Re: Opening Hours

[marion29]

This isn't about health as such, but couldn't find other suitable thread! Why are we constantly being told about a 24 hour society, Sunday, late night opening hours and how bad this can be, yet not much mention about other services? We all know that nurses in hospitals work long unsocial hours, but one of my biggest bug bears over 20+ years is, why are appointment times at out-patients(hospitals)doctors in surgeries, nurse/health care assistants in surgeries, so limited? You are expected to go within a very fixed Monday-Friday times, along with many other people too, yet your workplace, child's school and many other places aren't happy about it and you end up juggling and going nad trying to do the impossible? I'm certainly not saying that all of these places and people should or could be open 24 hours a day, but why in the 21st century, can there not be better organisation of this for everyone. Wouldn't society as a whole benefit? This has happened to me for over 2 decades, firstly when I was bringing up my disabled son and though I didn't go out to "paid work", I lost count of the times the many appointments with various bodies clashed, and it was this constant stressful re-organisation. You would then get the school complaining about lost time from the classroom!!

[Mrsspagnoli57]

Biggest bug bear for me and Mr P when he was having regular consultant appointments was that he would be there on time-as would the rest of the clinic attendees-only for the consultant to swan in an hour late. Remember vividly when he'd just come out of hospital he had to see the consultant for a check up at a hospital over 30 miles away-appointment time was 18.00 and the consultant eventually saw him at 19.40-he didn't get home until nine!! Hospitals seem to think that people have no work to do or employer to placate when an appointment is given. Annoying really.