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Table 9 Seeing provider once arrived at practice (Waiting times and space)

From: What matters to people with chronic conditions when accessing care in Australian general practice? A qualitative study of patient, carer, and provider perspectives

Topic

Themes and examples

Waiting time

Perceived acceptability of waiting time at clinic

Q1 “There’s nothing you can do, you just have to wait. Some people do take longer than the others. It’s just a fact of life. No point getting upset about something that is beyond somebody’s control.” (Patient 4 CES)

Q2 “Because of his high demand, people have to wait for so long in the waiting room because sometimes he’ll have to address so many issues, and because he is thorough, it does take a little bit more time.” (Patient 2 CES)

Q3 “If we can get the first appointment in the afternoon at two o’clock, which the best for my husband as far as not having to wait for long, maybe the longest we’ve had to wait would be an hour. If, unfortunately, I can’t get that time slot and I have to get a later appointment, we’ve actually waited three and a half hours.” (Carer 2 NBM)

Waiting area

Acceptability of waiting area for vulnerable patients

Q4 “They’re not aware that my husband can’t sit in a room full of people because he can’t process that cognitively. They don’t get that that’s too noisy for him, and they’ve got the TV going, and the phones are going.” (Carer 2 NBM)

Q5 “I don’t really like the physical positioning of the place. Queuing for reception, you’re kind of in a walkway that people will be using to go in and out of the shopping center. I think that’d be the only thing.” (Patient 1 CES)

Q6 “I can also from my office, see the entire waiting room so I tend to sit mostly with the door open so I can look at the activity out there and if someone looks like they’re not well or if it’s someone I recognize who I know needs something, then I can grab them.” (Practice nurse 9 CES)