"They said their policy is to arrive 30 minutes early; therefore, he was 20 minutes late and they wouldn’t see him. He is NOT a new patient.

That is a 9:30 appointment, then, not 10:00!

Update to add more details:

My parents have been seeing this doctor for years. They’re very punctual and always arrive early to appointments.

They were not told of this requirement to be there 30 minutes early, nor has it ever come up in all the other times they’ve arrived 10-15 minutes before their appointment.

This was just an annual checkup, made for 10:00 and not rescheduled from another time.

I personally think this is either a new policy they weren’t told about, or an old, unenforced policy that someone having a bad day decided to enforce today.

I hate that this kind of thing has happened to so many of you. Probably more than mildly infuriating"