Is everyone’s time equally important???

You are eagerly waiting for the day and finally the day arrives. You are excited and nervous at the same time. You have a doctor’s appointment for ultrasound scan. The doctor’s time is 4pm and you reach the hospital even before the designated time, so that you are the first in the queue. As per the norms, I had to be ready with full bladder. A situation where it is quite difficult to control your calm.

The nurse collected the required paper from every patient and luckily I got the first appointment (that was my feeling at that time). For me, waiting is the worst thing to do, be it for anyone. Somehow, half an hour passed, but being a patient, one has to wait. After all, a doctor is like a God and as a humble patient, I had to wait. The half an hour became one hour, still there was no sign of the doctor.

On recurrent queries, the nurse kept on assuring the patients that the doctor is coming. But in reality, she had no information on the doctor’s part which she confessed to later on. Mind you! Every patient was waiting for the doctor with their bladders full. I was in a situation where neither I could sit properly nor I could stand properly. The pressure was so high and the wait was killing, still I was waiting since I was the first person in the queue. With every passing second, I was thinking that now the doctor will come. (Do you think I was lucky in getting the first appointment as I was thinking earlier?)

I was feeling very agitated, still I was trying to maintain my calm thinking that even doctors are human beings and they can also get late sometime. After almost two hours of futile waiting, finally the nurse accepted and announced that the doctor is not coming. The nurse accepted that she had no information from the doctor’s side and that doctor should have informed someone if she was taking off. The nurse told everyone to come the next day, but there was a little embarrassment in her tone.

My purpose behind writing this post is not to insult anyone in specific but to showcase a common patient’s plight. I know, doctors are human beings too, and they also have the right to take unplanned or emergency leaves. But in such situations, they also should have the responsibility to inform their staff about such situations so that the patients don’t have to suffer. After all, a patient’s time is equally important to a doctor’s time.

Do you think every person’s time is equally important? Have you ever been in such a kind of situation? Do share your views.