Recently, on X, there has been a massive back-and-forth between doctors and the general public. For the longest time, when setting up an appointment with your doctor at their clinic, it seems to be the case that they never show up at the start of their supposed clinic hours, often setting up a chain reaction where every single patient in line has to wait at least an hour or far more.

mapa-public o mapa-private, laging late ang mga doktor, ano? kasi galing pa ng ibang clinics? kasi nag-rounds pa sa ospital? eh pare-pareho lang naman tayong kumakayod sa buhay, bakit tingin nyo mas precious ang oras nyo kaysa sa oras ng mga pasyenteng pinaghihintay ninyo?

— miss scor (@scorsaguin) January 12, 2025

On the one hand, we’re not here to antagonize medical professionals by telling them that they don’t value their patients’ time. On the other hand, their patients’ time is also important. So where’s the middle ground? Let’s try to find out while trying to discover what these reasons for tardiness happen to be.

8. They’re secretly taking on the “juggling multiple jobs” challenge all the time

Kulang po ang doctor sa pinas, as of 2011 2 doctors per 10k patients ang ratio. Hindi sila paimportante. Sadyang kulang. https://t.co/1IBpksGaNi

— Ramen Boi (@OhComeOn_Ramon) January 12, 2025

Most doctors aren’t limited to their clinic. A lot of them do the rounds in hospitals as well, maybe even teaching med students in class in between and streaming Surgeon Simulator because that’s how hard life is. It becomes inevitable that sometimes, juggling all of that becomes difficult, and the patients end up having to extend their patience.

The Compromise: Transparency. Most doctors with clinics have a secretary in place. The secretary should be regularly updated so she can relay the doctor’s ETA to the patients. At least that way, it stops being a guessing game.

7. Even they can lose track of time

choosing to become a healthcare professional in this country feels like a form of self harm bc imagine working 12-16 hrs a day, only to be accused of considering our time more “precious” than the patients’

ur anger is misdirected https://t.co/CzBPu1a9De

— (@foreveronlys) January 12, 2025

It’s understandable why doctors get defensive when issues like these crop up. At the end of the day, even when they’re doing their job, emotions tend to run high when lives are on the line.

A small mistake in other lines of work could end up being fatal in theirs, so they tend to work a fairly thankless job depending on the situation. But in the end, like everyone else, they too, can lose track of time. What can we say? Filipino time is contagious.

The Compromise: Transparency. I think we’re just going to see this compromise a lot more because what tends to be frustrating is not just the tardiness – it’s the lack of updates, sometimes resulting in people finding out that for the entire day, the doctor will NOT be in, thus wasting their entire day lining up for nothing. Also, maybe, just maybe, we, as a culture, should do away with Filipino time altogether.

6. The doctors-to-patient ratio in the country is woeful

1 doctor for every 25,000 patients in PH. :( sobrang kulang. I think ito yung pinakadahilan kung bakit madalas sila late. :( https://t.co/OkcvBCdeUX

— arvin chester (@arvinchester) January 13, 2025

Did you know that for every doctor in the Philippines, there are 25,300 patients? 

Do you know what the World Health Organization recommends? 1:10,000.

Those numbers should tell you how overworked the average Pinoy doctor is and why they end up rarely following their schedules. They are doing twice the work and, given the Philippine setting, for far less money than if they went abroad and did the same thing there.

The Compromise: This goes beyond doctors and patients. It should be much more encouraging for people to take up being medical practitioners while staying in the country. Otherwise, this brain drain will just keep happening and happening.

5. Emergency patients have no sense of timing

you will NEVER, ever, truly understand unless you’re in the medical field :(( sad lang https://t.co/7ufrlTTEJc

— nathanielle (@nattynielleee) January 12, 2025

And that’s why they’re called emergencies. This isn’t a snide remark against emergency patients – it’s just the reality of the situation. A doctor on schedule to make it to their clinic could suddenly have to stay longer because someone with a gunshot wound just entered the hospital during their rounds. And this happens more often than we think.

The Compromise: Transparency. As much as we value the doctor’s time, let’s also value the patient’s. They at least deserve to know.

4. They actually overbook

Your doctor was probably taking care of other patients, or stuck in traffic after taking care of other patients.

Idk what we expect from them. To drop other patients like hot plates? Mag helicopter para makarating on time? Do we honestly think our doctors are lounging about? Idk https://t.co/QmQ79DqsgW

— Von Velasco (@renceqv2) January 13, 2025

Yes, this happens. Doctors actually tend to book more patients than their clinic hours can realistically handle. This is because there is always a good chance that in a queue of eleven patients, at least two of them would end up backing out, and the doctor ends up treating fewer people than they could have had they booked beyond their expected load. You simply have to account for cancellations.

The Compromise: When this happens in airlines, don’t they incentivize passengers who get bumped off with money or better seats or something? Maybe doctors can implement something like this, too.

3. Patients can take more time than is allotted for them

doctors running late pic.twitter.com/eXzW12feQ5

— ⋆˚࿔ geo ˚⋆✮ (@ethereaalbot) January 22, 2025

A doctor expects appointments to last 20 minutes per patient, most of the time. That is about three patients per hour. So, clinic hours of four hours would go about twelve patients if booked and handled properly. But things happen. Sometimes, patients end up acting like the lead storyline in an episode of House or Grey’s Anatomy, and taking up wayyyyy more than just the 20 minutes expected.

And then another patient does it. And another. Next thing you know, that has created two hours worth of backlog, and people in line get grumpier with each passing minute.

Remember that video of a doctor who gives painless injections by playing with a baby to take their attention away before they get injected? Most procedures like that should only take half a minute, tops. That extra care ends up being a three-minute process, six times as long. Sadly, something has to give. Do we put up with the crying baby or the crying queue of other patients?

The Compromise: It’s not just transparency. It’s also enforcing time limits within reason. We have to give each patient the quality care they deserve, but there is a healthy balance somewhere.

2. Traffic

gets yung kakulangan ng doktor pero hindi ba valid naman yung frustration ng pasyente na pinaghintay? least you can do is say sorry and do better next time (set ETAs, communicate changes in sched in advance) https://t.co/09cdfvPg7r

— migi (@hongthaigay) January 13, 2025

‘Nuff said? ‘Nuff said.

The Compromise: Transparency, of course.

1. Ultimately, they’re still human

They get burnt out. They make mistakes. They choose poorly from time to time. Does this justify them not valuing their patient’s time? Of course not. But there’s a lot of understanding that should go out from both sides, because we are imperfect people working in an imperfect system all trying to do our best.

The Compromise: Is some give and take from both doctors and patients too much to ask here? We hope not, because that’s the only possible way to get past this.

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