Introduction

One area of our health system that is often neglected is the waiting room; a transition space between our everyday lives and the GP’s office that can often be the cause of stress and frustration (Sherwin et al., 2013). In his book ‘Delayed Response: The Art of Waiting from the Ancient to the Instant World’ Farman (2018) even describes waiting as “moments of endurance and pain… [that] tends to hide the reason it exists”. This report will look at the stressors associated with delays and waiting at the GP and the benefits of incorporating operational transparency and salutogenic thinking. Operational transparency and clear communication not only minimises the negative impacts of waiting, but if communicated thoughtfully and with good design, can increase one’s sense of coherence, an integral part of the salutogenic model of health.

Right by ravensong7 . Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/photos/ chairs-row-office-waiting-room-325709/

The Beginning: An Anecdote

I began this journey through my own, very negative, experience in a clinic waiting room. I arrived at the clinic at 11:10 for an 11:20 appointment and after waiting for an hour I still hadn’t been seen. I asked how much longer I would be waiting and the receptionists couldn’t give me an estimate and had to checking with the nurses. There were still three people ahead of me in the queue, and they explained that as some appointments just take longer than planned. Even with 3 doctors on at the clinic it could be anywhere from 5 minutes too much, much longer. They also explained that my time 11:20 was in fact the last booked appointment for the day. I was quite frustrated as I this meant that they had expected huge delays and built that into the booking system. But some information was better than nothing. At 1:30 I still hadn’t been called up, but instead 2 doctors came out and let me know that the clinic was now closed (an end time was news to me) and I would have to make another appointment, and at a clinic that ran only once a week. Kindly one of the doctors offered to come in early to see me before the clinic started next week as the next couple of weeks were already booked out. The stress and uncertainty of this whole experience resulted in a very emotional reaction. Waiting without clear expectations and then an end that was completely unexpected was very stressful. This experience helped me to understand two things. That often clinics cannot accurately estimate how long a wait will be, and it allowed me to empathise with the stress of waiting without a clear expectation for an end time. There must be a better way!