A Special Day

Today is a special day as I was brave enough to “threaten” a receptionist at a clinic.

I had a job at the clinic at 10.00am. I reached there at 9.40am as I managed to catch an earlier bus. I thought I was very lucky because I could do some reading while waiting for the patient. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do it. The patient came with her children five minutes later. She brought them to the drop-in baby clinic. According to her, she brought them to see the nurse while seeing the doctor to save her from coming here again. Even though I knew she can communicate with the nurse in simple English since baby clinics normally just take the height and weight for the babies, but I still accompanied her to see the nurse just in case she wanted to ask any question.

We left the nurse’s room at 10.05am. So we sat in the waiting room again. Time passed, it was 10.20am, so I went to the receptionist and told her that I got another job in the city centre at 11.00am. Therefore, I had to go at 10.30am. I asked for her help to see whether the doctor was free to see the patient too. She said the doctor was with a patient. That’s fine, I went back to my seat.

I saw a patient left the doctor’s room five minutes later. But until 10.35am, the doctor didn’t call any patient to her room. I went to the receptionist again. She wasn’t at her desk. She stood two meters away and was chit-chatting with her colleague. When I asked her to check if the doctor knew there was another patient here. She answered my question impatiently and told me from two meters away, “The doctor was with a patient.” I was so frustrated with her irresponsible answer and bad attitude. So I raised my voice, “I saw a patient came out 10 minutes ago and nobody entered her room after that. I told you I have to go at 10.30am and it is 10.35am already. The most important thing is you just book me for half an hour. I can go now, you know?” I saw her face changed. I guessed she didn’t expect that I dared to say like that to her.

Anyway, we saw the doctor two minutes later. Of course, I was late for my next job. Sob… Sob…

This is the first time I blame a receptionist. This incident makes me to recall a friend’s question too - “Why some people always like others to raise up voice, then only they play their roles?”

I think everybody wants to be a nice and charming person, but when charm fails to solve the problem, we are forced to be fierce… It’s sad, right?