[DOF] Advice and Second Opinion: Respect

Oftentimes we hear and read this word, Respect, but do we really know what it means and what it requires.

Wikipedia defines respect as: "A positive feeling or action shown towards someone or something considered important or held in high esteem or regard.  It conveys a sense of admiration for good or valuable qualities and it is also the process of honoring someone by exhibiting care, concern, or consideration for their needs or feelings."

Based on that definition, it is clear that we should give respect not only to those who are above us in stature, but also to ordinary people, even the less privileged ones and lower in stature.

This weekend, I accompanied my father to the doctor's clinic for a follow-up visit.  We were supposed to leave the house around 12:30pm since the doctor's clinic hours are from 2-4. So I had everything planned in my head, leaving at 12:30, prep lunch around 10ish and eat lunch by 11 or so; it will be fine.

So around 9am my father called the doctor's clinic to ask the secretary if the doctor was indeed arriving that day.  The secretary then said we should be at the clinic before 12noon because the doctor will not stay long due to a last minute thing.  

Naturally, frustrated, I went to rush to make lunch, I planned to cook some pork ribs with cabbages which requires about an hour to cook to make the pork ribs soft enough that it literally falls off the bone. 

We got to the clinic around 11:50, whew 10 minutes before 12 should be just right. I knocked on the door and told the secretary we were there and she pulled out my father's record from the cabinet, we were third in queue.

I went to sit beside my father and patiently waited.
12:30pm, no sign of the doctor. And we waited. And we waited some more.
By 5pm my father was obviously getting tired and told me to ask the secretary if the doctor will still drop by or not so we can just leave if he isn't.  The secretary said he will.  And he did arrive .....

.... he arrived at 7:10pm, and it only took him 10mins to talk to / check on my father.  WE WAITED FOR 7 HRS.

I could only tell myself, that this doctor has no regard, no respect for other people's time.  To make his patients wait for 7hrs is beyond acceptable; sadly the only thing I can do about it in my country is to find another doctor.  Believe me, I've asked a lawyer if there is something we can do, like file a complaint, but the lawyer said we can file a complaint but there is no guarantee of anything because the doctor will only reason out he was in another hospital doing something important as well and that we always have the option to leave if we couldn't wait anymore.

So to all of you reading this ... please show respect, value someone's time, effort, feelings etc. It doesn't make you less of a person if you don't.