A question about doctors referal time, am I expecting too much?
 

Let me say first, that I have not been completely happy with the attention that I get from my general practitioner. He is very busy typing on his laptop when I am talking, and has even said, "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Anyway, he has been looking at a throat problem I am having. At an appointment early Today, he said, "I think we should have an ENT look at it. I will give you a reftrral."

So, after I got home, I realized that neither he nor his office gave me any information about seeing the ENT or the referral.

At the end of the day, I called the office and talked to his nurse. I told her that I hadn't heard from the ENT. She said, "Oh it will be a week or two before we fax the referral." Guess what I said. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?" "A WEEK OR TWO?" She said, ".........yes it takes that long to transcribe his office notes....we have a lot of patience." I replied, "......That's absurd....why don't you just hang up the phone and fax it right now." Her reply was....."I'm sorry but that's our office policy and we have a lot of patience." I replied, "As far as I am concerned, you have only one patient."

Well, after I finished letting her know what I thought of the office policy, I picked up the phone and called the ENT myself and made an appointment.

I'm sorry, but that is the most bizarre thing I have heard in a long time.

I would consider changing GP's. My guy also uses the computer and I get the call late in the same day or the following day.
I would also suggest you discuss with the Doctor....sometimes the staff assumes too much authority.

Agreed! That's "office policy"? More like office incompetence.