Waiting For The Doctor
A friend on twitter was recently moaning about the time she spent
waiting outside doctors rooms as some of the most stessful periods of her life.
I agree with that sentiment. Never mind the fact that you are anxious to go in
there and find out from your doctor whether you have a life threatening disease
or not the very fact that you are
sitting surrounded by other obviously sick people with no hope of a happy
ending in sight will give the heebie-jeebies to anyone. Including me. I too like
everyone else have spent time waiting outside doctors rooms even though its
more out of a sense of delicacy on my part not to announce myself as a
colleague and just barge in ignoring others waiting in the line.
Anyway this post is not about the people waiting outside doctors
rooms but about why doctors make people wait outside their rooms? A few
pointers
1)
Ego- Yes the
number one reason why you spend hours waiting outside your doctors room is to
satisfy your doctors ego- the ego to be wanted, needed and validated as someone
worth waiting for. I know this might shock you but its the truth. The reason is,
its not easy to get people to wait outside doctors rooms for them to turn up as
the competition in medicine is killing and there are umpteen number of doctors
out there waiting to see you whenever you want to. To be recognised as a good
doctor it takes a minimum of ten years hard work, of hours and hours spent
alone in the clinic waiting for that solitary patient to turn up for a consultation,
hours spent peeking outside the curtain separating the inner room from the
waiting hall everytime a mild footstep is heard imagining that atlast here
comes the patient who will pay for this months rent atleast so you can still
continue practicing at this same palce next month and so on and on. And after
all this long struggle when the doctor reaches a place where he becomes recognised-
he turns the tables on the very people he waited for and gets a perverse
pleasure in making them wait for him. Believe me when i say that there is nothing
to equal the joy felt when you walk into a consultation room and see it full of
patients waitng for you. It makes you appreciate the sweet success of having
arrived. It stokes the ego and gives you a feeling of being invincible and god-like
for the only other place people wait so patiently for a glimpse is at the
temple. So even though doctors know they
can manage their time better and stop wasting others time, still to satisfy
their own cravings for popularity they will intentionally make you wait hours
to meet them. The bitter truth.
2)
The medical
representatives- if you see a bunch of medical representatives waiting outside
the doctors rooms with you to meet the doctor be assured that your doctor is
going to wantonly make you wait outside for hours. The reason is simple- just
like politicians need people at their mass meetings to show the media their
power and popularity to draw a crowd, similarly doctors need crowds of patients
to show medical representatives their drawing power as busy practioners with
loads of people waiting to meet them. Medical representatives are by far the
biggest gossips of the medical field- they are the ones who go around spreading
stories about which doctor is popular with a dozen people waiting outside and
which one is sitting alone in his clinic – despite being a good time manger and
being prompt in seeing his patients off rather than making them wait. And guess
which doctor gets that all expenses paid trip to egypt to see the pyramids –
sponsored by the drug company? Yes, its the same doctor who will make his
patients wait for hours showing off his overcrowded waiting hall as a sign of
popularity.
3)
Other patients-
yes this might be a shocker to you but the biggest time waster in any practice is
the patient who went in just before you. I have had many patients who have made
me want to physically throw them out for wasting my time but have survived
because i remembered the hippocratic oath in time. Some women are the worst
offenders in this. They come in with their husbands and children and a whole
bunch of people and after consulting for a small problem and paying the fees instead
of leaving promptly they stand by the door and then casually start discussing
the assorted medical problems of the hubby, the first kid, the second kind, the
mother in law, the next door neighbour and everyone else on the street on the mistaken
assumption thant once having paid a small fee for a single consultation the
rest of it should be all free advice on the basis of – well we are just talking,
arent we, you re not actually seeing the patient, so it doesnt count- never
mind that all this talk consumes the better part of an hour or so just to make
sure she doesnt poison someone with her home remedies. So blame those people
who troop into doctors rooms with an army of supporters and sympathizers who
have no business being there.
4)
The unexpected
– yes things like surgeries which can sometimes throw in complications which no
one can anticipate- remember every individual is unique with a unique anatomy
and blood vessels and nerves can never be found in the same place as shown in
textbooks and you can appreciate why surgeons can be late for appointments. And add the occasional friend or realtive who
drops in to talk only at the busiest time of a doctors practice and can never be got rid off politely
and fast and you can see how the unexpected can impinge on your doctors time.
5)
Greed- and
now we come to the one reason which can be altered by your doctor if he really
wishes to- over selling appointments. If your doctor appreciates that your time
is every bit as valuable as his- he will never over book appointments and try
to fit in everyoone at the same time. It is simply callous time management and
can never be tolerated in any other field. To see three patients in one hour is different to seeing
three patients in three hours. The difference can be life saving for you and
can certainly save you a load of money in hospital bills in future if your
doctor can spend enough time concentrating on you and you alone for the fees
you pay instead of shunting you out as fast as he can to get the next patient
in. Believe me, no doctor – however popular he or she is- is worth your time and money if they act like
that because they are going to miss catching your disease at its earliest
stages if they are in a hurry and you will be paying the price for it later. Its
better to change over to a another doctor who even if he dosent have a reputation
as the best will atleast lisen to you patiently. Remember its your health and your
life and you are paying the bill for it.
So to
conclude i leave you with the thought that all that waiting outside doctors
rooms is not accidental but a well thought out strategy by your doctor. Doctors
are rarely helpless when it comes to efficient time management – they can stop
wating your time or not. And if your doctor chooses not to then its time to stop
waiting for him or her and simply move on to someone else who knows the value
of others time and respects paying patients enough to give them their attention
to. So choose a doctor who is satisfied with seeing three patients a day and
buying a maruti suzuki rather than the one who sees thirty patients a day to
buy a mercedes benz. The first one might
or might not save you but the second one will definitely kill you. Be wise and
move on to a better doctor.
