Quote:
Originally Posted by The Unabomber
The way that Canadian health care is set up is great, where the problem lies is that family doctors are not accountable to anyone. I've had buggered knee for about 12 years now, i know that i need surgery again within the next 5-6 years so i go and see my doctor so he can get me in to see a vascular surgeon, my doctor wanted the hospital that i had my original surgery at so he can locate the surgeon who operated on me to begin with, he says that i'll get a call within 7-10 days. No call comes so i call him, they tell me that i never had surgery at the Rockyview because i'm not in the records there, i laughed and told them to give me the number for the records department at the hospital. I call and they tell me that it's going to be in a different building because they only hold records for 7 years, they call me back the next day with all the info i needed and set me up and appointment with a surgeon.
I called to issue a complaint regarding the original doctor and i was told to not even bother, the lady basically told me that it's next to impossible to issue a complaint against a family doctor.
Now, if they have a ruling body over family doctors that someone can issue complaints to then i'm sure that things would turn around, right now it's an assembly line of people and the quicker that they can get a patient in and out the more money they make.
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Family doctors get paid a nominal amount for an in-office visit, it's like $25. They don't get paid by what they do, nor by the number of issues they treat in a visit. With the rent and admin costs in Calgary they pretty much have to only spend 5-10 minutes per patient or they cannot break even, income-wise, with even a low paying professional job. It's an awful system and the financial renumeration is completely backwards to what it should be.
It's no wonder family doctors are fleeing Calgary in terrible numbers. The workload is high, the pay is terrible, and the costs are out of control.
The ones that are left are forced to grind patients through, or subsidize their existance by specializing in non-family work and end up spending less time providing family service. The end result is less doctors, providing less service to more people.