why is the wait for everything so long?

my dad has HCC in his liver but it’s taking us two weeks for an initial oncology appointment and we don’t have a pet scan because the hospital he was at for liver pain (when we found out) was unable to complete one. the insurance denied transitional care from the hospital so he still doesn’t have one and we don’t know staging. at this point, we have to wait another 2 weeks to get a referral for a scan. and the scan could take months for an appointment - like the earliest appointment at another facility is late march. why is it taking so long? like i’m freaking out that the cancer will just metastasize and grow even more since it’s just… there. will a month make a difference? could it be the difference from stage 2 to 3? or 3 to 4? he’s been experiencing pain and he thinks going to the ER is gonna get him a one way ticket to a pet scan but i’m convinced they’ll just give him a CT and send him on his way. are we freaking out for no reason? like i just want to know if it’s treatable but if it is, us sitting around isn’t going to do anything. nobody can give us a pet scan authorization. his PCP won’t and all we can do is wait. but it feels like we’re just sitting ducks in this situation.