this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2024
1310 points (97.7% liked)

memes

10390 readers
2055 users here now

Community rules

1. Be civilNo trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour

2. No politicsThis is non-politics community. For political memes please go to !politicalmemes@lemmy.world

3. No recent repostsCheck for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month

4. No botsNo bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins

5. No Spam/AdsNo advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live.

Sister communities

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] NounsAndWords@lemmy.world 94 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Them making you wait is also often a consequence of earlier patients showing up late or an appointment requiring more time than expected.

The options to solve it are less patients per day, but that leads to even longer delays before you even get to your appointment date, OR more professional staff in the office....but that would cut into profits of the people in charge so is immediately off the table in this damned money world.

[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 11 points 8 months ago (1 children)

In an ER, that's understandable, but in a general doctor's office there's no reason that Docs should extend one patient's appointment time just because they ended up late:

"Oh, you scheduled a 30 minute consultation because of a sore knee but now you're asking for an ENT referral and blood work? You'll have to schedule another appointment to go over that, we're only covering what you told us the other day."

[–] ClockworkOtter@lemmy.world 15 points 8 months ago (2 children)

You think someone should be penalised by having their diabetes review cut short because the traffic from their minimum wage job was unexpectedly slow?

[–] scrion@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Hyperbole indeed.

What about the 25 other patients who do not have a really, really important diabetes consultation, but a head cold or are just alone and need to talk?*

What about that one person who had their really, really important diabetes consultation at 6pm but was told to come back another day two hours later at 8pm once the other appointments were all stretched out ad infinitum, but can't return anytime soon due to their boss not giving them any time off in their minimum wage job, who then DIES of diabetes? Come on, let's not resort to hyperbole and made up scenarios - improvements are possible, and we should aim for those.

*Loneliness, in particular in elderly patients, is a real problem which I'm not trying to downplay. This needs to be solved, too.

[–] ClockworkOtter@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

It's a hypothetical scenario. Penalising people for being late or for missing appointments has a higher adverse effect for people in poverty or with disabilities without actually addressing the cause. It's why doctors in the UK are generally against introducing fines for missed appointments.

We need more capacity, yes.

[–] PP_BOY_@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Hyperbolic, made up scenario, but yeah pretty much. You get the time slot you scheduled and you should be held responsible for using it. Most offices ask you to check in at least a half hour early for a reason.

I could just as easily switch that around and ask if you believe some poor guy who finally got an extended lunch break from his minimum wage warehouse job should be fired because he had to wait an hour at the doctor's office because some rich white lady spent 30 minutes past her appointment arguing about essential oils. Painting is pretty easy when it's all black and white.

[–] Baku@aussie.zone 3 points 8 months ago

Half an hour early? That feels excessive. At my GPs it's 10 minutes early

[–] ClockworkOtter@lemmy.world 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That sounds like an employment rights issue. Here we get as much time as required for health appointments.