Was at the out-patient clinics in the CUHospital today. They have a strange system for processing patients. You are given a time with your appointment but, in fact, everyone arrives way ahead and the order in which people are seen is the order in which they arrive.

Inside the door of the clinic there’s a receptionist’s desk. However, the ‘system’ decrees that you have to sit in a line of chairs and wait to be called by the receptionist. However, many people arrive at the door and, not knowing where to go, head straight for the receptionist’s desk.

An experienced patient beside me noted that the receptionists sometimes are annoyed when older people don’t read the sign and they interrupt the processing work to inquire about where they should go. That’s ironic because we were sitting in the waiting area of the eye clinic!

[The receptionist today was professional and polite – as were the clinical staff.]