Waiting time for a doctors appointment

[yghartsyrt]

I was discussing this with my wife the other day, since my orthopedist has a waiting time of roughly six weeks. And I was wondering how this varies from country to country.
I’m from Germany …. How long is the waiting time in your country to get your orthopedic matters fixed?

[LUGR]

I don’t have any recent experience with orthopedic doctors. But I have recently been trying direct primary care for my general practitioner. Pay a monthly subscription fee and can go to the doctor as often as needed without messing with insurance. My appointments have been walk in sign in and see the doctor so far. Insurance does come into it when you are referred back to the normal medical structure. I can text the doctor and their staff anytime during business hours and get a fairly quick response. I had never heard of this type of care before and think it is very nice for GP care so far.

[EdLawndale]

America (Los Angeles) here.  Could probably see my orthopedist within the week. Sorry to hear it takes so long for you to get an appt.

[Mean salto]

Very varied.
For the longest time Aus had "free" doctors/bulk billing (for gp) and it was either call ahead and get an appointment or just turn up and first come first served. Now depending on a million things you could still have to wait but it was usually less than two hours for a regular doctors visit. Some places only did short appointments so you generally wait less but expect to only see the doc for 5 mins and only talk about one issue.
Over the past couple years tho many places no longer provide this free service so you kinda have to know what office does what and prepare in advance.
At one first come first served place you literally have to get there at 7:30 at the latest, they open doors at 8 and the doc usually gets there between 9-10:30 so you've already usually waited about 2 hours even if you're first in line. This is the best doctor tho and an appointment can go for well over an hour depending on what you need, altho this means of you're tenth in line you can actually be there from morning into the evening.
The places where you have to pay/be a member can be good but they also kinda fuck you sometimes with putting extra shit on the bill (extended appointment for no reason etc) or make you come back the next day so you pay twice for some shit that takes one minute. I've also heard about shit like a mum going in with 3 kids and having to pay x4 but don't know if that's true or not.


Seeing specialists is hit and miss. Usually cost you about $175-550(you can get a %back with Medicare) but again there's a million variations and as far as waiting for appointments again it's all over the place. Covid fucked a lot up (reduced the amount of appointments per day) and it never really got better. Also a lot of luck with what's available where you live, if there's only one heart specialist expect to wait longer for an appointment


TLDR: it depends.

[yghartsyrt]

I don’t have any recent experience with orthopedic doctors. But I have recently been trying direct primary care for my general practitioner. Pay a monthly subscription fee and can go to the doctor as often as needed without messing with insurance. My appointments have been walk in sign in and see the doctor so far. Insurance does come into it when you are referred back to the normal medical structure. I can text the doctor and their staff anytime during business hours and get a fairly quick response. I had never heard of this type of care before and think it is very nice for GP care so far.

Wow. That’s a bizarre concept for me: to have a subscription for general care. Which country are you from?

America (Los Angeles) here.  Could probably see my orthopedist within the week. Sorry to hear it takes so long for you to get an appt.

That’s an amazingly short timespan. Great to hear.  To be fair, if I’d be in pain that needs to be taken care of immediately, I could just walk in and wait for a couple of hours to get an appointment. But regular appointments to have something checked out, takes that long.

[yghartsyrt]

Very varied.
For the longest time Aus had "free" doctors/bulk billing (for gp) and it was either call ahead and get an appointment or just turn up and first come first served. Now depending on a million things you could still have to wait but it was usually less than two hours for a regular doctors visit. Some places only did short appointments so you generally wait less but expect to only see the doc for 5 mins and only talk about one issue.
Over the past couple years tho many places no longer provide this free service so you kinda have to know what office does what and prepare in advance.
At one first come first served place you literally have to get there at 7:30 at the latest, they open doors at 8 and the doc usually gets there between 9-10:30 so you've already usually waited about 2 hours even if you're first in line. This is the best doctor tho and an appointment can go for well over an hour depending on what you need, altho this means of you're tenth in line you can actually be there from morning into the evening.
The places where you have to pay/be a member can be good but they also kinda fuck you sometimes with putting extra shit on the bill (extended appointment for no reason etc) or make you come back the next day so you pay twice for some shit that takes one minute. I've also heard about shit like a mum going in with 3 kids and having to pay x4 but don't know if that's true or not.


Seeing specialists is hit and miss. Usually cost you about $175-550(you can get a %back with Medicare) but again there's a million variations and as far as waiting for appointments again it's all over the place. Covid fucked a lot up (reduced the amount of appointments per day) and it never really got better. Also a lot of luck with what's available where you live, if there's only one heart specialist expect to wait longer for an appointment


TLDR: it depends.

Same here. Situation never got back to normal after three years of Covid.

The “only one problem per visit” is quite common among the various doctors I visited in the last couple of years. That’s such a weird thing. As if my ageing body only emits one source of pain at a time

[devils acrobat]

In Austria we have doctors who treat everyone that is insured -> rather long waiting time comparable to Germany.
If you are willing to pay you can get your appointment tomorrow. There is room for improvement, yet I am a big fan of our social system.

[fs1/2cab]

I am also from Germany. As mentioned before, if we are in pain we can go somewhere and almost always get an appointment that day. Some specialist, takes 2 to 8 weeks in my experience.

I don't know if that is available in other countries too, but I have this App called Doctolib, you can search every doctor there and check when they have time for an appointment. I just checked there and made an appointment at an Orthopedist in 2 days. So far I only heard good things about this App, so I am curious how that Orthopedist will be.

[yghartsyrt]

I am also from Germany. As mentioned before, if we are in pain we can go somewhere and almost always get an appointment that day. Some specialist, takes 2 to 8 weeks in my experience.

I don't know if that is available in other countries too, but I have this App called Doctolib, you can search every doctor there and check when they have time for an appointment. I just checked there and made an appointment at an Orthopedist in 2 days. So far I only heard good things about this App, so I am curious how that Orthopedist will be.

don't know why, but most doctors in my area don't offer appointments via that App anymore – or to be more precise: their listings always say: "we will opne up new appointment possibilities in the future"..... lol what?

In Austria we have doctors who treat everyone that is insured -> rather long waiting time comparable to Germany.
If you are willing to pay you can get your appointment tomorrow. There is room for improvement, yet I am a big fan of our social system.

yeah – compared with other countries, i still happy to have a social/health care system that is at least free for everyone and shit. but maybe that's the price you need to pay.

[S.]

I was discussing this with my wife the other day, since my orthopedist has a waiting time of roughly six weeks. And I was wondering how this varies from country to country.
I’m from Germany …. How long is the waiting time in your country to get your orthopedic matters fixed?

Germany as well. Regular public insurance (öffentliche Krankenkasse).

I have never had to wait this long. This is mostly due to a good doctor (Hausarzt) I am friends with and who knows how to get me quick referrals. I also know good orthopedic surgeons through skateboarding that have treated me in the past, which has helped me get quick appointments. I will also call various doctors if necessary. Last time I got a quick appointment by having my name put on a waiting list and someone else cancelled. Only ten days from first appointment to MRI to surgery.

Sometimes having to wait for awhile to get an appointment with a special doctor really sucks about the German health care system.

My advice is get a good general practitioner (Hausarzt) who has been practicing for awhile and knows specialists for referrals. Also use the upside of our system:
If your doctor is on your side you will get a lot of great physio therapy after treatment and surgery.

[yghartsyrt]

Expand Quote

I was discussing this with my wife the other day, since my orthopedist has a waiting time of roughly six weeks. And I was wondering how this varies from country to country.
I’m from Germany …. How long is the waiting time in your country to get your orthopedic matters fixed?

[close]

Germany as well. Regular public insurance (öffentliche Krankenkasse).

I have never had to wait this long. This is mostly due to a good doctor (Hausarzt) I am friends with and who knows how to get me quick referrals. I also know good orthopedic surgeons through skateboarding that have treated me in the past, which has helped me get quick appointments. I will also call various doctors if necessary. Last time I got a quick appointment by having my name put on a waiting list and someone else cancelled. Only ten days from first appointment to MRI to surgery.

Sometimes having to wait for awhile to get an appointment with a special doctor really sucks about the German health care system.

My advice is get a good general practitioner (Hausarzt) who has been practicing for awhile and knows specialists for referrals. Also use the upside of our system:
If your doctor is on your side you will get a lot of great physio therapy after treatment and surgery.

catch is, my general practitioner sucks big time. And all other in my area don't take new patient at the moment.
Regarding my orthopaedic doctor – I'm quite happy, since he is also skateboarding and has a better perspective on how to approach certain things than a general orthopaedic doctor, but this is adds to the waiting time. Fingers crossed, i'll get an earlier spot.

thanks to everyone for their perspectives

[steezenking]

The doctor I work with (family medicine) first open appointment is march. If you have something acutely wrong, someone in the practice will see you in a day or few though. But if you just want to talk about the like skin tag on your balls, yeah march.

[Underpressureflips]

Just made an appt here in the USA. Wait time is 7 months. I’m not joking.

[yghartsyrt]

Just made an appt here in the USA. Wait time is 7 months. I’m not joking.

Fuck.  That’s long. Sorry to hear

[matt_2993]

I still have no idea how health care even begins to work other than emergencies that require the ER

[yghartsyrt]

I still have no idea how health care even begins to work other than emergencies that require the ER

It’s outrageous that social welfare and health care in the US are so bad. Sorry for all you guys on the other side of the pond.

[devils acrobat]

Just made an appt here in the USA. Wait time is 7 months. I’m not joking.

Oh my, that is so bad. Sorry to hear that. May I ask what you are waiting for and how densely populated your area is. What makes those waiting times so long?

[L33Tg33k]

I don’t know anything about orthopedists but I have to see a podiatrist fairly regularly and it usually takes about 3 weeks to a month to get care after I’ve made contact. With my insurance I make a co-pay of $15 every time I see her.

I’m American as fuck!

[fineslime]

ahh an orthopedic appointment on ze autobahn yah

[EXTRA SPICY]

Sitting here for a couple hours now sucking through an n95 at the urgent care for a UTI. Thread’s on brand, let’s go!
PSA, pull out, pee afterwords.