- 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).
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.
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.
- 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).