Why do doctors always arrive late in their clinics?

In Nigeria, where I am currently living, it is the hospital that are owned by the government that experience lateness of doctors. This is because they still think they will have their salaries paid even though they are latecomer. Their conduct are poorly supervised and these doctors even run their own private consultancy or clinics in the nearby street in which they selfishly even refer their own patients that visit them in government hospital to meet them at their own clinics. But in the privately owned hospital the doctors are very punctual because they think they can not afford to play with this golden opportunity to make money. They do all they can to please the patients. Conclusively, it is only in government owned hospital in Nigeria that these lateness of medical personnels that is the doctor in particular is quite common. The government doctors like I mentioned earlier often refer their patient to their own private clinic by telling them that they should go there for blood test,x-ray, which could have been done in the government hospital if the facilities where well maintained.

Yeah that does seem to be a rather frustrating quality with doctors a lot of the time. Especially if you are like the third appointment of the day, they were already late and the two appointments they had might have run a bit longer than usual. I think the service at the doctor's office is the reason why many people don't really go. They don't have time to be sitting around for hours and hours of the day. And obviously the bill, cannot forget about that. But there are times where if you have a 11:00 AM appointment for instance, the doctor won't see you until well after noon. That happened to my grandmother recently. There are some not so competent people coordinating this, which is a real problem in many offices around the nation as well.

Yes, this is absolutely true about doctors' at hospitals here in the UK. If I have a hospital appointment, I can be sure that it would be a full morning or afternoon of just sitting around waiting for an appointment that may last 10 to 15 minutes. I tend not to bother these days even going to the doctor unless I feel that there is something seriously wrong, in which case my wife would insist I went.. I guess it's not the wisest of things to do.. But that's me I guess! _Derek

I have a question. So when the doctor does arrive, and she talks to you, and you are done... Who pays the doctor? Do you pay the cost of seeing the doctor? How does the system work?

yeah i know, they are always late but i can understand that because they do their rounds to at the hospitals and also there are emergencies that they need to go to. whenever i go to have a check up, i always have to make sure i don't have to go to other places too at that same day because i know it is going to be a long day.

I'm afraid this is how they try to spend less time with each patient, telling that they have to be in a hurry because so many patient are waiting It's quite common and understandable if a doctor comes from the hospital after helping in emergency. Or if the doctor has kids and has to drop them at school first But in the rest of the cases I don't know, I think it's better for them if they don't have to wait for the patients. Although the dentist I'm going to see tomorrow is always there half an hour earlier, so not all doctors are like that.

Personally, what we need to always remember are Doctors are human too, and many times they lead other lives besides being a Doctor. Now catching them lounging around on an IPad instead of seeing their patients might not be appropriate especially when you seen her, but it happens. There are many times I have gone in to see a Doctor somewhere and had to wait. It can be frustrating and has even caused me to be late from time to time. I just wish there was more of a prediction when it comes to seeing a Doctor and they could be a little more understanding with us from time to time as well. Especially when they are the ones making us wait.

I'm really surprised at the response you gave BR to. I feel that those first couple of reasons are a load of rubbish and not the result of any kind of research. My own doctor is invariably late because he has hospital rounds before he comes to clinic. We all now people don't get sick or become injured in accidents by appointment just as patients with appointments sometimes need more time than what is allowed. Anyone who expects to see their doctor on time is suffering from imaginitis. I know at first hand how difficult it is to sit in a waiting room in severe pain or feeling wretchedly ill. Once the staff without a word, took me to a treatment room and helped me lie down where I immediately fell asleep. I had pneumonia.

They are a little BUSY. Multidues of patients. Major problems. Emergencies. Why should you hold it against them if they take 5 minutes for themselves?

Hi, I know what you feel. I've complained about it for so many times. I don't know and I don't understand too why doctors are always late and they can't seem to care much about their patients. Even my mother who constantly needs regular check-up always experiences long waiting whenever we go to the doctor. My boyfriend's mother is a doctor and I asked him why are doctors always late. He says he doesn't know too. He even said that his mom's schedule is 11:30am but his mom usually leaves their home at 12:40pm even if they're not busy. If I were his mom's patient, I'd be totally pissed. So the doctor's son don't know why too.

I totally agree with you. It seems as if most doctors have problem when it comes to time management. I guess most probably because they have so many patients to attend to and they find it hard to leave some unattended. The other reason would be because they have clinic in different areas or cites and they have to travel from one clinic to the other.

I know the reason for their in-punctuality.. I have done a research on this issue earlier and found out these... First reason is that... They feel that patients should wait for them and they should not wait for the patients to come...this lowers his reputation/demand. if they come early or on time,the patient might think that the doctor has no other patients to ATTEND and he is completely dependent on us.... thirdly,the doctor feels that if he arrives late the patients eagerness to meet him also increases creating a sought of interest in the doctor... Next he might be having several other appointments,which he must also fulfill... He might be busy with operations,emergency cases and so on... I don't think we need to blame him becoz ultimately he is one who cures us and relieves us from all sufferings...

It totally depends on what sort of clinic it is. For example, here in the UK, if it is a GP (general practitioner) appointment, it is usually because an appointment has run over into the next time slot, usually because it's a complex case. Many GPs also have to be on-call, so they can be called out at any time to an emergency and have to leave their clinic or be a little later to it. In hospitals for routine medical appointments, which we call 'outpatients', many of the consultants and registrars we see are too called out to medical emergencies, they are also called upon by the accident and emergency department too when they need backup or more specialised expertise. This can cause delays to a clinic. In addition to this, they sometimes have surgery lists on the same day as routine clinics so if a surgery runs over, the specialist can sometimes be late. It's frustrating - but there's usually a very good reason as to why there's a hold up. However, it's not unknown that bad management by the administration staff is a problem sometimes.

friend'its happen in everywhere.

Well our case here is not necessarily like that, my pediatrician is always on time and he makes it a point that he is able to serve us and see my children, that is why i always go back to him.. but there is no denying that there are doctor who do that on purpose.. oh well.

I haven't had an experience waiting the doctor after giving me specific appointment time. Each time I had a follow up check up with my doctor- she is already there. Too bad you were having this experience, maybe try to look for a better one :)

a pleasant day jureathome, honestly speaking, that situation is kind a common thing happen here in our country. that, the doctors here in our country are generally a late comer. that they usually come beyond to their clinic hours. and i really cannot grasp why they should do that. however, when i have worked outside my home country, i have encountered some doctors who come to their clinics 30 minutes before the clinic time. wherein they observed punctuality. and i was impressed at their attitudes. to tell you frankly, i wish that the doctors here in my home country can also observe punctuality so as not to disturbed their patience time.

i think it is because aside from their regular clinic hours they still do have other duties in hospital so that explains why sometimes they are not on time. imagine if you doctor attend to an emergency at midnight then he surely have no enough sleep and so they will adjust their clinic hours. my OBGyne is always on time, thank God. our son's pedia sometimes do not arrive in time but never really that late.

Most of the doctors in kerala have duties in many places. Sometimes they have a lot of patients a day. This is the reason why most of the doctors are late at the appointments.

hello jureathome. I have also observed this with many doctor visits I've done in the past. With the doctors I go to though, this was because they had other patients from other hospitals or that they had to attend to medical emergencies. Your story about a doctor lounging at the coffee shop is a different story altogether. the sad part is you wait for an hour, then they see only for no more than 10 minutes. I wonder which countries experience this. I am from the Philippines and I know this is common. I have always thought that lack of doctors was a possible reason. Then yesterday a saw a post on facebook from a friend in Singapore who says they waited for an hour and the doctor also saw them for 5 minutes. I hope others from other countries also share their experience.