That truly is the weirdest behaviour by a doctor's office I've ever heard!! How crazy!!

Like - do they not have alternative assistants? Do they not have cloud based backups of patient files? Do they not have an online calendar that they can just log you into while you're on the phone with them? Goddamn!

Maybe you dodged a bullet on this one, if that assistant is an example of the professionalism of the doctors, you don't want a practice like that treating you!

But they should have referred you on to someone else if they couldn't help you!