Have you ever noticed, that there is next to no waiting time, when visiting a dentist? For scaredy-cats like me, it is essential to arrive at the dentist’s and be on the chair within seconds lest I change my mind again. My teeth or gums need to be sore beyond all bearing to be able to suffer five minutes of the only thing more awful than excrutiating toothache: having to sit and wait at the dentist’s (on top: if the receptionist doesn’t greet me with the anaesthetic shot, I’m out again within a split second). Alas, there is no waiting time with dentists! Even in an emergency, when I had to see the dentist without an appointment, there was never a wait lasting longer than eight minutes.
I’d even go as far as to assert, that one can see this by compairing the size of their anterooms to those of other medical disciplines. They usually have only one small room, seating an average of five people (if there is only one dentist to the facility), with most chairs empty, maybe one person waiting as another one puts on their coat to leave after treatment.

With other practitioners of all denominations (at least with the kinds I had to visit so far), there are sometimes two or even more waiting rooms, cram-packed with patients, waiting forever to see the doctor.
Whoever wasn’t seriously ill upon arrival, will surely be so, when their waiting time is over. One will be so angry and frustrated, that one of the inner organs malfunctions (the bile, mostly), or else a minor heart attack occurs caused by pent-up anger or the circulation collapses entirely, due to the anoxic conditions in the waiting aerea. Or else they will have infected themselves with one of the various germs and viruses brought along by the ailment of others with plenty of time (spent sifting through mindless illustraded magazines or swopping tales of woe with those present) to breed them fully through incubation until they actually get to see the doc. Now showing full-fledged symtoms of something, they never had when first entering the facilities. This is mainly true for stoic people, or those – often elderly – folks, who come to the doctor’s for entertainment or out of habit. If it weren’t a tad over the top, I’d even claim, some simply die of boredom or old age – dependant on their predisposition – before they even get a chance to meet the doctor. Overlooked until bad odour arises (alas, bad clime explained!) or an attentive receptionist notices and drags the deceased into the doctor’s office.

Really, how difficult can it be to schedule appointments, that are eventually met. Even non-scientific service providers – hairdressers, for instance – do a much better job at this than say, my orthopaedist. Even in a relatively relaxed and unimportant sector such as organizing tee off times for golfers (a service I provide), the restricted life-span of customers is better respected than at any given medical practice I have ever been to.

It is my firm conviction that all kinds of medical practitioners should have compulsory training in organisational matters by their valued colleagues, the dentists! I am sure, in the long run, mankind would thank me for this proposal, if it were ever put into practice.