My neighbor has a physician assistant daughter married to a doctor in a mid-size city.
Despite the doctor’s connections, my neighbor still had a few weeks wait for her cancer surgery.
The surgeon was able to remove the cancer.
When I was diagnosed with a colo/rectal tumor in 1996, my local hospital in Sunnyvale, CA admitted me for surgery three days later. Looking back from 30 years later, the 1990s were not only a different time, but a different era.
Of course, it didn’t hurt that the medical group ran the hospital, my Dr was the Chief of Oncology, the surgeon was chief of thoracic surgery and my radiation therapist was chief of radiation therapy.