On days like this, socialized medicine can bite me

[bluelady]

Almost two and a half years ago, SO and I moved three provinces over, to a very small town. We have yet to find a family doctor. Six months ago, a doctor with one of the larger practices in the area retired and no one took over his practice.

Last week, there was a press release stating that a new doctor was moving into the area and that patients currently without a doctor should call this number, beginning at 6:30 pm today to become a patient.

SO and I both have been calling for nearly two hours straight and getting nothing but a busy signal. Nothing.

Now, we're both fairly young, with no on-going medical issues, so for the few times a year either of us needs to see a doctor, the walk-in clinic is more than sufficient but, damn! It sure would be nice to have a doctor, ya know?

[silverspoons]

I'm sorry for your trouble. It could be worse. Our city has doctors, but not enough and I can't find a primary care dr. They can turn you down for any reason here. I pay over 1k a month for insurance(a decent policy) and the primary care doctors turn me down because I have a genetic condition (It is EDS so it stinks but there is not treatment so the dr doesn't have to do anything special for me at this point). I went to 3 new doctors and they all saw me and just said no we won't take you as a patient. I started to get mad that I wasted 2 hours waiting for them only to get turned down. 2 of them billed me, for what?? turning me down! The closest internal medicine doctor is a 10 hour trip that takes my insurance. I make the 10 hour trip 2 times a year. I just got a notice last week the one specialist I did see in our city is leaving for California and the letter says if you need care please see, and it lists a doctor 325 miles away, so another 10 hour day drive for a 20 minute check up.

My son waited on a list for 8 years for a pediatrician. My city has 100k population so it is not small.

Something needs to be fixed everywhere. My dad was a dr and so was my ex. In my dad's day 70's and 80's, he made a good living and it didn't seem like the cost was out of control for patients and he didn't worry about forms or insurance as much. My ex carefully selected his job to avoid insurance as much as possible. Sad because hopefully most doctors want to help and patients need care, why so many middle men?

[wtylcf]

Almost two and a half years ago, SO and I moved three provinces over, to a very small town. We have yet to find a family doctor. Six months ago, a doctor with one of the larger practices in the area retired and no one took over his practice.

Last week, there was a press release stating that a new doctor was moving into the area and that patients currently without a doctor should call this number, beginning at 6:30 pm today to become a patient.

SO and I both have been calling for nearly two hours straight and getting nothing but a busy signal. Nothing.

Now, we're both fairly young, with no on-going medical issues, so for the few times a year either of us needs to see a doctor, the walk-in clinic is more than sufficient but, damn! It sure would be nice to have a doctor, ya know?

AW, that sucks. I can empathise a little. I haven't had a regular doctor since I was 22 and I'm now 30. The waiting lists to get one are too long and I've moved provinces too often, so it's never worked out. I just go to a walk in clinic when i need to see a doctor. Obviously I'm missing out on every type of preventative care except the stuff I'm forced to do to get birth control. I don't think I'd be better off on a private health insurance plan for basic healthcare, but obviously our Canadian system is not perfect either.

[Gertie]

I don't understand the relationship between socialized medicine and doctor shortage. Is it because doctors can earn more in a privatized system so they all leave (i.e. Canadian doctors move to USA)?

Anyway--I can totally empathize--I grew up in Canada and it was impossible to get a doctor where I lived--the only way to get one was to be born to parents who had a doctor. And the walk-in clinic is horrible. I mean, I'm really glad it's there because it's obviously needed, but it's very frustrating to wait for so many hours, especially among a lot of (other) sick people. I have shown up at the walk-in clinic hours before it closed and been told "sorry, there are already enough people waiting to keep us busy past closing time. Try coming back tomorrow."

In Germany there is a dual public/private system. All doctors have to take public patients, but only so many per quarter. So if you try to make an appointment toward the end of the quarter, they may have reached their quota and make you wait a few weeks. In my so-far limited experience, the German healthcare system seems more efficient than the Canadian one, at least in terms of wait times for the stuff I've needed done (MRI, x-rays and a minor surgery). The Germans themselves complain about how "not perfect" it is, of course.

[uber frau]

That sucks :(

I live Australia which is another large and sparsely populated country with socialized medicine. We also have huge problems with staffing in rural and regional areas (and the knock-on effect it has on the services in the bigger cities when the health problems become so serious they need more specialised care). It's a combination of factors but often it boils down to isolation and inadequate support.

I'm just not sure how privatising the system would change this particular problem though.

[Miggy]

I agree. I live in an inland city in Australia. We have good day to day medicine but have to travel to Sydney or Canberra for major medical issues. I consider this the trade off for living in a country area. There is an excellent helicopter retrieval service for emergencies.

Sure we could do with more doctors. Sure it would be nice to have my knee surgery locally instead of travelling to a hospital several hours away. My friend would have loved to not have to travel 10 hours each way for her sons cancer treatment.

However, I can't see how privatising our system would improve anything. It would still not be economically viable to have major medical services for a small population. It would still not make doctors move to rural areas. In fact, the only way you could distribute doctors better would be to go to a completely socialist system.

[2xx1xy1JD]

It's not so much a socialized medicine issue as it is a geography and demographics issue.

Canada is geographically larger than the US, with only 10% of its population. We have a few big cities, but outside of those metropolitan areas it's more sparsely populated. The major medical centres are in the big cities.

Being a family doctor in a private system wouldn't pay any more. There wouldn't be enough of a population to support higher medical costs. As it is, governments tend to pay extra incentives to doctors in under-serviced areas.

Part of the problem is that it can be stressful to practice in an under-serviced area. There can be less hospital support, you have fewer colleagues and you may have a lot more time on call, with nobody to back you up so that you can take a vacation or have a break.

Another issue, though, is that many of the people who go into medicine have zero desire to work outside of the big cities. It's not a financial issue. Quite frankly, our friends who practice in smaller communities are living like millionaires: office overhead is cheaper, practices are full and housing is cheap. The issue is that even if they make less, doctors in places like Toronto can still make a good living, and for many, the benefits of living in a big city are more important than making more money. We're living in a higher COL area because we want to be close to Jewish schools and other facilities, because we like the food and restaurants, because we want to be close to our families. Really small towns tend not to offer great schwarma or dim sum or saag paneer.

[duplessis3]

We have horrible doctor shortages in my state in the US. It doesn't help that the INS is so ridiculous...they were in the process of not renewing a green card for a pediatrician until he proved he was a diabetes care specialist...one of two in the state. @@

[JesusFightClub]

That is very strange. We have the NHS here and no fights over getting a doctor (I live in a Scottish city). It goes by postcode, and in my postcode (inner city, yo!) there are fucking millions of the bastards. I kid you not.

I've never had to wait for a doctor, because we attach to practices, not individual doctors. If I want to see my named GP, who knows me well, I can wait a couple of weeks. If I am willing to see any GP in the practice, I can get a same-day appointment with ease. I like all the GPs there and they are super helpful, so I'm generally fine with that if it's a bit urgent. Or if I'm too ill to leave home, the duty doctor will call me back.

I didn't have to fight for a place, I just filled in a form and went for a check-up, they said "You're within our catchment area so we'll take you on, your named GP is..." I also had a choice of practices but went with this one because of its good reputation.

Socialised medicine ain't all bad!

[wtylcf]

That is very strange. We have the NHS here and no fights over getting a doctor (I live in a Scottish city). It goes by postcode, and in my postcode (inner city, yo!) there are fucking millions of the bastards. I kid you not.

I've never had to wait for a doctor, because we attach to practices, not individual doctors. If I want to see my named GP, who knows me well, I can wait a couple of weeks. If I am willing to see any GP in the practice, I can get a same-day appointment with ease. I like all the GPs there and they are super helpful, so I'm generally fine with that if it's a bit urgent. Or if I'm too ill to leave home, the duty doctor will call me back.

I didn't have to fight for a place, I just filled in a form and went for a check-up, they said "You're within our catchment area so we'll take you on, your named GP is..." I also had a choice of practices but went with this one because of its good reputation.

Socialised medicine ain't all bad!

This is a genius idea. I have spent god knows how long over the years waiting at walk-in clinics to do stupid things like renew my birth control prescription. It would be awesome if I could be assigned to a clinic where I was guaranteed access to a doctor on a certain time and date, rather than having to waste time sitting in a queue for hours on end to see a doctor. Canada, take notice!

[RosyDaisy]

It boggles my mind that people here in the U.S. seem to think that we have to have a universal health system modeled after something in Europe, Canada, Australia, etc. I'm not bashing universal health systems in other countries, I just saying that we could come up with our own system. What that system should be, I have no clue. I do know that we can put our collective heads together and come up with something that will benefit all Americans. Personally, I would like to see something modeled after Medicare.

[2xx1xy1JD]

This is a genius idea. I have spent god knows how long over the years waiting at walk-in clinics to do stupid things like renew my birth control prescription. It would be awesome if I could be assigned to a clinic where I was guaranteed access to a doctor on a certain time and date, rather than having to waste time sitting in a queue for hours on end to see a doctor. Canada, take notice!

Having family practice group practices, which provide same-day appointments for urgent matters and after-hours coverage, makes sense, and I do think that the government should do more to encourage them over walk-in clinics.

At the same time - JFC lives in a Scottish city. Geographically, that's very different from a small Canadian town. You still need to recruit a group of physicians to a small town to form a practice group. Honestly, you would require MORE government involvement to do so, not less.

[JesusFightClub]

I also want to say that in the waiting room, you can meet people who are coming down off drugs. Be polite and friendly.

[Cran]

That problem is known in Germany, too. In rural areas, especially in rural eastern German areas, where the population is extremely aged, many doctors retire and are not able to find a successor, and the people in need of a doctor have to go to the next larger city - if they can!

Two years ago, there was a talk about giving benefits to medical students who vowed to go to rural areas afterwards, don't know if they put it into practice.

But who can blame them? Work in a hospital is already hard, as a country GP, you need to treat everything and everybody and are always on call because there's simply nobody else to take over. And due to the German medical accounting system, which pays high for the use of technology and low for conversations, it's also no attractive and easy way to earn a living. To do this job, you need to have a real calling for it.