Exercise in frustration...

The 70 km/h speed limit on KPE , the ridiculous waiting period for a doctors appointment, the ridiculous paperwork in the name of administration. What do they all have in common?

They are all, as the title suggests, an exercise in frustration. More like a heavy work out i would say. Being patient is one thing, but getting transferred around and referred to countless unrelated workstations seems to do just the otherwise.

The recent addition to this growing list would be the automated telephone answering systems in govt. agencies and some major private companies.

Thank you for calling the (e.g) property tax hot line.[ followed by a re-run of it in Chinese] .Press 1 for english, Press 2 for Chinese. [After pressing 1] For inquiries on property tax press 1, for application for tax exemption, press 2, for updates on revision of taxes press 3, this contiues till 9 i guess. By the time i spent 3 to 4 minutes listening to all the options, i would have forgotten what the first option. After choosing the option that i wanted, i had to enter my IC number before having to choose further sub choices presented to me again by the same computer generated voice. After goin through so many sub levels just to find out that there is no choice that best describes my needs, there comes the final option. To talk with operator , press 0.... Why can't they just give this option earlier? The best part, i have to spend another 5 to 10 minutes listening to horrible MIDI renditions of Tchaikovsky before the operator answers... and all my inquiries gets settled in a min.

15 mins of hanging on the phone for a 1 minute long conversation.

I got served.... in about 2.5 hours.

I went to get to an MC as i got a strained knee ligament. After my consultation, i came back with the same strained knee, an acute lower back pain (sitting on a hard chair waiting 2 plus hours in total for a check up) and bag full of .... PARACETAMOL.... did i mention my consultation lasted a mere 3 to 4 mins?

I just do not comprehend one small observation i made today at the polyclinic. there was relatively not much crowd there at the waiting area. the thing is all of us waited an average of 10 to 15 mins before the Que number changed..the corresponding number walks in and in about 5 min.. he or she comes out.. and then it takes another 15 mins before the next patient is called up..

Its not my intention to condemn the doctors or anything.. if not for them i wouldn't have gotten my MC( which i need badly).. I am just curious as to what happens in the 10 min lapse after the patient leaves? any doctor buddies or bloggers chancing upon this site.. please enlighten me...are they bogged down with follow up paper work on the patient that they just treated.. or are they just taking a stress break for the 5 min consultation? or am i looking in the wrong direction... is the waiting problem beyond doctors and due to administration?

PS: ever noticed that despite the notice that que numbers may not appear in sequence.. u know, they follow the number sequence until the next turn is urs.. then the number jumps off to the moon.. u know ... 7041..7042..7043.. 7044..7045...9036 ??