3 hours waiting time ....

Its a typical government clinic, with slow service & not so friendly staff etc etc .... After all, I am also from a government department (statutory body!!) that however, render excellent services!! My office waiting time at the counter is not more than 15 minutes! At the Oya Polyclinic today, the waiting time for a blood test was 3 hours, I feel like turning into Dracula and just suck my own blood out!!

I arrived at 8.05am and the queue number was 118 (mine!); so I patiently read the newspaper and looked at the time .. its 9.05am and my number blinked to go to the counter to submit my blood test form. At this point I was still 'happy'! I noticed that the area was still very very crowded! When I asked the clerk how long am I expected to wait further; she 'rudely' says there are a lot of people ahead of me! I told her I know that, that's why I asked the estimated waiting time! Well, I didn't get a satisfactory answer! Never mind, so I went back to waiting in the crowded waiting area with insufficient chairs - lots of people standing around! Okay, later few empty chairs but Sibu people loves to wait standing as near as possible to the counter or the door to the lab. So wait .. wait .. then it hit 10.10am, I heard a few grumblings that all the clinic staff had taken their tea break! So I went to the front to look, and sure enough the whole lab was EMPTY!!! I could not believe it!!
Now I wonder, where in the Federal & State G.O. or circular that allows civil servants to take breaks all together!! Fine!!! They all came back about 30 minutes later! This was also the issue discussed in my office recently, when officers take breaks longer than 15 minutes all together! Okay, I understand the need to take short breaks from task, but to take the break ALL TOGETHER, now that is hard to understand! In my heart - the word - government! I was called at 10.50am to have my blood taken and out of the door by 11.05am - exactly 3 hours after I arrived!

Is it that our expectation is so low from the government agencies/clinics? By the way, we even have foreign doctors who does not even speak Malay! Is it an acceptable waiting time - 3 hours? Importantly, what are we going to do about it? What am I going to do about it?