I had my INR blood test appointment of Friday. It is one of those finger prick tests that only takes about 45 seconds. I fact the pre-test questions take longer than the actual test, it is usually about a ten minute job. It was an early appointment, 9am. Don’t ask me why I chose that time, because as usual with me, I can’t remember. I pulled into the car park 15 minutes before my appointment as I hate being late. We have one of those self-sign-in screens which told me that I was the next in the queue.

I sat down in the waiting area and started to look at my phone, as I didn’t really want to catch anyone’s attention. However, there was a lady sat two seats away from me, that I had seen entering the centre when I parked. She was holding her yellow record book so I assumed she was waiting the same as me. She would have been (and I’m being kind here, I think) maybe three or four years older than me. I was amused to see her tapping her foot and humming along to the music being played in the background … “Paint It Black” by the Rolling Stones is not the kind of music I would expect a person of her apparent age to listen to. It wasn’t until I got home, that I fully realised that it was highly likely that she would have listened to that music.

But I digress from the main point of this tale. I glanced up at the clock and saw that it was now 9 o’clock.
“She’s late!” said the lady, “She should be here before now!“
I smiled and said something like “She has a long way to come…” or words to that effect. The clinician does have to travel over eighty miles from Newcastle to get to our Medical Centre, so delays are quite reasonable and understandable.
“I can’t stay here all day, waiting for her,” she said. “I’m going to make another appointment!” And with that she stormed off. Meanwhile a gentleman had sat beside me and witnessed this bit of a tantrum. He asked me if she was the first in the queue and I said no, I was the first. He said he was the second, so that made the lady the third. That meant, her appointment was for 9:20 at the earliest, so why she was going off in a huff, fifteen minutes before her allotted time I will never know.

Ten minutes later, the receptionist came to inform the INR people that the clinician had been held up and would not be at the Medical Centre until early afternoon, and that she would ring to make new appointments.

I went to pick up my prescriptions and it was while I was discussing this with the dispenser that the title of this post came up. I was always under the impression that it was the younger members of society that had no patience … seems I could be wrong.