Taken from the BBC Online shop on 19th June 2007, the day I received an e-mail about their new legal download offerings…

Sigh.

The deli counter at my local supermarket has long been using a computerised queuing system, where you take your number and wait for the obnoxiously large display screen to call yours out. It’s a simple system, but by jove it gets you to the Scotch eggs that bit quicker.

Over the past few months, I’ve had cause to visit a couple of hospitals in Birmingham that have recently introduced such systems to their reception areas. Yet the result’s been absolute chaos. You walk through the doors to be greeted by dozens of people clutching their tickets as if their numbers came up the night before, all feverishly waiting for the screen to move on to their number.

Here’s the thing, though. In said hospital reception areas, before the computer system moved in, there was something simple to a queue of people. You knew where you stood, and that receptionist facing a line of people was less likely to nip off and shuffle some papers, or take that call, or chat with their colleague. There simply wasn’t time, as there were people to see, and they were immediately in front of the desk.

What the computer has done is to remove the sense of urgency, which must be great for the reception staff, but it’s chaos for the visitors. Now, any interruption can be entertained, it seems, to the point where three weeks ago, it took 20 minutes to get through a queue with six people in it.

In a supermarket, it all works well: after all, there’s generally a lot you need to get in one shop, lots of room to mill around and not one solitary reason that you’ve been drawn to the ticketing system for. Plus, the staff service the queue at the same speed as there’s no phone/stack of papers/other such interruptions.

Sometimes then, in my view, good old fashioned human conventions, such as a physical queue, are actually better than any technological alternative. Because here’s the sum effect solely of the new queuing system: visiting the two hospitals in question now requires you arrive at least 20-30 minutes ahead of your appointment, simply to be able to be seen by the receptionist in time, never mind a doctor.

Surely that’s not right?