"Outpatients Opthalmology"

My husband's appointment was 3 pm - the waiting area, (which is an airless, very hot, windowless area) was crammed to overflow, so we waited just outside the main waiting area and informed the nurse we were there.  He was called in 20 minutes later  for the first part of the usual procedure ie eye drops, eye test and was asked to stay in the main waiting area (despite there being no seats) so as not to inconvenience the staff. ie they would have to walk a few paces and call his name.   He obliged and I had to wait outside.   Within a couple of minutes he was called again for the usual retinal scan.  Great, we had only been 30 minutes so far.  Only two or three other patients followed for their appointments after my husband.  But they also had to wait outside the main area.

 We then waited until 5.20pm to see the Dr, almost 2 hours from the initial eye test etc and nearly two and a half hours from the appointment time .... when I questioned the nurses why the wait was so long, they were very complacent and said its just the way it is.  It's always like this.   I questioned further and was told that each appointment time is given to around 4 patients.  As there just isn't enough appointments available for people to be seen as quickly as needed.

What seemed so ridiculous is that the last patient/patients has an appointment time of 3.20pm, the nurses quickly do the routine tests but then the long wait to be seen by the Dr .... for the best part of an hour or so the nurses are standing around doing very little as all the patients have had their initial tests ... so why get them all there so early?  Why not stagger the appointments later?  The waiting area wouldn't be so over crowded, patients wouldn't have to sit on the hard seats for so long and the nurses would be using all their time usefully.  It seems that patients don't matter in respect of waiting or their time being important too.

I think the Service Manager should really look at what is happening in this clinic. Do they realise people are being kept waiting so long?  Every patient has to have someone to drive them home, so its not just the patient that is kept hanging around.