Vancouver Canada
A funny thing happened to one of our staff the other day. After a number of years attending the walk-in clinic around the corner from the office, she decided to see if she could hook up with a regular family doctor. The clinic had a sign in the window, saying that a new doc was coming in and would be taking new patients. So far, so good.
When Sue (name changed, of course) called, the office person said that the doctor had a questionaire for prospective new patients, so if Sue would just fill out the form, she would pass it along to the doctor.
Odd – she's been attending the clinic for over ten years. The chart must be pretty thick by now. Sue wondered what was on the form. Turns out it was the usual medical history, childhood diseases, hospital visits, chronic conditions. She answered all the questions, returned the form and waited.
Nothing happened, so she phoned over to see when she could come and meet her new doctor.
Turns out the doctor rejected Sue, on the basis that she didn't seem to have the proper attitude.
Sue had answered several of the questions on the form with "See chart". Her idea was that the chart was there, that it would probably be more accurate than her recollection, and that if the doctor wanted more information, she would let Sue know when they finally met.
Seems that the new doctor thought Sue offered insufficient respect for her process. We assume she was looking for patients that were not too sick, that would be easy to manage, that would respect her opinions, follow her recommendations, accede to her demands.
Now the interesting question: Is this okay? Doctors attend publicly subsidized medical schools, are paid through our tax system, and certainly fill an important role in the health care system. We all need good family doctors, even if we’re not in good health.
Walk-in clinics serve a useful role in the system, especially at odd hours when most family practice offices are closed. Hospital emergency departments are not the best place for the kinds of things that walk-in clinics handle on a routine basis. At a time when more of us are working at times other than nine to five, seems to me we should support these street-corner operations.
That being said, if someone hangs a up shingle saying “Taking New Patients”, it ought to be without discrimination. Walk-in clinics have been accused of practicing easy medicine, of serving as a prescription renewal service, of pushing the hard work onto the hospitals. Is this true? Maybe not, but one doctor, at least, is living out the bad reputation.
jrc
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