i just wanted to appointment over with i was more worried about my little boy at the time and not being there to pick him up... I do think you have a right to be angry like you say no explanation or apology makes it even worse x

 

[mikep1979]

i would certainly put this in writing to the practice manager and let them know how upset you are about it. however i know that in my surgery appointment do run over on a regular basis and a certain doctor will just let you gripe all day at him, however our nurse is fab and will allocated you the right sort of appointment time and then when it gets towards the end ask if there is anything else and if there is she will make you an appointment to come back if she knows it will take to long to sort out straight away.

 

[bev]

Whilst i do sympathise with you for having to wait, it really is unavoidable sometimes. By the very nature of the job a doctor/nurse is there to listen to a patients problems/worries. Some people find it hard to 'offer' information and a doctor may suspect there is something seriously wrong with them and is taking the time to get to the bottom of certain symptoms etc.
The person taking more time than was allocated could very well have been someone like me taking Alex to the doctor/nurse and being given the diagnosis of type 1 diabetic, this news wouldnt be able to be given in a 5 minute slot and then expecting us to just leave. Time has to be taken to explain the problem and unfortunately this may have a domino effect and eat into your appointment time. I do understand how annoying it is - but i think its difficult to avoid sometimes.🙂 Bev

 

[sofaraway]

I try my best not to get annoyed when I am kept waiting but I am a very inpatient person. But I understand when I am seen late, there have been many times when I have been longer in my appointment. I have been very upset about something, or the Dr has been trying to get hold of the hospital to refer me urgently for something. I try to remember that I've taken more time in the past. I like my new surgery because when you sign in on the screen it tells you how late your nurse/doctor is running, at least you are prepared for a wait.

 

[Steff]

yea good points Bev , i do suppose if it had of been me and i had just been told im diabetic for example i'd appreciate the gp spending time with me after talking me through things etc etc I'd not even give the pacient waiting a second thought.Guess we just have to realise if a gp rushed thorough an appointment we would be saying there are uncaring .

 

[Caroline]

Last time I wanted to see my doctor I had to wait two weeks for the appointment. I didn't make too much fuss because it was for something simple. Then when I went to keep my appointment I waited for 40 minutes after my time. I was so cross and frustrated when I finally got in to see him I just burst into tears. It did me a favour as I got a certificate for three weeks off, he said I was depressed!

 

[Lizzie]

I have looked at the Practice Charter and it does say you should expect to wait up to thirty minutes - my wait was only ten minutes after that. So in that way it doesn't seem that big a deal. What annoys me though is that it was ten minutes after the place had closed - it seems to show disrespect to her colleagues to make them work that extra time and it seems to me to be worse since it was after they shut. I think thirty minutes is too long though. Also the lack of an apology and explanation shows bad customer service. And if I had been even five minutes late the appointment would have been cancelled. Yet they are free to keep me waiting as long as they want.

Maybe some appointments may take longer. But when the practice closes I would have thought they could respectfully ask if they could make a followup appointment as there was a patient waiting. I myself have been told to leave the room as I have overrun my appointment time - this was at the same practice, after 15 minutes not 40, in the middle of the day not after closing, and at the time I was in distress and floods of tears but I was told to leave since there were others waiting. It should have been handled more tactfully but I do think it was the right thing to do. I made another appointment with another doctor to discuss my problem further.

My practice has a screen too but it told me there was no wait at all. At least if they had bothered to update it I would have expected a wait, as it was I was expecting to be seen at the time of my appointment.

 

[Caroline]

What realy annoys me is if we are late, even a little bit late we have to wait till the end of surgery, whether the next person has turned up or not. I appreciate in a busy surgery one persons lateness can put the rest of the day out, but in our practice it is often the doctor who is late and only sometimes the patients. Seems a bit one sided and unfair.

I have been chucked out too for over running my appointment. I simply make another appointment for as soon as possible and keep going back until I have everything sorted to my satisfaction...

 

[Steff]

My screen at the gp is never working i always just have to check in through the receptionist, If im more then 10 mins late i would have to rebook they clearly state that all over the surgery with posters on the wall. Once even i was told i was seeing the nurse but infact i saw some one diffirent and i had to explain allll of my diagnosis etc etc was very tiresome i would of liked to have been told , maybe thats me being picky 🙂 if i ring up and say "can i make an appointment with the nurse" and receptionist gives me time n date i'd expect to see her not some locum and no reason was given why i cou'ldnt see nurse

 

[Northerner]

I accept that I'm going to have to wait, and take a book along with me to pass the time. It does annoy me when I have an early appointment and still end up waiting a long time. For example, I once had an appointment for 8:50, but ended up waiting an hour - the surgery only opens at 8:00 so how could they be running an hour late? Grrr!!! My current GP is very good though, she doesn't rush you, but nor does she hang about. She's very good at listening, accepts that her patient (me!) is intelligent and can understand things, so doesn't patronise or fob you off.

They have about 150 'missed' appointments a month, which seems fairly constant. I'm not sure whether they build this 'extra time' into the booking system, like airlines overbook passengers, but I'm guessing they do. I think if I had been left waiting like you Lizzie, I would at least have expected an apology, that's common courtesy and costs nothing.

 

[Caroline]

I don't think you are being picky at all. We have a right to expect continuity of care and we should be told who we are seeing. The person you are seeing should also have your notes so that you don't have to keep explaining. Shame we don't have the same GP surgery, we could gang up with all the ither disgruntled patients....

 

[carolyn]

My GP or nurse is very good, I get to see them within 5 or 10 mins of my appointment time. my old surgery I would have to wait up to an hour and not get any reason why she was running late, when I saw her she would them read my notes again and then ask what I wanted to her her about. I moved Gp's so that the service I got would be better and it is. I must say that I do have to wait for an appointment if needing to see the nurse in emergencies.
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[rossi_mac]

I once was totally forgotten about and was squeezed in at the end to be told we'll have a proper chat next time!!

Generally I accept/expect to wait up to an hour, best to keep happy as I believe we're all going to be going to these places for a long time, so the less stressed you and everyone is the better it will be.

Obviously for some of us time is more valuable work and family etc, and at the mo I've got it easy so I appreciate I'm looking from a different angle.

but yes it would be worth mentioning it to the manager.

Smile and the world will smile with you!!? (I must be in a good mood today!)

 

[Steff]

I don't think you are being picky at all. We have a right to expect continuity of care and we should be told who we are seeing. The person you are seeing should also have your notes so that you don't have to keep explaining. Shame we don't have the same GP surgery, we could gang up with all the ither disgruntled patients....

yes goodness no surgery would be big enough to fit us all in

 

[Einstein]

Hi Lizzie,

The problem of the staff waiting isn't your doing, you had an appointment they booked for you with the nurse. Equally unless she took another 40 minutes for lunch then the chances are she had a patient who needed some extra assistance, perhaps newly diagnosed with a million and one questions. Certainly I was never hurried along, each was answered in full.

And I can't expect her to give other patients less time if they need that time, especially as we all know with diabetes how much support beyond the medication and testing is needed in the early days.

Where she was wrong was the simple phrase, 'sorry to keep you so long' she doesn't need to give you a reason, but acknowledging the delay takes the heat out of the situation.

What does drive me mad are fasting blood tests when you get an early appointment and you're kept waiting when they know you're not far off the floor! Then, more due to levels they do get a few of my thoughts!

 

[Steff]

I once was totally forgotten about and was squeezed in at the end to be told we'll have a proper chat next time!!

Generally I accept/expect to wait up to an hour, best to keep happy as I believe we're all going to be going to these places for a long time, so the less stressed you and everyone is the better it will be.

Obviously for some of us time is more valuable work and family etc, and at the mo I've got it easy so I appreciate I'm looking from a different angle.

but yes it would be worth mentioning it to the manager.

Smile and the world will smile with you!!? (I must be in a good mood today!)

WOW totally forgotton about 😱 totally agree with the bit you say about we are going to be going a long time so the less we stress the better .

 

[Steff]

I accept that I'm going to have to wait, and take a book along with me to pass the time. It does annoy me when I have an early appointment and still end up waiting a long time. For example, I once had an appointment for 8:50, but ended up waiting an hour - the surgery only opens at 8:00 so how could they be running an hour late? Grrr!!! My current GP is very good though, she doesn't rush you, but nor does she hang about. She's very good at listening, accepts that her patient (me!) is intelligent and can understand things, so doesn't patronise or fob you off.

They have about 150 'missed' appointments a month, which seems fairly constant. I'm not sure whether they build this 'extra time' into the booking system, like airlines overbook passengers, but I'm guessing they do. I think if I had been left waiting like you Lizzie, I would at least have expected an apology, that's common courtesy and costs nothing.

Ah you make a good point northener i will take a book a long next time , funny we should be talking about this i have just been to the gp and i had to wait 5 minutes lol

 

[aymes]

I'm quite lucky in that I rarely have to wait at my GP, it's a fairly new one and still doesn't have it's full capacity of patients (there are a lot of new homes being built in the area so think it was to cope with that but until the houses are full the GPs isn't!). But where I used to be the wait was generally up to an hour, and the diabetes clinic at the hospital can be very late running. It's frustrating but I think the nature of what they do means that it's unavoidable a lot of the time. However, they certainly should have offered you an apology/explanation of some description.

 

[aymes]

They have about 150 'missed' appointments a month, which seems fairly constant. I'm not sure whether they build this 'extra time' into the booking system, like airlines overbook passengers, but I'm guessing they do.QUOTE]

I'm always amazed by how many appointments they say are missed each month at the diabetes centre at my hospital, I can't make what is already a very difficult thing to manage any easier.