This happened today and I’m wondering if I am in the wrong.
I had an appointment booked today and due to an error on my end I arrived at 3.45.
The admin told me I had missed it and would I like to rebook.
I apologised for my error, and made a passing comment of how unlucky I am today that my dr wasn’t running late for once, whilst getting my calendar out to rebook.
For background, this practice and our doctor is great & laid back (we’ve had a friendly relationship for years) and probably for this reason he is always booked out for weeks as well as always being 30-45 minutes behind schedule, and most patients of his are fully aware of this and it is not a problem for us to wait.
Back to today, the admin said "oh he is running a fair bit behind as usual, but then if he sees you too he would be even further behind."
This seemed odd to me because:
– the clinic and my dr don’t have any policies regarding this
– even if I had arrived on time at 3.30, by the current time of 3.45 I still wouldn’t have been called up anyway
– the 2 other occasions I’ve come late (2 in the last 5 years of attending this practice, its not a habit) I’ve just been checked in as usual because he is running behind anyway
I didn’t want to be difficult, I would have rescheduled on any regular day, but the appointment was for my child and I needed to see the dr before Tuesday (it is Saturday) and because he is always booked so far in advance, I wouldn’t be able to see him before Tuesday if I rebooked.
I explained the above to the admin, apologising and asking if there was any chance we could still see him today.
She said she would message and ask him and let me know, and to take a seat. About 5 minutes later she gave us the "all good" and we settled in for a long wait (no problem, I brought my knitting and there were toys for my child to play).
Whilst waiting I was chatting to the admin, she was asking about my child, and I overheard a couple discussing my situation and complaining that I shouldn’t get fit in today and basically calling me entitled. I was a fair way away from them and could hear it all pretty clearly, so I think it was meant for me to hear.
I felt bad and asked the admin how many patients were before me, she said that following the schedule I was next (he was still with the patient before me and were now at almost 4pm, so maybe thats why they were so bothered?).
Dr then called me up, I quickly said I was happy to go last since they’d been waiting longer (again my dr is pretty laid back and I’ve been coming for years, I don’t think this would have seemed odd) then he called them in, but I still got shot a look from the couple as they walked past me.
Given the context/dynamics of my dr and especially since I asked they be seen first, was I really the AH here?