The Born Loser by Art and Chip Sansom for May 09, 2023

“hopefully” you’ll still have whatever it is you wanted to see the doctor about – 4 months from now

He should go and see Johnny Carson’s old doc . . . Doctor Bendova in the meantime.

Well that is a Payne.

This is sooo true. Hopefully he isn’t a new patient or he will be waiting even longer.

Sometimes ya lose some, then you lose again sometimes.

Yesterday I went to ask for availability for a visit to the Ophthalmologist. They proposed May 2024. This is Italy with its public health system in disarray. But we spend tens of billions of euros on weapons and I pay my taxes till the last cent. I will be forced to pay €150 (at least) privately.

No Payne no pain.

That’s OK. I think I can get in sooner with another dentist.

Surprising that somebody named Doctor Payne would even have so many willing patients to have such a long waiting list. (For the record my family doctor’s name is Doctor Feelgood.)

the doctor sure does live up to his name as pain. :D

If I had an 8:30 appointment with my doctor, I would be lucky to see him by 10:00, and the appointment would last til 10:10 tops!!! I had an 11:00 telehealth call with my urologist last week, he called me at noon. He asked how I was doing? I said, annoyed!!! You were suppose to call me an hour ago!!! A patients time means absolutely nothing to the medical field anymore.

Work him in, lady. You should’ve been more specific. Eight thirty could’ve meant just what Brutus thought it meant.

I’m either blessed or live in a well serviced area. If I need to see my PCP I usually can get in the next day. And if I need a specialist the longest I’ve had to wait is one month and the shortest was one hour.

This sounds like Canadian health care.

And according to ISO standard its 2023-05-09

That turn of events would make me happy! Can’t say that I like doctors.

This is more accurate than it appears. I went online to get into see the doctor and erroneously scheduled. It was one of those portal things where you go online to request an appointment and the office will set a time and a date and email it to you. My appointment was set for 2:00 in the morning. When I called the central office, the person answering the phone said she didn’t understand the issue because the computer showed no appointments. I asked if she really expected the doctor to be there at 2:00 in the morning and was again told the computer showed an opening…I told her to cancel the appointment. Later that day I stopped at the doctor’s office and spoke to the receptionist who sighed and shook her head when I showed her the emails and about my call…I did get in to see the doctor a few days later at 9:00 in the morning, a more reasonable hour for everyone concerned…

I miss my dentist. I woke up one Saturday morning with an abscessed tooth. I called at 9a, and was in his chair at 10a, getting a root canal. I was done in no time and back home. He died last year, and I was with him for 45 years. I was probably one of his first patients. He is the one who told me about redheads and anesthesia. He always gave me extra time to let the numbing work and would provide extra if I still felt pain. His phone message had his home number on it in case of an emergency, but I never needed to call other than his office.

I find that the doctors in my area all use different portals/apps. My new internist uses the same one my hospital uses, so that will be very helpful for me and for my doctors.

Brutus probably said… “I’ll take 8/30. 7/15 is too early, and 5/20 is too late”!

Oh. Now they tell Brutus.

The problem with making your own appointments online is that when you show up, the nice lady at the desk says "I’m sorry, we don’t have any record of your appointment on our computer. Yeah

Must be a proctologist.

This is May. August 30 isn’t too bad for a Doctor’s appointment. Hopefully it’s not an emergency…..

I was afraid he was going to get in to see Dr. Pain from Rip Haywire.

And so it goes after Covid……….

If I use my clinics portal to make an appointment with my family MD, it takes 7-10 days. But if I call the office I can usually get an appointment the next day

Oh, Chip, that was really clever, took me a while, a short while but awhile to get it, very funny, thanks…

Time to fine a payne-less doctor.

I called my doctors office last month to setup an annual checkup since it has been a few years since my last one… earliest available is Jan 2024!!!! Lovely state of “health care” we have in this country now…

Yet another reason to use months’ names instead of numbers.

Might as well just sit down, Brutus. That’s how long you will be waiting anyway!

That visit wasn’t Payne-less. Or was it??

I’m finding that, post-Covid, it’s taking a lot longer to see any kind of specialist. I guess it’s because of all the people who postponed going to the doctor, and now we’re all trying to make up for lost time.

This is completely accurate. I had an appointment scheduled with my urologist in March but due to a conflict, I had to call and change it. I was expecting to get in some time in April but the earliest appointment they had available was in June, so I reserved it.

That’s the first profit-filter. Must have computer, internet access, smartphone for MFA, etc…

I was going to make an eye appointment with the VA, today… I was told the next opening is December 15.