All The Maybes
It’s the Hungry Ghost Festival now and some people seem to have forgotten that living people get hungry too. Anaesthetist Dr Kelvin Ngiam told me that many surgeries have been cancelled, but over at my end, I’m seeing a record number of wisdom tooth surgeries - the kind of treatment that sees the largest number of no shows.
Last week, someone called up on the phone, wishing to see us urgently at 1.00pm that day. From experience, lunchtime appointments are terribly unreliable. People are often very happy that they can book an appointment at lunchtime, but they don’t value the opportunity. From experience, most of these folks would take their time to enjoy their lunch and before they know it, it’s time to go back to the office and the poor folks who expect them to turn up would be sitting through lunch on empty stomachs.
Sometimes, these folks turn up way past lunchtime and ask for MCs or time chits. If they are not so busy that they can only come at lunchtime, why bother to book their appointments during lunchtime and deprive others of their lunch? After years of research on hundreds of subjects, I’ve come to the conclusion that some folks just love to indulge in the pleasure of being able to book a appointment at an unusual time. I figure that any clinic that offers midnight appointments will be full of appointments and no shows. Unlike airlines where you pay to book a seat, booking for dental appointments is free. The more convenient it is to book an appointment, the higher the chances of no shows. Computer geeks who try to sell me software that allows people to book my time as they would book air tickets have no idea how people behave.
In spite of all the bad experience, I waited for that patient as she sounded very genuine. We tried to call to remind her when she didn’t show up after 1.00pm. Well, she didn’t bother to answer her phone. Many of these folks actually deliberately turn off their phones to avoid being reminded and my growling stomach realised too late that this genuine sounding patient was no exception to the rule.
Fortunately, if you can say that being one hour late is better than never, the patient showed up at 2.00pm and I was starving. To restore mental equilibrium in these cases, I have to charge more. Yet, I find it strange that empathy seldom ends up at the receiving end of such abuse. Whenever I relate such incidents to people who are never at the receiving end, they seem to be surprised that we are annoyed with these people.

“Maybe they have something urgent to attend to. Have some compassion.”
yao mo gao chor ah? Compassion for the inconsiderate folks who cause others to suffer? Every one of those who failed to show up and ensured that they were not contactable by switching off their phones or not answering had something urgent to attend to? I’m totally compassionate towards anyone who has something urgent to attend to. Even if he says that he suddenly remembers it’s his grandmother’s birthday. But empathy or compassion comes only after I have confirmed the extenuating circumstances.
Imagining extenuating circumstances against all the odds is called foolhardy and I wonder if the the folks who appear to forgive everyone who is patently inconsiderate by imagining extenuating circumstances on their behalf really practice foolhardiness in their daily lives. Yeah, maybe this and maybe that.
Life is short. Spare me all the maybes.












