Well folks, this vent is about the Interior Health people and their infinite greedy wisdom. Or possibly the provincial budget just doesn't allow our doctors to have a sufficient salary to afford a family practice.
Today I was fortunate enough to actually get an appointment with a doctor on my clinic's very last day of business. I went in and did my lab work this morning and the only way I could get my prescription refills in a timely way was by going in today.
My usual doctor was not working today. Consequently I saw one I haven't been to before. And let me tell you, he was amazing. He was energetic, eye contact, personable, heard me, responded in kind...and took the time to actually check my blood pressure. This is the first time my blood pressure has been checked by a doctor for two years. (and it was super good by the way!). I am on three blood pressure medications. You'd think at least one doctor would have checked it in the last while.
Anyway, I had a very interesting chat with him. He is about 55 years old. He lives in Kamloops and loves it here. He loves being a doctor and is sad that he is too old and too poor to open up a family practise. And now he is out of work because Interior health closed the clinic. And guess what....Interior health is not hiring...anywhere. So either he flips burgers or moves.
In a city of 95,000 population, to not have a place for this eager doctor to work is reprehensible. With approximately 40,000 people in Kamloops unable to get a family doctor, this is completely unacceptable. Clearly those of us that added our names to that ever growing master list of people waiting for a family doctor, it is simply not going to happen in our lifetime as things are now. Not if this is the way the medicare in our catchment area is being run.
And why do we not just go to walk in clinics, if you can find one, and skip the family doctor issue? Because if something happens to you and you need narcotic pain meds, you can only get them from a family doctor. If you need Ritalin for example, not a chance unless you have a family doctor. If you have an ongoing mental illness and need anxiety meds or antipsychotics....forget it if you don't have a psychiatrist or a family doctor.
Now we are down to two clinics that I can find. One on the south shore and one on the north shore. I talked to a lady in the waiting room today. She is an older lady with a plethora of ailments, diabetes, hip and knee replacements needed etc...not an unusual situation for this day and age of population. To see a doctor she has to get up at six am, get a bus or taxi to the clinic and get into a line up. Sick? Old? Just had a baby? Doesn't matter. You line up or you don't get an appointment. At eight am a clipboard comes out the door that we all sign up. At nine o'clock we come back and one by one fifty people are called up and given a time to come back to see a doctor. If you are fifty one? You are shit out of luck. Snow, rain, twenty below zero. forty degrees out....doesn't matter. Line up and sign up.
And after listening to Peter Millibar, our MLA on the news today, I think I know part of the reason the clinic was closed, leaving its ten thousand patients swinging in the wind. He said that the Urgent Care Clinic, the brand new one, is in jeopardy due to clinics threatening to put them out of business. Seriously. That is what he said. All I can say is shame on him. For a long time resident, three term mayor of Kamloops, he doesn't seem to have much of a handle on this dire issue.
So I am moving. I need a doctor. The lady in the clinic I was talking to is also moving back to her previous place....Ontario. She has been here one year. Time to start making even more noise about this situation with Interior Health. If anyone has any ideas let me know. Would love to hear. TTYL. (and I am not in the right frame of mind to write about frigging gratitude. Lowest common denominatorism sucks.)
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