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Yup and in order to get one you need an interview and must be healthy. How's that for logic? Fucked eh?

   

I totally agree. ER's are abused by people who have a cold and rush to the hospital. Go to a damn clinic or call someone or whatever else. Plus there are too many 'repeat offenders' that seem to be there at least once or twice a week. I realize that each patient has to be triaged and treated but if I am in there in need of something serious and I have to wait for a boo boo then I am going to get pissed off. Emergency means exactly that Emergency not I need cough medicine or advil.

   

Like I said the only ones who stayed the course were my wife and the other people who were actually injured or sick. Alot of the others drifted off to try other ER's or went home where they should have stayed in the first place.

And for the record, in passing I asked the head ER nurse if it was always like this and she said every weekend and some weekdays. So I guess it wasn't just the sunday the wife and I were there in case you were wondering.

Sure we can pay for more staffing which in the case of our ER would make sense but at some point you have to change the mentality that if you know you aren't really sick but just ill, a visit to the doctor, walkin clinic or ER is just what you need to make yourself feel better.

I wonder how much stories about people dying from over the counter meds has played into the need for people to see a doctor before taking anything?

   

I guess I'm extremely lucky then. I've had the same family doctor since I was 14 and moved to the city I still live in nearly 30 years ago. He's awesome and I generally have not had to wait more than a few days to see him. I have had to go to walk-in clinics now and then when I've had something come up on a weekend or evening but for minor things that couldn't wait but also didn't require an ER visit to deal with.

He is on the brink of retiring though so I guess I'll have to find a new one soon. Not at all looking forward to that day when it comes.

   

   

I called the clinic here (which is not a walk in clinic, but a building with 4 family doctors and a lab, in a 1750 people town...) when we just moved here, and had no issue what so ever. The first time I went there I had to pay, since I was not covered yet ($20 or something, was in the first 3 months after my move), and ever since, I have been there for my regular check ups and for the kids. The booked my yearly check up 14 days in advance, which is fine, no hurry, but for anything else, it is the next day usually, and definitely the same week.

   

You obviously haven't been to a hospital recently - if you cut off immigration from the third world, there will be no nurses in our hospitals, and far fewer doctors too. Not every immigrant who comes here winds up in a taxi or a 7-11.

I don't know about BC, but in Alberta, most of the nurses come from the Philippines.
Pick any university in Canada and look at the list of nursing and medicine graduates and it's largely comprised of immigrants.

   

Before I found my family doctor, I just used the same Medi-centre (privately run chain of clinics here in Alberta) when I was sick. Over time, they functioned just fine as any family doctor would have.




Most family doctors here seem to be fee for service, so they don't care one way or another. Based on the system, I'd guess most probably want sick people so they can get more visits and hence more income.

   

You are sadly mistaken. Of course doctors in private practice, ie family doctors, are fee for service. But they won't take the very old or very sick for that exact reason - takes too long to deal with them. They want people they can whip off a prescription to and bada bing... next. Same reason many docs are converting their practices to the clinic model - shove the patients thru and make more money.

   

   

That's weird, because neither myself nor my parents were in the best of health when we found family doctors in the past decade. My father in fact spent so much time at the doctor's office that he probably funded an oceanfront home for thhis doctor.

   

Looking for a family doctor is a regional issue. If you live in a smaller city or town away from regional centers, it will be very difficult to get one. My inlaws moved to Edmonton a few years ago and have age related health issues and didn't have much trouble finding one. That wasn't the case when they lived here and their family doctor retired.

   

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