On average, I’d say my clinic patients spend at least 3 hours in total at every appointment. Sometimes they are here even longer, if I send them for imaging. Most of the time in the clinic is spent waiting. Additional, many patients arrive at least an hour before their scheduled appointment, adding to the wait.

I try to explain to them that there is no need to arrive so early, especially if the normal wait is already painfully long. Apparently there is a loss of communication. I suspect that there is a rumor among the patients that arriving early at an appointment translates to leaving early. This is as likely to happen as winning at Pai Gao Poker.

I once had a patient who I needed to follow daily for a herpetic corneal ulcer. After four days, he simply stopped showing up. Later, he told me that it was impossible for him to work if he spent hours at the eye clinic daily. Other patients of mine come to clinic ad lib, for prescription refills only. Then there’s the majority of them who sit patiently for 3 hours in the waiting room to be sent to fluorescein angiography for 2 more hours for a proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) workup.

Indeed, to be a clinic patient is to be a special patient.

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