"A different definition of "urgent""

I went to the Bass Coast Health Urgent Care Clinic in Cowes.  I was there for four hours before the doctor saw my child.  As far as I could tell there were only two patients ahead of us.  As we were there for so long, I did come to realise that there were two other patients who I believe were already in care and being attended.  So that's four patients the doctor had before attending to us four hours later.

When a GP is spending 10-15 minutes for an appointment this, in my opinion, seems pure luxury to get an hour per patient in urgent care.  But as I waited in the surgery, I learnt more about why the delay. I believe the endless chit-chat amongst the staff was surely a distraction as the doctor completed their paperwork (but I feel they were happy enough to turn away from their desk and participate in the conversation).  The computer system going down forcing the doctor to complete their paperwork manually also surely didn't help.

I was unfortunate to get there at lunchtime which was followed, a couple of hours later, by handover.  I understand the doctor coming on duty had never worked at this centre so the full guided tour was required by the only attending doctor - one of the three nurses who, in my opinion, were not doing anything, could surely have given the tour.

We are always faced with long waiting times whichever clinic in Cowes we attend, so we are getting used to it.  It just seems ridiculous when there is such a health crisis as we are currently facing that there is still only one doctor on the roster.  And from what I observed, they seemed to spend more time doing the paperwork than seeing the patients.  If it takes so long to complete the paperwork, can they not have an assistant?

I believe in these legislative times, record-keeping is more important than looking after new patients - in fact I was told sternly by a nurse that I needed to wait because the doctor has a lot of charts to complete first.  

It was disappointing, as I had a different understanding of what "urgent care" meant. But now I know, and in my opinion it's part of your cunning plan to cut down the number of people using the clinic, I guess we hope and pray we are never in an actual medical emergency while we live here on Phillip Island.