Quote:
Originally Posted by blankall
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.
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Yeah, something "serious" is about a few days to a few weeks from a family doctor. Non-serious appointments are more like several months to half a year+ (ie: Annual body check up).
I've basically resorted to learning how to self triage and sustain my family until we can get a chance to see the professionals.
One key is shut down all sustaining methods if reasonable and prepare the necessary information and stuff for an always expected lengthy visit (ie: Medication for fevers, coughs, upset stomach etc.) for a few hours or prior to seeing a professional (ie: Triage nurse at ER). I have a go bag includes fully charged power banks with multiple cables, meal replacement/snacks, extra sweater, masks, disinfectant, tissues, cash etc. I always assume 4-10 hours if we need to go in to get assessed.
Also to document all helpful information in a helpful format as the nurse and doctor will need to know this (ie: notepad/cloud doc on phone that includes several days/weeks detailed notes with time stamps on summaries on symptoms, temperatures, methods/medicine names and dosages used to address the complication, vaccinations etc.). I also use the scan function to scan in mine, my spouse and both kid's health cards into my phone in case somehow we cannot find them or forget them etc. The more detailed the information, the better diagnosis the nurses and doctors might be able to do. Unfortunately, you and/or kid want to be in your most miserable state when you show up. Otherwise, you may end up assessing incorrectly as lower on the triage line and waiting longer to get the required help that is needed.
The current year flu seems to be brutal. It seems to linger so much longer than previous iterations have in a long while.