Quote:
Originally Posted by Locke
Yeah well, I'm fighting a bit with my current new Doctor.
Her answer for everything is 'Go to the ER.'
I have, on many occasions, told her that the ER is the very last place on Earth I want to be unless I absolutely have no choice.
I dont want to be 'that guy' going to the ER for the sniffles.
"But they have all of the equipment to run all the tests!"
Yes. They do. But thats...for Emergencies! Which part of this isn't sinking in?
Anyways, I'm not ditching her because its nigh on impossible getting a family Doctor these days but I'm not hitting up the ER for every blood test or whatever either, thats insane.
So I get to become...'that troublesome patient.'
"How come you havent got those blood tests done yet?"
- Because it takes a long time to get an appointment.
"Just go to ER!"
- We've been over this. It isnt happening.
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A major issue, in Vancouver anyways, is that many GPs have just stopped seeing patients in person. The ones that do see people in person have waits from anywhere from days to a week. My understanding is that GPs, who are underpaid and get paid per visit, can see more people in a shorter amount of time virtually/by phone so they choose to do that instead.
It's brutal that they are basically forcing people to overwhelm the ERs to deal with this issue.
We cannot get the nurse practitioner programs in place fast enough. I did appreciate being able to get a prescription directly from a pharmacist recently. Turns out my eye issues were caused by a weird baby virus my daughter gave me, but it was nice getting the eye drops, even though they did nothing, without having to wait to see a doctor.