A patient has to wait more than an hour before meeting a doctor at a clinic, according to a recent opinion poll by the National Guards’ Health Affairs Department.
While 59 percent of the 585 patients surveyed said they had to wait more than an hour, 22 percent said they had to wait more than half an hour before they could see a doctor and 14 percent said they had to wait only 15 minutes.
Four percent claimed they could always see the doctor as soon as they arrived at the hospital.
A study on patient satisfaction regarding hospital services conducted by the Institute of Public Administration (IPA) in Riyadh also confirmed that patients often had to wait a long time.
Patients also complained that doctors and hospital staff did not listen to their problems properly. Other complaints included insufficient parking facilities and dirty toilets in government hospitals.
The IPA recommended that every hospital should implement a system to track the level of satisfaction each patient had about the services offered there. It also recommended that hospitals should strive to reduce waiting times and simplify other procedures.
Internal medicine consultant Dr. Abdul Aziz Abdullah said he always advised his patients to make appointments when they wanted to see him so that they need not wait at the clinic. The doctor also stressed the need to adopt electronic methods to cut down the time a patient has to spend with a doctor.
He also wanted emergency patients to identify the type of clinic they needed to go to first. He recommended that patients, especially dental ones, to telephone in advance.
However, informed sources told Arab News that the completion of the Ministry of Health’s expansion projects and construction of new hospitals and more facilities at outpatient clinics would help a lot in reducing long waiting times.
