What is an acceptable cutoff for how late a patient can be for a routine appointment?
Talking routine outpatient appointments here only. Not emergencies, not procedures, not ambulance patients, same day reviews etc. I work in a DGH so don’t get specialist referrals from out of area either. Everyone is coming from local areas.
Had a patient come almost an hour late for their routine appointment and asked for them to be rebooked because I was then on to other patients with their appointments on time. If I’d said yes then all the clinic staff would have to stay an extra 20 minutes+ as no one goes home until all the doctors are done and we were coming down to the end of the clinic.
Personally I always run my clinics on time or ahead of time, rarely patients may wait 10-15 minutes beyond their appointment time if I have a complex consultation. I’m usually also willing to see patients if they’re up to 30 minutes late.
Told a colleague I rebooked the patient and they basically said we should never be rebooking patients if we’re still there no matter how late they are and started making excuses for why they might be that late.
I think we should have boundaries or else patients will take advantage of our good will without a second thought.