The University Health Services (UHS) is in a peculiar situation.

UHS offers one of the most comprehensive medical programs available to students in the United States. Among its services, UHS offers a 34 bed infirmary, health care in gynecology, obstetrics and urology, and other services which are not available usually to university students.

UHS also has a very qualified staff, with many of its physicians gleaned from acclaimed medical schools or hospitals. The UHS staff includes several graduates from the Harvard Medical School, as well as teachers at the school. One UHS physician is a surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, while another is a physician at Peter Bent Brigham, a highly respected hospital in Boston.

Seemingly, this should make students feel that UHS is a very qualified, safe place to go for health care. And some students are very satisfied with UHS. Some claim that they receive as good care there as they do from their own doctor at home.

However, there is also a significant portion of the population that thinks UHS is slow, impersonal and does not offer good medical treatment. For all its credentials, some think UHS is not a first-rate health service.

"It isn't established enough," says Pamela L. Nava, a student in the Graduate School of Education.

"It seems like they have mediocre people there," says Michael J. Conboy III '87.

Some students say they wouldn't trust UHS to treat them if they had a complicated disease. "If I were drastically ill, there is no way I would go there," says Leslie J. Messineo, a first-year student at the Law School.

And finally, UHS is the occasional the butt of student jokes. "The story here is that no matter what cold you have, you are going to receive one of two things from UHS: two aspirin or a cane, if you're lucky." says Shannon B. McNulty '87.

UHS officials assert that their health care is among the best in the country and that most student complaints are only directed towards one of the services which UHS offers.

Problems with the Walk-In Clinic

That service is the walk-in clinic.

In the walk-in clinic, UHS patients can come in whenever they like and see a doctor sometime that day. No appointment is necessary, and patients rarely see the same doctor twice even if they go in several times.

Since the walk-in clinic sees approximately 40,000 patients a year, and approximately 170 every day, some patients have to wait a long time to see a doctor. And when they do see a doctor, they are not always going to get the most intimate treatment. This is why UHS hears complaints about impersonal service, and long waiting times, say UHS officials.

In a 1983 study of waiting times, UHS found that the average waiting time in the walk-in clinic was 27 minutes. But some students complain of having to wait much longer.