Hospital appointment madness.

ger vallely

Not sure if this is in the proper place-apologies if not and feel free to move.Just wondering if this is usual practice or total lack of management. I was in UCHG yesterday for a Gynae apointment. The apointment was for 3pm. So I took my daughter out of school early to be there on time. About an hour into the waiting I realised that every other woman there (about 30 women) also had 3pm appointments! Honestly, that's just insane and a terrible waste of peoples' time The poor girl beside me was very upset-she missed her 2 year old daughters' birthday party.The doctor I dealt with was so nice and helpful so I felt at the time that I couldn't complain to her. Afterwards though I realised that the doctors are a part of this wastful and unorganised system, we should be voicing our anger to them. I can't afford to go private and needed to go through with my apointment. Should I wait until I am out of the country and present myself to A&E somewhere else and possibly get seen to fairly promptly. My initial visit to the A&E in Galway was in early November and I just got seen to yesterday- 8 months later!What are we to do-scream and shout,protest, strike? Any thoughts, explanations?

Stheno

moved to Galway forum

confuseddotcom

Wouldn't have had many hospital visits/appointments so not too familiar with this. But being notorious for the wrong reasons and "common knowledge" do stand to be counted at the end of the day. It's just absurd like that it's always going to be up to peoples experiences to have to highlight these things and bring it to attention? Is it going to take something drastic and irreversible for the Government/Authorities to do something about this?? (Some roads don't get upgraded unless until a fatal/tragic accident occurs.)

I.m.o. I don't know would taking it out on the doctor be the right way to go? I get that someone needs to be blamed, but who's fault is it? Rule-of-thumb is quality over quantity. I'm sure doctors try and get through as many patients as they possibly can, but if numbers are exceeded, it's hardly the doctor's fault that not enough staff are recruited (been demoted or axed,) when there is more patients to be seen than they can cope with ....

It's hardly a well-kept secret that it's found hard to cope with numbers they have on their hospital-beds and in corridors, never mind anywhere else. Yet someone walking in with an appointment today/tomorrow is left with no choice and possibly little/no other option to put one's own care in their hands and "leave it up to the Gods" lol after that. We're just automatically expected to pay/be fully re-assured by this staple level of service because we likely have no knowledge of any other high-levels or scales of better more efficient service provision. And all because we have little/no say in the choice or matter.

Someone needs to be blamed for the wrong way provided of doing things when numbers are high/exceeded (ie putting up and shutting up lol) being the only way we/they know how, and just getting on with things.

But the question is who's fault is it .....

seriouslysweet

Both my parents are doctors but took fifteen years out for Irish hospital medicine as a result of this wastage. It's not their fault or sny of the doctors or nurses. For every doctor their is 1.1 people employed in admin...

Inky_Lady

This is normal practice, anyone going to a public clinic is given the same time apppintment as up to 50 patients in my experience. I once had to wait four and a half hours in the regional for a neurology apt. If you are chronically ill in Ireland, your time doesnt seem to be valued by the HSE!! I have brought this up again and again witj consultants, nurses and admin. Everyone agrees that the system doesn't work but no one seems to know how to change it. It's depressing.
I have had limited success with arriving an hour early for appointments, your name will then be one of the first on the list to be seen.

cats.life

i had an apointment for 3pm to see a chemo' doctor. i was still there at 4.30.. i,m to see the same doctor again on tuesday for 2.05..on thursday i was in same hospital to get bone scan and ct scan which i did not have to wait long for,so it seems it all depends on which department the apointments are for.

skelliser

sure why would you change a system where you have a nice secure job, regular wage increments, cant be fired and a nice pension.

where is the incentive to change?

Head The Wall

Hopefully their day of reckoning will come in September when the IMF/ECB review the savings, if not sooner.

The so called 600 million of savings announced during the week consisted of 300 in pay which has been offset by an increase in pension costs of 228 million. Teachers are now doing 1.5 hrs extra work a week and they have put a cost on this of 44 million, but it's not an actual saving as we are still paying them the same.

And to top it off increments are costing the govt roughly 250 million a year, this CPA is a sham and there have already been numerous unforeseen budgetary circumstances which should have seen it thrown out.

Mrs OBumble

skelliser wrote: »

sure why would you change a system where you have a nice secure job, regular wage increments, cant be fired and a nice pension.

where is the incentive to change?

For the health professionals, this system works well: their clinic is 3-5 (or whatever), and asking everyone to turn up at the start of that time means they have plenty of patients all the time.

It's just the patients who are too poor to afford private care who it doesn't work for - and such people are a pretty low priority in Irish society.

Even if the health professionals were employed in a different way (performance based pay based on productivity levels, perhaps), I don't believe that a lot of priority would be given to customer satisfaction.

reap-a-rat

I visit the Endochrinology Dept and Diabetes Day Centre in UCHG every 4 or 5 months an its the same thing, everyone is given an appointment that ranges between 10 am and 10.30am. My last appointment clashed with a morning exam I had, so I called them up and asked was it OK to show up afterwards, around 12 or 12.30. She said yeah that's no problem at all.

So in I popped after my exam (went home after and got some food, arrived at 12.05 on the button), hardly anybody left waiting, got my blood pressure taken by the nurse, sat down in the waiting room again and got called by the Doctor. Was home again by 12.15! ( I lived really close by).

Its so tempting to come up with an excuse now the next time I go back, because I know most of the crowd will have cleared by that time and I won'thave to wait around! You feel like you're cheating though, but some days I'd be there from 10 til 1, as would many others, and its frustrating, especially when the consultant talks to you for about 3 mins or less!

It was also the same when I was a kid on the public dental scheme thing, I had to deal with te Orthodontics departments in Merlin Park and Mayo Genral Hospiatal, and everyone again was scheduled for the same time! Hopefully the new minister will try sort that daftness out, one shouldn't have to nearly take a whole day off for an appointment that takes only a few minutes!

Webbs

JustMary wrote: »

For the health professionals, this system works well: their clinic is 3-5 (or whatever), and asking everyone to turn up at the start of that time means they have plenty of patients all the time.

It's just the patients who are too poor to afford private care who it doesn't work for - and such people are a pretty low priority in Irish society.

Even if the health professionals were employed in a different way (performance based pay based on productivity levels, perhaps), I don't believe that a lot of priority would be given to customer satisfaction.

Whilst the system is well skewed due to the blurring of lines between private and public systems (thank you Mary Harney!!) your performance based system is equally cracked.

Would you rather the consultant/nurse/Dr. put a timer on you saying right the next patient is due in 5mins so no matter where in the consultation we are you have to leave. At least then they would be able to see you on the exact time.
Unfortunately people are pretty crap when it comes to appointments and keeping time so a system is in place that is always going to be flawed as it has to deal with a 'human' element

I would say that the majority of people who are dealt with in the health system when they get to see a health system professional is satisfied.

galah

I would say that people working in each field in our healthcare sectors would have, over the years, built up some experience of how long it takes on average for each patient, and should be able to schedule these accordingly. Obviously, sometimes you run over time, but in general? I mean, giving everyone a 10 am appointment sounds incredibly dumb to me.

So far, my impression of the health service is not that it's good, efficient, effective or well-thought through. Or customer-oriented. The fact that information is lost, GPs and hopsitals don't work toegther, consultants don't usually work together (my impression), and there's way too much useless admin going, doesn't leave a very good health service, does it? I am sure each individual on the front line does their best, there is no doubt about that - within the system. But if the system is cr*p, how good can you get? Just look at A&E, for example. Or the increasing waiting lists for any sort of consultants.

I am sure it could be much more efficient.

And why not penalize patients for not showing up and not cancelling appointments? If you don't show up on time or cancel/reschedule with a good reason, it's off to the back of the queue with you! why should everyone be punished for other people's poor time-keeping and disrespectful behaviour?

Mrs OBumble

Webbs wrote: »

Would you rather the consultant/nurse/Dr. put a timer on you saying right the next patient is due in 5mins so no matter where in the consultation we are you have to leave. At least then they would be able to see you on the exact time.
Unfortunately people are pretty crap when it comes to appointments and keeping time

GPs work pretty much that way with private patients. Sure they don't chuck you out if you're in the middle of a major crisis, but if you turn up with a string of things that will take well longer than a normal appointment, they lose no time telling you to come back later and book a long appointment.

Sure individuals are crap at time keeping. But on average people running clinics know that X% of people will turn up. So if they schedule enough appointments to use up 100 + X % of the time, they'll be fully utilized. And if they schedule those appointments through the afternoon (or whatever) the average waiting time for each person will be minimised. And hell, they could get really innovative and text out reminders the day before - I'm told it cuts the no-show rate nicely.

But really, you're getting away from my main point which is that poor people are badly regarded in Irish society: the health system is simply reflecting society's values.

Inky_Lady

The regional have recently started to send a text message reminder the day before a patients clinic apt, I was pleasantly surprised by this development. One small improvement in the service at least, and I'm sure it will have an affect on no-shows.

softmee

I was absolutely shocked when I needed to see gyneacologist some time ago and my GP told me I will have to wait few months. And I was even more shocked when I found out that you have to pay 180 for private consultation if you cant wait. :eek: Thats only for visit, any additional examination would be extra charge. I think it not immoral what doctors are charging. People will give any money to be healthy and such a prices should be forbidden. Polish gyneacologist on Dominic Str saved my life. She charges "only" 60 and is just as if not better qualified and able to help.