Health care and access for all......

Equal access for all. Gosh I wish that were true. Our provincial government keeps touting that they are providing equal access to health care for all British Columbians. Well I guess it all depends on your interpretation of access now doesn't it?

If you live in metropolitan Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna or even in the Fraser Valley, health care is readily accessible. Now move out of those areas and it becomes a whole different ball game. Here on the island it is certainly the case. I am not talking about access to services like MRI's CT scans, Angio's or cancer treatments....that's a whole different topic. What I am referring to is access to a medical doctor.

At the end of April I had the misfortune of losing my doctor. He passed away unexpectedly and I am sadden by his loss. Not only was he my doctor but he was my employer when I did the flu clinic at his office and he was my friend, when he purchased his motorcycle he was so excited he had me come out to the parking lot to look at it. His passing has not only left a void in my personal life but also from a medical stand point. You see with his passing there is no one to replace him. That leaves all of his patients looking for a new doctor. That's right, we were told that one of the doctor's who is semi retired would see patients on an emergency basis only and that if you needed a doctor that you had to go to the after hours clinic in the next town. That's not very good if you ask me, especially in my community that is primarily seniors who have difficulties enough getting to the doctor. Then have to find a new doctor and find a way to get to the next community. We don't have buses or taxis where I live, so if you don't have your own form of transportation you are out of luck. Sure there are volunteer organizations that if you call a week ahead of time you MIGHT be able to get transportation from them, but that is not for certain, so how can you book an appointment if you don't know how you are going to get there?

So now I am faced with the task of trying to find a new doctor. There are no doctors to be had in my town and in researching the College of Surgeons and Physicians for listings of doctors accepting new patients there are four listed in the next town, but when you call the office they say they are not accepting new patients, when you ask them if they know who is they say they don't know. I found a doctor up island in the community in which I work, when I called I was told she was only accepting maternity patients... I explained that I was long past that stage in my life but that I really needed to find a doctor as mine recently became deceased, she told me to call back later that week. When I called back she told me that the doctor hadn't been in that she was on holidays but that I should call later this week. So here I am another week gone by and I still haven't been able to find a doctor. You would think that working in the field I would have easier access, that certainly is not the case.

When I was at work yesterday one of the specialist mentioned that he didn't want to discharge a patient because the patient didn't have a regular GP. He then went on to say that as a specialist he can't be taking on new patients just because they didn't have a doctor that was not his role as a specialist. As it turned out the patient because she was admitted under the "doctor of the day" she became his patient. But again, here is another example. This patient lives on the outskirts of town, she was discharged from the hospital but has to come in twice a day for shots and bloodwork. She doesn't drive, she tries to organize things around her daughters schedule but that isn't always possible as was the case when she left the hospital today. I could go on about the accessibility to services but as I said that is a whole post in itself.

So it would appear that health care is not equally accessible to all.