A New Doctor not to Be

Back in 2010 my wife and I moved to Richmond Hill and our first house.  Later in 2010 I changed doctors so that the doctor would be convenient.  The doctor was available for an initial visit and I joined his practice. 

I chose the doctor after first meeting him for several reasons.  The main one was his hours extended beyond just the mere 9 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. Monday to Friday that would require me to take time off work if I needed a physical or had something that wasn't putting me in bed for the day. As well, the doctor is part of a group practice.  This means if my doctor isn't available for any reason, there is an "On Call Doctor" who sees patients and has access to the my records within the same office.  Also, the office is open on Saturdays for Walk Ins for any patient of the practice.  So there were loads of pluses.  

My wife was looking to also move her doctor a little closer to home.  So she made an appointment with another doctor, Dr. Sakeenah Ameen, at the same group practice my doctor was part of.  We made the appointment for an initial visit back in January for yesterday (February 22nd) at 4:15 P.M.  My wife takes some time off work in order to make it the practice for the appointment.  

We check in with the receptionist and am informed the doctor isn't there.  We inquired when we were informed, the receptionist replied back on February 3rd a message was left.  Later we checked our call display and it shows there was a call but there was no record of a message left.  We both don't recall a message either as we would have easily rebooked the appointment. 

We inquired with the receptionist what our options were:

She replied that we could rebook for next week during the day.  This wasn't an option as my wife had already wasted a couple of hours off work for nothing and was unlikely to get time off next week due to a major project being undertaken that needs to be completed soon. 

We inquired if there was an evening appointment.  No the Doctor doesn't see patients in the evening for first time visits. We inquired if there was anything in the morning, the reply was the Doctor only does physicals between 9:00 A.M. and 11 A.M.  so that wasn't an option. 

My wife looked at me for any ideas.  I replied that obviously the receptionist isn't willing to bend on this issue and obviously doesn't want a new patient otherwise they wouldn't have booked patients originally when the doctor wasn't here and that if things changed, they office would have ensured that all the appointments had been rebooked and that more than a message would have been left. I told the receptionist, just before we left, that the Doctor was not interested in having my wife as a new patient as there was no effort by the Doctor's office to rebook the appointment.  My wife agreed and we left the office. 

My wife was totally annoyed that she had worked hard last week and put in some overtime hours.  She used at least two hours of overtime last week in order to leave work early for the Doctor's appointment yesterday.  What did she get in return? Nothing. 

She is also due for a physical, so the thinking was at least the evening hours would work so she wouldn't require to take more time off work.  But after wasting two hours it was all for not. 

Thanks Dr. Ameen for wasting 2 hours of my wife's time for absolutely nothing.  You've lost a frustrated patient.