So last week I was sitting in the waiting room of my GP’s surgery (general practitioner) because I had an appointment with the nurse to get my travel vaccines up to date for my epic travel adventure. Yippee.
Now, my mother is a GP herself and it’s safe to say that I have grown up in the environment of a surgery. I spent many summers as a child helping around the surgery and seeing how everything was done. So I must admit, the experience of being on the patient’s side of the desk is not very familiar to me.
Upon my arrival, I was greeted and kindly informed that the nurse was running late and there may indeed be a bit of a wait to see her. I sat myself in the waiting room and began reading the posters on the opposite wall whilst having Pearl Jam play a rocking gig in my brain.
After about five minutes, a woman who was ahead of me in line commented about how the nurse must have ‘forgotten’ about her. After another five minutes a middle aged man entered the waiting are and started to scowl and impatiently stare at his watch. An older couple who were supposedly there long before the woman said they “can’t believe the nurse can take so long”.
After a minute had passed, the nurse appeared to call the woman in. The man with the watch immediately jumped out of his seat and exclaimed, “Hey, what about me?” The nurse duly apologised and reminded him that she was running late and there was a wait. Clearly, he was not happy so he made a point to resentfully sit back down in his seat.
The nurse then called in the older couple after just over 5 minutes. By this time, the man with the watch thought it was appropriate to cause as fuss. He had only been waiting ten minutes.
I don’t know about you, but this was very interesting to see in a patient’s perspective. These people had to wait on average about thirty minutes to be seen. They had been informed of the wait and the receptionists and the nurse apologised for the wait. Clearly they could not understand that some patients require more time than others and this is not something that the nurse or doctor can foresee.
Personally, I would rather wait thirty minutes if it meant that the doctor or nurse was able to carefully and methodologically treat me instead of rushing as rushing leads to mistakes. Something might be missed and in my eyes, that’s far worse than waiting in line for a bit.
People can wait days for the iPhone, they wait hours in line for a ride in the theme park, or in line for security at the airport check in. So I do not see how thirty minutes of waiting for free and up to scratch health care is such a massive dent in their lives to create such a fuss.
We live in the UK. Delays are expected absolutely everywhere. You’re getting something for free that will help you or potentially save you. Buck up and wait your turn.
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I completely agree, and your last comparisons really do put it into perspective! In fact, I'd have been tempted to try to illustrate this to the man you mentioned x
great entry and so true. its about priorities and patience and we've got those messed up.