Last week I was unfortunate enough to have to accompany my daughter to the doctor. She had been dealing with a cough for more than 3 days and I was already starting to feel like I had caught it too, but the point was that after our attempts at self-medication, it was time to see a doctor.
I was personally willing to wait one more day because I knew what a waste of time it is to see a doctor in this country, but the time had more or less come, and a tita who also had a doctor’s appointment in the same building, was aware of our situation and had checked with the pulmo and told us that the doctor was available. So off we went on a father-daughter date to see the doc.
Earlier that day, I had tried to get an appointment via Facebook, as there was a little link in the doctor’s profile that was supposedly for timed appointments. Unsurprisingly, that didn’t work. I also tried the telephone but the number listed wasn’t working either. Anyway, since my tita who was there had called us to say she got us in the list, we quickly left the house because we thought the waiting time wouldn’t be so bad.
This trip wasn’t planned, so our phones weren’t properly charged, but we didn’t expect it to take that long, right?
We got there before 2pm, took a chest X-ray before going up, to speed things up. When we got there, the receptionist acknowledged that she had been informed of our “appointment” so I felt good about our chances. However, we were told that there were a few people ahead of us, so it would still take some time.
Ok, fair. So I asked for an estimate of the time it would be our turn, and she said maybe around 2 hours. We considered going back home and coming back, but these situations are one of the disadvantages of living in Silay City and seeing a doctor in Bacolod. The friendly receptionist suggested that given the patient load, we don’t have to go back home. I don’t like waiting at clinics, so we decided to burn time at the mall.
We spent around 2 hours at the mall, which is still an eternity here in the province, before coming back to the clinic at around 4pm, hopeful that we’d get to see the doctor in short order by then. At that point, my tummy was starting to grumble, but I prefer pooping at home so I thought I could hold it in since the wait shouldn’t be so bad by then.
Anyway, to make a very long story short, we finally got to see the doctor past 6pm. So we ended up spending the whole afternoon waiting. I held my poop in for 2 hours, could hardly drive home by then, and was afraid I wouldn’t make it to the toilet. But on the bright side, the extremely long wait meant I had one of my best poops in recent history, quality and quantity wise.
It’s already almost 2025 but the system of waiting to see a doctor still feels like the 80s. We already have the internet, AI, Bitcoin, WFH, and all sorts of tools for scheduling and collaboration attached to the palm of our hands most of the time, but I still had to waste an entire afternoon waiting to see a doctor. Imagine how much longer I would’ve needed if my tita hadn’t given the receptionist advance notice? Or maybe because there is no system, it would’ve still been the same, regardless of appointment or advance notice?
To be fair to the doc, she was good. She was thorough and listened attentively. I would definitely go back to her if I needed a pulmo, although I’m hoping I won’t need to, ever. And of course, regarding our coughing issue that I expected to be about to end, yes it did get much better the day after, and we didn’t even change meds yet. But of course, having already seen a doctor made me feel better as a parent, as our daughter had been having a terrible week because of the cough.
The terribly long wait to see a doctor has been an issue with their practice since time immemorial. Why there has been seemingly zero innovations on that end is confounding, as they are supposed to be smart and competent people whose license to practice them to keep up with the latest developments and trends in their industry.
How do we have to wait before the doctors we see learn to find a system that doesn’t make us waste so much time waiting for them to do their thing?*
