A day in the life

Indulge with me, if you will, as we consider a bit of mathematical logic.

The polyclinic doctor has officially 8 working hours on a weekday. This is divided into 5 for the morning session(8am to 1pm) and 3 for the afternoon session(2pm to 5pm). He sees an average of 60 to 70 patients each day. For simplicity's sake, let's take the number to be 60. If you do a basic calculation, that works out to 8 minutes for each patient. This does not include any toilet breaks, or the fact that the first patient is usually not seen until about 8:15am, when his/her casesheet has been found.

So let's break down these 8 minutes. In the first minute, the doctor looks at the casesheet, chops his name, and looks through past entries to determine whether the patient has any significant past records that may be relevant to the current visit. Then he calls for the patient.

In the second minute, the patient gets up from his seat to walk to the door of the room, knocks and enters. The basic greetings are exchanged, and he sits down. The doctor asks for the patient's complaint.

The third minute is spent by the patient on describing his complaint in detail to the doctor. This includes the doctor asking any question to clarify.

The next 2 minutes are spent examining the patient according to the complaints he/she has.

In the sixth minute, the doctor formulates a treatment plan and discusses it with the patient.

The seventh minute sees the doctor answering any queries the patient might have, before printing out the prescription and MC if any, or writing a referral if needed.

The eight minute is taken up by ushering the patient out, and pausing for a breather before going to the next patient.

Sounds manageable? To the uninitiated, maybe. But let's look at what happens on a typical day.


It is 8am in the morning. The doctor is sitting at his table. No casesheets have arrived yet. He looks at his queue in the computer. 5 patients registered in his room. The clock ticks.

It is 8:11am. Finally one casesheet makes its way to the doctor's table. He picks it up, sees that it is a patient who has a chronic condition(eg diabetes, hypertension), and is probably only here to collect his medicines. This should be a piece of cake.

He calls for the patient through the computer system. 10 seconds pass, before a knock on the door sounds, and it opens. An old lady walks in slowly. The doctor greets her while beckoning her to sit down. She greets back and takes her time to settle into the chair. The clock says 8:13am.

The doctor asks for any drug allergy, and then asks if she is here to collect her usual medicines. The lady, to the doctor's delight, says yes she is. The doctor proceeds to take her blood pressure. After that, he writes down his findings and starts prescribing the medicines. The clock says 8:15am.

"By the way," the lady suddenly says, "I have this niggling knee pain. I need some painkillers." The doctor stops what he is doing, then turns and examines the knee. The clock says 8:16am.

The doctor says he will prescribe some painkillers, and hurriedly prints out the prescription. As he is waiting for the prescription to be printed, the patient suddenly reveals that she has been having some cough, and would like some cough medication. The doctor makes an audible sound with his teeth as they grated on each other. He snatches the piece of paper coming out of the printer, and crushes it loudly, dumping it into the bin, before turning back to examine the patient again. Then he adds in the cough medicine and prints again. The clock reads 8:18am.

Quickly taking the prescription, he all but shoves it into the patient's hands. The patient calmly says she wants an appointment for the next visit. The doctor asks for her appointment card. She fumbles in her bag for a good 20 seconds before pulling it out. The doctor snatches it from her, writes down the details, and tells her to go to the counter for an appointment. The lady thanks the doctor, and slowly gets up to leave the room.

Then, the doctor's heart sinks as she turns back and says she forgot to ask for some eye drops, as her eyes are occasionally itchy.

When the lady finally leaves the room, the clock says 8:22am.


3 minutes above the target of 8 minutes may seem little, but please bear in mind that the doctor sees 60 patients a day. Do your maths.

Looks like this doctor has some catching up to do. Tune in to the next episode to see whether he is able to make up for lost time, or whether this ominously slow start is the herald of a long, long day.