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You and your General Practitioner

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My GP is great. However it is usually a 30 minute wait. I normally go after a day at the hospital, and I am happy to wait the 30 minutes, which is usually a blow out due to him seeing a couple of really sick kids after school.

My patience is probably helped by the fact that he has done the same for my kids in years past.


I do agree that some GPs have some terrible time management skills and are always late for no logical reason, but they are the minority.

Some are late early in the morning as they have had to go to the hospital if they have rights to admit, or have seen a call out in the morning (although these 2 are rare)

Most are late in the day due to consults booked for a short, which should have been long (both patients and admin staff cause this dilemma), and some are late due to emergencies.


I will have to do a little survey in the ED at my hospital, regarding people's attitudes to waiting for eg a splinter in the thumb when I am next there versus the person who is being seen by the doctor for an AMI... I am quite sure that the person with the splinter will be whining about the 4 hour wait, but the person with the AMI will be happy that they have been triaged higher.. irrelevant? well perhaps that person with the AMI went to YOUR gp this morning after a night of "heartburn" and the GP had to let go of their day to assist this person at the surgery until the ambulance arrived.

Then again, perhaps your GP is just a poor time manager ;)

( Disclosure, I am not a GP :) )
 
My beef is not so much with the GP - I do understand that patients take longer than planned and emergencies happen - but with the receptionists who won't let you check how big the delay is and then come in just prior to your "new" appointment time. Why must I be forced to sit in a waiting room for an hour if I live only 5 mins away and I know my GP is running 45 mins late? If I ring the receptionist and find out he's running 45 mins late and time my arrival to coincide with my "new" appointment time, why must I wait an hour anyway as others were already sitting in the waiting room - especially as their original appointment times would be later than my original time? It's this totally inconsiderate attitude towards their patient's time and busy schedules that irks me.
 
DocK said:
My beef is not so much with the GP - I do understand that patients take longer than planned and emergencies happen - but with the receptionists who won't let you check how big the delay is and then come in just prior to your "new" appointment time. Why must I be forced to sit in a waiting room for an hour if I live only 5 mins away and I know my GP is running 45 mins late? If I ring the receptionist and find out he's running 45 mins late and time my arrival to coincide with my "new" appointment time, why must I wait an hour anyway as others were already sitting in the waiting room - especially as their original appointment times would be later than my original time? It's this totally inconsiderate attitude towards their patient's time and busy schedules that irks me.
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I hear you.

Imo the most arrogant people in a lot of GP practices are the receptionists. I do see however that they are pressed by their doctors a bit.

eg 9:15am appt is running late 10 mins, is VERY hard to catch up for the other patients during the day.

It has been quite some time since I was in training, and experiencing GP world, but they had some funny system which was like

9am 2 bookings,
9:15 1 booking
9:30 1 booking

and it did some funny things, which I cannot recall. The idea was that there would always be 2 people waiting for the appt so that if 1 was late, then the workflow remained (and eg if 1 consult goes 10 mins, and the next 20 mins, there is at least some hope of recovering some time). In theory this should mean that at times there is a wait even if you arrive on time and the GP is on time..

I don't think there are people who realise how difficult it can be to make a dx etc in 15 minutes. I think GPs have very demanding jobs, so I cut them a little slack when I see them within these difficult appointment schedules..

So I am not defending your receptionist, but for them a wait for you of say 30 mins, is probably the right thing to do, because people PROMISE to be in on time, and rock up 15 minutes late which ALSO screws up the rest of the day for everyone.
 
DocK said:
My beef is not so much with the GP - I do understand that patients take longer than planned and emergencies happen - but with the receptionists who won't let you check how big the delay is and then come in just prior to your "new" appointment time. Why must I be forced to sit in a waiting room for an hour if I live only 5 mins away and I know my GP is running 45 mins late? If I ring the receptionist and find out he's running 45 mins late and time my arrival to coincide with my "new" appointment time, why must I wait an hour anyway as others were already sitting in the waiting room - especially as their original appointment times would be later than my original time? It's this totally inconsiderate attitude towards their patient's time and busy schedules that irks me.
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Probably not the receptionist's decision to do this. It definitely isn't where I go. Absolutely on rigid instruction by the doctor. The receptionists, I know, would be more than happy to provide an estimated correct time.
I suggest you discuss it with your GP and let him know how you feel. When I did this some while ago, my GP was quite surprised that I wasn't entirely happy to sit there for an hour and a half!
 
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