The ABC is reporting that doctors could be sued for being late to appointments, according to several lawyers:
‘The Downs and South West Law Association’s Darryl Cox says some people are waiting up to an hour for appointments, costing them time and money and doctors need to stop over-booking.
“If it’s the case that the doctor’s practice is to just book people at random and essentially over-book the people, then it may well be the case that people who are forced to wait because of the over-booking may well have a claim against the doctor,” he said.
The chairman of GP Connections in Toowoomba, Dr John Lamb, says doctors are not deliberately trying to make people late.
“I could also respond by saying that if a patient has a right to take legal action against the doctor because the doctor’s running late, does that mean the doctor also has the ability to take legal action against the patient if they’re late or don’t turn up?” he said.
He says given the current doctor shortage, patients should be more understanding.’
It’s simply a fact of modern life that, as interactions become more complex and a greater number of factors have the potential to intervene to cause delay, it is a task of increasing difficultly to remain on time. These would-be plaintiffs would do better to bring a book, laptop or, failing that, an MP3 player with them into the waiting room.
