The last time I went for a doctor's visit, I had to wait a whole hour before the exam began. I really felt like getting up and leaving but I'd already wasted the time to begin with and then I would have had to make another appointment and leave my job early again. My question is how long do you tolerant this? Have you ever just gotten up and left after waiting for some time? Isn't your time just as valuable as the doctor's? Maybe if more people did just walk out----what do you think?

Yes! I can understand emergencies and unforeseen delays, but if it happens a second time, leave!

This happened to me, and it was obvious my (former) Doctor was overbooking; I waited twenty minutes, (the third time it happened), and went to the receptionist,(noted that several patients signed in with the same appointment time) and rather than tell her, knowing she might be afraid to tell the doctor, left a note for the Doctor.

Informed him that I understood his time management problem, being a professional myself, but I had made a previous appointment which I intended to honor, and thought I could make, based on his professionalism and respect for other's time, and needed to leave.

I also mentioned that since I was obviously an additional patient that would overload his scheduling, I would help him relieve his load by finding another doctor.

It is horrible how long some doctors have you wait. They schedule appointments so darn close together then if someone is late or one patient takes longer or they have an emergency or phone calls to make then there you sit. My doctor schedules them 15 minutes apart is all.

Racer finding another doctor I hope helped because about all of them are the same now.

No, I go see the practioner...she knows more then the doctors about me anyway, the doctor prolly wouldn't even know my name The practioner always is on time and knows me from head to toe!

I've never gotten up and left, but I've seen others do it. It really makes me mad, but I just grin and bear it.

We have a severe Doctor shortage here in country Australia...guidlines say there should be 1 Doctor per 800 residents, but in the paper today it said the statistics are more like 1 Doctor per 1800 people..

So, its standard practice to have to wait an hour, or more, and some specialists you have to be prepared to wait several hours..

I've never had trouble getting in to see a Doctor in an emergency though..

I've never really had a problem. I'm just lucky, I guess. Of course never going to the doctor helps, too . But when my wife was alive, we had to go to the doctor quite often and we never had a problem.

Sagus and I had a Peditrician for the boys. We always waited an average of 3-4 hours for every visit... before (in the waiting room), then again (in the cubical) and then DURING THE VISIT!! That doctor had ADHD (he was on meds for it) but he was soooooooo unorganized. A great doctor except for his time management.

An example:

Doctor: So, what do you see as the problem?

Us: Well, the boys are having problems with their ADHD and Autism behavior.

Doctor: I can understand the problems... let me go PHOTOCOPY this book of information...... NOW!!

(door shuts behind him while he is gone for an hour)

Didn't that drive you crazy, Sherasi? Did you really find the wait worth while?

Well, it really depends on the situation. If the wait is extraordinarily long, I will get up and say something about it. But I have never left, I feel I've already wasted enough time. I usually go to the doctor's with the expectation of waiting a while.
The worst was when I was waiting for a cavity fill and the dentist had shot me full of drugs and left me in the chair with my head lower than my feet, then went to work on another patient! They were all surprised when they came back in twenty minutes later and I was sitting up in the chair reading my book. What, I was going to lie there with the blood rushing to my head the whole time? I think not.
So I called and canceled my next appointment. "When would you like to reschedule?" the receptionist asked me. "I wouldn't" I answered. Screw them. There are other dentists.
And I haven't had a problem at the doctor since I started going to Planned Parenthood.

I do think more people should start doing what the old man in the "Pickles" cartoon does. The receptionist told him to 'make himself comfortable' and he rolled out a sleeping bag and pillow and settled in for a long wait.

I agree that waiting in a dr.'s office is frustrating. There's the story of the lawyer who was seen an hour after his appointment time and billed the dr for it. He apparently won in small claims court. (Could be an urban legend.

But I've begun cutting them some slack on this, when I heard my dr telling her nurse how ticked she was the administration had instituted 10 minute visits, i.e., the patient gets 10 minutes. My dr ignored that but her appt schedule was formed using it. So sometimes it isn't the dr's fault.