Late for appointments

If Dr Phibes was asked to name the one thing that patients do that is really annoying, he would say it is arriving late for their appointment.

At the outset I should stress that this is a personal opinion, and not that of my colleagues in general.

If I was a GP who always overran, I'd be hypocritical to expect my patients to be punctual, but I tend to run to time.

Robert was my first patient of the morning. I sat waiting for him to arrive. My consulting room backs onto the car park, and I could hear somebody on their mobile phone talking very loudly just outside my window. When this person referred to themselves by name, I realised that it was Robert. He continued for the next 10 minutes to arrange delivery of something to his office.

He didn't finish his phone call until his appointment time had finished, by which time I had called the next patient in. I asked Robert to rebook his appointment, which he wasn't very happy about.

The point is that unless I make up time, for every minute that Robert, and others like Robert, is late, every subsequent patient is automatically the corresponding number of minutes late. That is hardly fair on them when they have had the decency to turn up on time.

So if you have an appointment with Dr Phibes, don't be late!