Waiting room only at Booragoon Medicare

by Zel Cowie

April 3, 2008

A FULL waiting room is an increasingly common sight at Booragoon Medicare.

The general feeling of customers leaving Medicare on April 3was that queues were usually long, but staff were efficient in working through them.

Kerry Ingram, and her mother-in-law Beatrice Ingram, waited 15 minutes to be served. Kerry added the wait had been longer on many of her previous fortnightly visits to the shopfront.

“They don’t have enough seats, ever,” Kerry said. “It doesn’t matter when you go there: morning, afternoon or Saturday, it’s always busy.

“Saturday is even worse! They only have three people on.”

Kerry was annoyed about a recent campaign promoting Medicare’s Saturday opening hours. In fact, she said, wait times were longer than weekdays due to lack of staff.

By contrast, Karen Allan, a recent immigrant from the UK, emerged from Medicare with a smile.

“It was really good today, unusually,” she said.

She’d experienced longer waits at Booragoon, but said they were nothing compared to the hours she’d waited at Carousel.

Local resident Betty (surname withheld) baulked at the door when she saw 40 people in the waiting room, and opted for retail therapy instead.

“I’m not going to go in today,” she moaned. “I’ll have to come again at 9 o’clock.”

Belinda, who was carrying toddler Taylha, felt the service could be improved by providing a play area for kids.