[brucethemoose2]

Most doctors/vets I've seen recently are just massively overbooked. You wait 3 hours, then you have 4 minutes of conversation time for one (out of multiple) ailments before you’re booted out the door. Its like you're on an assembly line and the workers can't even keep up.

[sarchertech]

Why are you waiting 3 hours? Are you going to an urgent care or ER?

[brucethemoose2]

Well...

- I waited ~8 hours in an ER with my mother, who had horrible gut pain that turned out to be a ruptured appendix, before they finally took her in, with an urgent emergency referral from an urgent care center we visited earlier.

- I waited 2 hours in a specialist's office waiting room, and I arrived on time. No explanation...

- We waited about an hour and a half at the vet, in a room by ourselves with our dog. Again, we were on time, but they were apologetic when the vet finally came in.

These are the more extraordinary circumstances, but definitely not the only ones (especialy at the vet).

[sarchertech]

ERs are designed to handle emergencies but people use them for many other reasons. From ignorance, to lack of money, to just not having a PCP. Another big one is that for low income families with government healthcare, taking your kid to the ER on Sunday afternoon with a runny nose doesn’t cost any more than waiting till Monday morning to see their pediatrician.

But the primary bottleneck at an ER is usually not a lack of physicians. It more often a lack of rooms and/or nurses because patients are being boarded there, or are just still there waiting on labs.

And Waiting 2 hours with an appointment for an office is definitely not the norm.

[robinduckett]

From the time that my appendix ruptured (after being told it was a virus and I should go home at the GP) to the time that I had my first operation of three, they waited 38 hours. This was in the UK, 5ish years ago.

[coding123]

Most people cannot see a doctor for weeks. So after that it's uc or er.

[sarchertech]

You can generally get a sick visit with your PCP measured in days not weeks if you have one. Usually just a few days.

The OP wrote something about multiple ailments which implied non-emergent conditions.

[brucethemoose2]

I mean we book appointments many weeks ahead. That is to be expected.