The “Unavailable” Specialist

I’ve been waiting on an appointment with a specialist for months, and the week was finally almost here. I hate going to doctors’ offices, and I hate planning my life around appointments. Mostly, I hate not being well. But the reality of not being well means spending a significant amount of time at the mercy of doctors and their scheduling staff. I called to confirm my appointment a week in advance because I’m driving five hours and spending the night in a hotel to see the specialist. The receptionist casually informed me that the doctor would be “unavailable” that day.

Unavailable? I asked her why I hadn’t been notified, and why I had to be the one to confirm the appointment, only to find out it was cancelled. She didn’t give me a decent answer, but said the doctor could see me the following week. I explained that I was coming from out of town, that the hotel was reserved, and I’d already made arrangements with my boss. I might as well have been talking to a toadstool.

I told the receptionist that I’d need to check my calendar and see if I could work something out to change all of my plans and come the following week. She said that was fine, and that the office would be open until 5 p.m. I called back within a few minutes to say yes to the later appointment, and was informed that it’d been given to someone else, and the next available appointment was in mid October. My thought: “Oc-fucking-tober???” My words: “but you guys were the ones who cancelled my appointment—without even telling me—and now I have to wait MONTHS to reschedule it?”

After an absolutely useless and maddening conversation with the receptionist, I asked for her manager. She said the manager was in a meeting, which felt dishonest at best. I asked her if the manager would call me back today, and she said yes. Of course, no one called me.

I understand that life happens. Things come up, and maybe the doctor had to schedule some sort of life-saving surgery for somebody. Or maybe he got a deal on an island vacation. I don’t really care. What I care about is the complete shit for customer service and the lack of decent resolution. At this point, I don’t even have another appointment scheduled because the manager must be on major overtime, as this would be the sixth hour of the meeting she was supposedly running.

It’s inexcusable when people are sick or hurt and doctors and staff act like it’s no big deal to mess around with the schedule and drag out the wait for months. We patients have so little power already. We’re in pain, we’re miserable, we’re frustrated. To have an appointment cancelled is bad enough, but to be made to wait so long after already waiting months is inexcusable. Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do. If we need a specialist, as I do, there’s nowhere else to go. I have no words for the level of frustration and anger and disgust I feel, and perhaps the worst part is, no one in the doctor’s office seems to care a bit about how their decisions impact patients’ lives.