"A lot of waiting around"

When sitting with a friend waiting for him to be seen by a Rheumatologist, one who didn't turn up till gone 9. 15 a. m. I started comparing how other professionals deal with pre-arranged 'meetings'. I don't know of any other professional, Magistrate, Teacher, Lawyer or CEO who would turn up late & unprepared for a diarised meeting.

In industry & commerce it is implied in contracts of employment that the hours of work include preparation to begin work I. e. if IT systems are required, they are fired-up & signed into the appropriate programmes ready for the first client. Preparation is also pretty much vital too, like knowing the basics about a client before they come into your office.

I witnessed a middle aged guy turn up late by about 15 minutes & take a further 10 minutes presumably doing the above mention prep for his first client. His first client didn't take too long but it was a bit disconcerting to see him backing out of the door while the lady was still asking question within earshot of the folks waiting to be seen.

Me and my buddy had each other to chat with to pass the waiting time, others didn't and the wait time seemed to increase with every patient seen. Folk started asking each other what time their appointment was and it became clear that all the consultants were a bit behind. Some were annoyed at a notice that quoted 93 people who'd failed to attend clinic but it was broken down into which clinic.

It just seemed that there were a lot of unhappy sick people who were put-out by the delays. I have no axe to grind personally, but my buddy was in a lot of discomfort sitting about for what turned out to be a lengthy process. If you folks could do something about this it would be great. Especially the late arrival of the main players, the Docs.