Unpleasant experience

During the past year, I have experienced the care afforded to patients at the Endocrinology day ward at St Luke's Hospital. The experience has been unpleasant and wearying, for at least two reasons:

1. A client management system seems beyond the capabilities of this department. Appointments seem to be clustered tightly around 8 a.m., with a consequently impossibly dense gathering of people who turn up in a very short interval and are made to wait hours until their turn to be served comes up. No form of satisfaction whatsoever is given as regards position in this queue.

I have waited for hours every time I visited. Statistically speaking, a queuing system managed by appointment would force a client to wait for an interval that is comparable to the length of the service time (the medical inspection itself). Not in this department! A medical inspection's duration is in the order of minutes but the waiting time is interminable hours. My most recent visit pinned me down from 8 a.m. till noon!

2. I have experienced a doctor who critically fudged a diagnosis that my non-medical wife was capable of making, a doctor who avoids reporting a blood pressure reading, a doctor who threatened to quarrel with us (for no good reason, may I add) and recently the arrogance of a senior doctor who threw me out of the inspection area after I was duly led inside by a staff member. The lack of a caring attitude is palpable in this department.

A knuckle-rap is long overdue. Change, please.