Doctor's appointments - can you get them?

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I was working on a response to a discussion of one of my friends and a subject came up that made me realize I had a topic of discussion. When I want to see the doctor I call them up and they generally get me in the next day, or at worse, the day after. Often they get me in the same day. I never really thought anything about it. I’d call up and they got me in. I usually didn’t tell them who I was until after they offered the appointment so it wasn’t as if I am anyone famous or anything. This was in the early 1980's, and I worked with a nice bunch of people. One day one of the ladies was crying at her desk. She was in acute pain from a problem on the bottom of her foot that hurt just doing nothing and she could barely walk on it. I was walking by and saw her crying and asked what was wrong. The doctor’s office - the SAME doctor’s office that I went to since this was the EARLY days of HMO’s and if it couldn’t be any more convenient, it was located right next door - had given her an appointment 3 weeks away. Now, she is in terrible pain and she just couldn’t take it any more, she NEEDED to see a doctor that day, or the next. I told her that I always got appointments faster than that except for my annual physical. I offered to call them for her and see if they could get “Me” in faster. She was, at first, reluctant, but I said - what can it hurt if I can get you in sooner? She came over to my desk and I called. Since if they gave me an appointment I’d need to give them her information. I called and they gave me an appointment later that day. My co-worker now cried with relief. She kept the other appointment for an allergy check. That was annoying, but I was very glad to help this lady. Almost a year later, another co-worker was VERY sick, she probably shouldn’t have been at work, but her personal life was in such crisis that staying at home wasn’t a good option either. I was walking past her desk when she hung up the phone. I could tell she was very upset - besides the personal stuff - and asked if there was a problem. She told me that she had gotten an appointment with the doctor’s office - again, the same one - and as sick as she OBVIOUSLY sounded, they gave her one 2 weeks away. I told her that she needed to be on antibiotics, yesterday, and offered to call them to see if they would give me an appointment sooner. Well, you can guess that they did, again, the same day. I called up the office manager and complained about their appointment system. I don’t know if its because I can put an urgency into my voice, or I get the better appointment setter or what, but I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like for those other people that didn’t have me to make their appointments for them! So, do you have a problem getting an appointment when you need to see a doctor but not go to the emergency room? Do they put you off for days or weeks when you really should be there now? Or are you like me and can have something minor, that could wait until next week and they want you to jump in your car and get there in 20 minutes?