Wednesday, June 04, 2008

When Airlines Affect Clinic Schedules

It can be tough on your Monday clinic patients:
A Perth cardiologist has lashed out at national airline Qantas, saying regular flight delays were potentially putting country patients at risk.

Western Cardiology consultant Johan Janssen has flown to Kalgoorlie every Monday for the past five years. This year, only about four of 20 flights have been on time, with some experiencing delays of up to four hours.

Dr Janssen said even one-hour delays on May 19 and 26, both due to mechanical problems, could have had a devastating effect on his patients.

“I’m so busy I’m booked three months in advance, so if I’m an hour late between five and 10 patients can’t see me,” Dr Janssen said.

“Some are really upset because they don’t feel well and if they’re elderly they can’t travel to Perth,” he said.
Talk about office overhead. I wonder how he covers the expense of airfare?

-Wes

3 comments:

Ian Furst said...

Ha -- I'll add "check the airline schedule" to my list of ways to decrease wait times. Why not fly out the night before?

Rogue Medic said...

Can't fly out the night before, he's too busy.

If his time is that valuable, maybe he should be chartering flights.

DHS said...

many of our country towns don't have the demand necessary to justify specialists, so specialists in our city hospitals fly to rural centres to consult.

they don't fly out the night before because they're not paid to spend that much time in a small country town; similarly, they're not paid enough to charter flights. These are not profit-making trips; they are there for the service of the community. Undoubtedly he would be able to make more money staying in Perth.