Filipinos have always had this bad habit of arriving to planned events or outings later than they should. This habit or quirk is called “Filipino time,” and a lot of Filipinos are unapologetic about it.
Related: How work-from-home and remote work have altered the concept of ‘Filipino time’
Somehow, as a society, we’ve also come to terms with this habit by adjusting ourselves to it by making meet-up times earlier or making excuses that fit the tee. For example, some people are now setting their party invitations to 30 minutes to an hour earlier than their intended start, because people are so used to arriving later than the set time.
Another example is using the same excuses like traffic jams, public transportation being sh***, and others over and over again. While sometimes these are true, some have gotten tired of hearing these justifications, especially from students, that they’ve started giving repercussions for this tardiness.
Seems unfair when your reasons are true, but what do we have to do? We adjust our time and make our best efforts to always be early. That’s what everyone nowadays prioritizes: being respectful of another’s time.
This leads us to another question that always clouds our minds whenever we visit a hospital for an appointment—Why do doctors always arrive late?
Imagine going through a “carmageddon” in Metro Manila just to arrive early for your doctor’s appointment, only to be met with a waiting game because your doctor is late. It’s infuriating, to say the least.
A Filipino doctor addressed the woes of many social media users in a post on Threads, where he basically said, “If you’re not yet critical, if you haven’t had an earlier check-up, or if you’ve lasted 1-3 days self-medicating at home, don’t complain that your doctor is late by an hour. They’re attending other patients.”
The post received a lot of traction on social media, mostly receiving negative comments about how inconsiderate the first part of his post sounded. Others cited how doctors from other countries are able to attend to their patients on time and schedule, and even begged the question, “But isn’t it your duty to attend to all patients and to be on time? Why are you also complaining?”
The doctor in question uploaded another post on Threads, saying that it was good that his previous post had received a lot of attention. He explained that he knows how common this situation is these days, and that both the patients and doctors can feel frustrated about it.
He later on said, “It’s essential to acknowledge that we are all human and imperfect. Mistakes can happen on both sides, and during stressful times, we might forget to show each other the respect and understanding we deserve.”
Which, bottomline, is the point of all of this.
If the patients aren’t being respected by the doctors themselves by arriving on time for their respective appointments and on time with their work hours, how are the patients going to reciprocate the respect that they believe they should be given?
It’s not like that Filipino patients aren’t understanding, we’re pretty sure that patients understand when there is another one that demands immediate attention especially if they’re in critical condition. The point that Filipino social media users are saying is that doctors should at least give their patients a heads-up if their appointments will be delayed.
This simple act of openly communicating with patients about their times and schedules is what doctors should start doing.
It’s basic decency, or to be said better: Respect.
Respect goes both ways and it can start with open communication. Hope that gets through to your condescension, doc.
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