Lengthy waiting times can lead to not only anger and frustration for patients, but also a drop in the ratings they give doctors, a study shows.

Every 10 minutes extra a patient spends in the waiting room is associated with a 3% decrease in an overall doctor satisfaction rating, researchers say. 

In addition, ratings for accessibility dropped by nearly 10% for every 10 minutes spent in the waiting room.

Scores for communications skills were also impacted, falling 2.4% for every 10 minutes of increased waiting in the study, which analysed 27,000 patient visits to US spinal surgeons at three practices over 15 months.