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> Or is this the new normal?

Its the new normal! Doctors book out forever, and they overbook.

When you do go there, the actual doctor looks at you for 30 seconds and moves on, like you're on a factory conveyer belt. And the efficiency seems to really drop when you need more than one doctor.

Don't go to the ER either... Go to urgent care first if you can't find someone, and take their referral to the ER or a doctor.

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I hate that I've come to this conclusion but urgent care has been quite a disappointment every time I go. When I broke my wrist they did nothing and told me to go to the ER since they don't xray. When I was very ill and suspected food poisoning they told me to go to the ER since they don't do IVs.

If you can't xray or IV then what can you do? So useless.

Yeah, that sounds like a pretty bad urgent care.

Most of the time these days, you get a nurse practitioner or similar. Their “Dr.” is increasingly a PhD, which is rather nuts.

They have only a small fraction of the training and experience that an MD has.

I recently discovered that my PCP organization is only good for billing “wellness” visits and is actually useless or worse for any actual illness.

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