Cancelled appointment. Is this common?

Backbiter

Deleted_User wrote:

Doubtless there are others who have waited as long and who would be doubly frustrated knowing they could have had the OPs space at short notice.

That is a very good argument.

But equally, not seeing me that day (as I said, I was prepared to wait until the end of the afternoon, or a couple of hours if necessary) means that I 'll now have to be given a new time that could have been given to someone else.

In my experience appointments very rarely run to schedule, so the fact that I wasn't there at 2,40 doesn't mean that my time was left blank, they just see the next person. For every late person there are always a few who arrive early who are only too pleased to be seen ahead of schedule.

Sammy D - Could I advise you not to advertise the fact that you've been late? There are people out there who would have you denied treatment altogether.

Savvy_Sue

Backbiter wrote:

In my experience appointments very rarely run to schedule, so the fact that I wasn't there at 2,40 doesn't mean that my time was left blank, they just see the next person. For every late person there are always a few who arrive early who are only too pleased to be seen ahead of schedule.

But maybe there wasn't a next person. Maybe yours was the last appointment for that particular clinic on that particular day. And even if it wasn't, unless it was possible to effectively do a straight swap between seeing you and seeing someone else, seeing you late could have a knock-on effect for the rest of the day. I know that our GPs run 'normal' surgeries morning and afternoon, and 'specialist' (I was going to say 'odd' but that's not what I meant!) clinics tend to be in the middle of the day, with rooms 'doubling up' in the way that they're used. Maybe if the person you were due to see had seen you, they'd have been late collecting a child from a childminder, or evening surgery would have been late starting. You don't know what other reasons there were for not agreeing to see you.

I know you say that as a teacher you wouldn't refuse to see a parent who was late arriving, and having just 'done' another parents evening I know we were late to various appointments because previous ones had overrun. But as a parent I would not dream of assuming that I could arrive 30 minutes late for a meeting with a teacher and still be SURE of being seen. I would acknowledge that the teacher might have other commitments, and offer to make another appointment if the reason for the meeting needed more time than was now available.

PS: suppose you'd been seen, but because the person seeing you was now working under time pressure they'd not done the job properly. Would that be a better scenario?

Bogof_Babe

Well I wholely sympathise with Backbiter. Why is the phrase "circumstances beyond my control" suddenly apparently such a cop-out?

He could not have telephoned if delayed in traffic (unless he wanted prosecuting for using a phone while in charge of a car on the road). Many surgeries make it so darned impossible to get through that it's no wonder people struggle to contact them to cancel appointments.

Appointment times do invariable run late, it's a fact of life - be it the doctor, dentist, vet, hairdresser or whatever. Everybody queues all the time. It is expected that no-one complains. So why treat a genuinely delayed patient as if they have deliberately snubbed the system, when clearly that was not what happened.

It would not have hurt the running of the surgery to try to accommodate this patient, even with a frown and a stern warning, if that made themselves feel better.

Today's cancelled appointment might be next year's in-patient stay, or urgent medical crisis. Anyway, it is not "free" - or at least not to a hard working, time constrained citizen.

Backbiter

I spoke to a colleague tonight who told me she's had an appointment cancelled for being 10 minutes late. It does seem to be common practice, so I can't say I was treated unfairly. I have to say I feel a lot less hard done by and have put it all down to experience.

And Savvy_Sue makes very good points which I can't argue with.

SammyD_2

Backbiter wrote:

Sammy D - Could I advise you not to advertise the fact that you've been late? There are people out there who would have you denied treatment altogether.

Yes, just kill off those patients who for whatever reason are late. Would do a lot to ease the strain on the NHS.

Bagpuss1973

Backbiter wrote:

After a wait of 7 weeks I was given an appointment at 2.40 today to remove a skin growth at my local surgery. Unfortunately it clashed with an important meeting with the President of my national association, so I rang to ask if I could have a later time. I was told this would mean taking my place at the back of the queue, so I decided to attend. This meant giving profuse apologies at the start of the meeting to explain that I'd have to leave early.
With negotiations at a sensitive point I couldn't leave as early as planned, and arrived at 3.10.
I was told to wait a few minutes, before they said I'd have to rearrange because I was so late. I'm not exaggerating to say I was the only person in the waiting room, so they were hardly rushed off their feet.
I can't dispute that I was late, but is 30 minutes such a crime that you forfeit your appointment? They make you wait weeks, months, even years for treatment and can't put up with a 30 minute delay.
I was fuming - I regularly take my son to an orthopaedic hospital and never have to wait less than an hour for to be seen - the appointment times just seem like a vague request to attend that morning/ afternoon. I am a teacher who makes appointments with parents who struggle to arrive on time because of work commitments. This happens dozens of times each year and I show them every understanding when they turn up late because their children matter to them (and me).
I know lateness can be seen as extreme bad manners but this genuinely wasn't the case.
I know this instance doesn't remotely compare with the poor souls who have their operations repeatedly cancelled but I'd still like to know: does this happen a lot?

Well...don't really know where to start here.

I can certainly appreciate your personal distress about your dilemma but you do appear to think that your GP just sits there waiting for you.

I work in a busy GP practice, it may surprise you but your only 30 minutes late happens all the time and we get a range of reasons and excuses.

It might also amaze you that the GP who probably had a nurse with him/her might have other things to do than wait around until you turn up with instruments waiting for your op, in the real world this just does not happen.

The doctors have approx 10,000 other patients for starters who all think they are the most important person in the world (and naturally to them they are) and that everyone just sits around filing their nails waiting for them.

The doctor could well have had other surgeries to deal with and also perhaps the nurse who would be with him/her could not stay after the surgery time as we also have lives and families and children that cannot wait either. It is standard practice to put people at the bottom of the list because why should you be offered two or three appointments which you might not make whilst the others sit on the waiting list? Perhaps you would be perfectly happy if you were number three on the list and had to wait even longer whilst the two people above you sorted out their own lives before actually making an appointment.

Also, the receptionist might not have the power to just make an appointment further ahead, this would not be a personal vendetta just a fact, the clinic dates might not have been set up yet for a whole number of reasons.

Just out of interest, what would you have thought (not necessarily done but thought) if your important business colleague had turned up only 30 minutes late...??

Sorry to go on but this subject always gets to me!

brummiebabe

I'm a community nurse, so see people at home, and at my base. For people attending to see me, they have 20 minutes grace. If they call to say they'll be late, we try to accomodate but it just isn't possible all the time!!! We have full diaries and there is often little room for manoevre!!!!!

However, I have to agree that when you initially called to try and rearrange your appointment - they should have just offered you the next available slot - NOT put you to the back of the queue - I feel that's really bad practice!!!!! We operate a system where people can phone in to book a convenient appointment (so that they're more likely to keep it!!!!) Although its somewhat limited (ie only set days avaliable)- it does help!!!!

I do feel though, that your health is THE priority - work comes way down on the list!!If you have to cancel work commitments, then so be it - that work will always be there the next day & the day after that!!

Hope you get it sorted soon!!

nearlyrich

In my job I make appointments to see my customers, I will wait a maximum of 15 minutes in any reception then I ask the receptionist to call the person again to make sure they know I am there. If they don't show in 20 minutes without a good excuse I'm out of there.

As a NHS patient I can book an appointment on line with my GP last one I booked for 10 to 6, at 4.30 I got a call saying my chosen doc wasn't doing the surgery, did I want to rebook or turn up at 6 and see a locum? I turned up an 6 and he had been waiting 20 minutes because he works faster than they expected.

I think the OP should have been given a different appointment because in the event the slot was wasted, I have never had a problem tweaking an appointment time to make it more convenient.

2ax

Backbiter wrote:

How would a privatised NHS have handled this case? I honestly think that point is totally irrelevant to the issue of whether a surgery should accommodate someone who has waited 7 weeks for an appointment but who is delayed by 30 minutes.

They would have billed for a cancelled appointment.

Why do you think that other people's appointments should have been overridden to accommodate? The person that would have given treatment might have been going elsewhere.

I sympathise with the circumstance of being late, but you really have no complaint at all that other people were better organised.

You point out that some people turn up early. Perhaps if you had phoned to say you were late, they could have seen if anybody was actually early.

And as for the people suggesting that because their personal opinion of the NHS is that it is disorganised, this should confer special treatment or more flexibility .... this simply doesn't make much sense.

When I was going to be between 5 and 10 minutes late for a dental appointment, I rang up half an hour beforehand and they did see the next person first. When I totally forgot to turn up, I rang and offered to pay for the missed appointment, which represents lost income - not many NHS dentists in certain areas.

Sofa_Sogood

Reading back and realising the OP had waited 7 weeks, I think I'd want to know why it took 7 weeks.

My husband was encouraged, for wants of a better word, to see his doctor about a lump on his arm (another doctor in the same surgery recommended it). It didn't take anywhere near 7 weeks.

He took an expensive day off work, only to be told it didn't need removing. This was after he'd rescheduled his week thinking he'd be unable to drive,

Some people just can't win sometimes.