| Doctor or Clinic
Posted: 1/31/2009 4:26:12 AM | Xavery^^^
I am currently living in maple ridge and my doctor has good reason not to trust the clinics in my area. He would prefer that his patients come see him because of this. My friend was on Ativan and with no questions asked almost every clinic doctor wrote a prescription for my friend for this highly addictive drug, her gp was trying to get her onto a less addictive more long term medication. One of my prescriptions ran out on a weekend, I took the bottle into a clinic and explained that I only needed a few days prescription till I could get to my doctor. They wrote the wrong prescription for some heart medication that mixed with my other medication could have killed me. Thankfully the pharmacist was paying attention. I say this again, my doctor has good reason not to trust the clinics out here. | |
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Xavery
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Joined: 4/22/2007
Msg: 27 | |
| Doctor or Clinic
Posted: 1/31/2009 9:02:04 PM | | I suppose the clinic situation is different in every municipality. My brother tells me the clinic situation is hit or miss in South Surrey, where it is practicaly impossible to find a GP. Clinics are a recently new thing in BC and so I think there will be some growing pains as more emerge. | |
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| Doctor or Clinic
Posted: 2/1/2009 12:40:21 AM | I told my GP he's not allowed to retire until after I'm dead & gone.  No seriously, I would bawl like a baby if he ever retired. He is absolutely awesome, however, only works p/t now as he teaches at the university so there is sometimes a week's wait to see him. There are about 10-12 other docs at his office, however he knows my medical history over the last 16 yrs so I will only see another doc for urgent matters that can't wait.
After moving from New West, I went through a couple of dozen docs within 2 yrs trying to find a new doc close to home, some at clinics & some who had their own offices. I was also looking for a doc who could cure a problem I developed during the latter part of my 2nd pregnancy. I knew it was systemic, knew exactly what it was & that I needed to be treated with pills but all these other docs kept saying it wasn't systemic & couldn't be cured so I just had to live with it.
I know my body well & do a lot of research to try & find out what I have before I go into the doc. I found that most docs got mad at me for diagnosing myself & would lecture me about that being their job, then they would end up diagnosing me with what I already told them I had. 
There was one doc at a new local clinic who had started treating my family & whom I saw several times for this 'systemic' condition. I finally asked him to send me to a specialist 'cause it was getting worse & the topical treatments weren't working. He leaned forward, looked at me & said, "Look, you don't need a specialist. I can look at you & tell you there's nothing wrong with you. You just need to go home & stop thinking about it & it will go away because it's all in your head." Yes, HIS words.
At this point my skin had been cracked open & bleeding in several areas for seven years, my eyes itching, my digestive system in distress & all sorts of other symptoms & he says it's all in my head???  He refused to refer me to a specialist & we got into an argument over it. He finally wrote out a referral to an internist, then stood up, literally threw the referral at me, told me to leave & walked out in a huff. I reported him to the Association of BC Physicians or something like that the following day. I later discovered that others in my neighbourhood had experienced similar problems with him as well.
I met my current GP when he was the guest speaker at a "vegetarian potluck & seminar" I attended & when I spoke to him afterward, lo & behold ... his office just happened to be close to home, but he wasn't taking new patients. However, after hearing about my nightmare with all the docs I'd seen to try & get this seven-year problem cured, he told me that what the other docs had said was 'hogwash' & that there was medication that would get rid of my systemic problem. He told me to tell his receptionist that he had personally given me the ok to see him. He gave me a prescription & 3 days later, I no longer had any of the symptoms I had suffered for 7 years & by the end of the week, I was 100% cured.
When I saw him for the follow up, I went bearing gifts & a thank you card, gave him a huge hug while crying my eyes out because I so appreciated him curing me & agreeing to be my new GP. He always takes my concerns seriously & checks everything out thoroughly .... never fluffs anything off just in case. He also nags me when it's pap & mammogram time & gets the lab to steal my blood every six months & run a whole series of tests to make sure all my chemical & hormonal levels are in the normal range.
A friend once said that good doctors are like good men ... hard to find as they all seem to be taken. | |
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XHTML
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Joined: 6/5/2008
Msg: 29 | |
| Doctor or Clinic
Posted: 2/1/2009 1:17:57 AM | I have a great patient-doctor relationship with my GP. It is so good I won't disclose his name.
We can joke around too, Once when I was complaining about the odd "knuckle pads" on my knuckles so he suggested if was from dragging my knuckles. We laughed but I thought I need to get even for that.
So many months later he put me on the hydrocholathyazide (sp?), the water pill to get my blood pressure down. When I come in the next month for a follow-up to determine what impact the drug has had, he asks if there were any problems or side effects, though the pill hardly ever has any side effects.
I was ready for him. I most seriously said "Yes, I have been having a problem. I have been having erections all the time! and it was getting quite embarrassing in public."
Doc said "Oh oh!" and reached for big drug guide to investigate, and then looked back at me to ask... and saw the huge grin on my face.
He laughed and said "Okay, you got me, the best in twenty years of my practice." | |
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| Doctor or Clinic
Posted: 2/1/2009 6:37:52 AM |
I've been on a search for GP since I arrived here in 1986. Seriously. The goods ones nowadays are full, or overflowing with patient numbers .Now there are others that are accepting new patients,but only after THEY do an interview with ya. Shouldn't "I" be doing the interviewing??????
The last time I went into a walk in clinic I was diagnosed with kidney stones and had an ultra sound booked. 5 days later I was admitted into a hospital for 2 and 1/2 weeks, had a priest hanging over my bed for a couple of days, had to fill out a will,,,all because of some leaky appendix.
Right now, the only person I actually trust is the nurse that just touched my stomach when I rolled into the emergency room,looked at me and told me that my appendix burst. I still have her name and she was on top of my list for the flowers I bought for the "girls" that kept an eye on me for those 2 and 1/2 weeks. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the nicest of patients they had, but they got me thru to the other side. The doc,,,,well I am pretty sure I saw him for a total of an hour or so,,,including operation. | |
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| Doctor or Clinic
Posted: 11/7/2009 9:39:22 PM | | Those clinic docs strike me as lazy not all but most. They only can deal with flues, colds and injuries. Anything that involves blood work of testing is confusing for them. You can go to a clnic doc and receive nothing. | |
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| Doctor or Clinic
Posted: 11/7/2009 9:57:18 PM | I have a great family doctor, but he will probably retire at some point in the near future. However, the group of doctors in his office, run a clinic in the evenings. I have seen all of them over the years and they are a great bunch for the most part.
And I have received second opinions often that have been very useful. Will probably end up with one of them as my GP, so I am okay with forming relationships and getting to know them gradually. | |
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| Doctor or Clinic
Posted: 11/7/2009 11:29:38 PM | | Same funnyandsweet, told mine that too. I've been with her 16 years and she's an obstatrician too. And i love her office because there are often drooly babies everywhere. | |
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| Doctor or Clinic
Posted: 11/8/2009 12:03:42 AM | Used to have a fabulous GP, almost like a friendship relationship....she supervised me in the hospital helping the delivery of my sons....was always available on call....she retired in 90 but recommended a GP she knew well....he retired and sold his practice and the new fellow...well...
found another nice doc....he ended up not making enough money here and signed with the marines in the Middle East....
so I ended up in a clinic...sorted through a few until I found one doc that is sort of OK, well I hope anyway....seems to me though they all seem to have to be told what to look for and what the patient wants re tests etc....
seems there is something really wrong in that part of our medical system here | |
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| Doctor or Clinic
Posted: 11/8/2009 5:40:51 PM | I had a clinic experience the other day. What a waste of time!! I thought they would be glad to see me since I did not have the flu but no ---- I am not sure what they do at those clinics or what the doctors roles are there but it really is hit and miss.
Sometimes, I prefer to go to the clinic because my GP only works 4 hours a week.
I think those doctors who work at clinics like it. They have little overhead and little overtime. They go in put in their hours and go home. I would happy to be wrong about this and I know they are not all like this.
Incentives needed to put in place to attract doctors back into family practice again. | |
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| Doctor or Clinic
Posted: 11/9/2009 8:02:42 AM | They go in put in their hours and go home. I would happy to be wrong about this and I know they are not all like this.
A lot of doctors that work at clinics have their own practice of patients that see them at the clinic. Other doctors have their own private practices outside of the clinics and also are required to put in so many hours per week at walk-in clinics to meet public demand.
Yet other doctors that work in clinics also work as hospitalists in the emergency rooms and acute medical units of hospitals. They are the most up to date on knowledge of treatments I find, as they are working in the thick of things where it is demanded they stay current. If you can find a clinic where some of the doctors also work as hospitalists, you will get the most up to date care possible, in my opinion. Even the doctors who work only as hospitalists usually work at more than one hospital at the same time. I have never met a doctor that puts in eight hours and goes home. | |
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| Doctor or Clinic
Posted: 11/9/2009 8:11:45 PM | ^ I agree that most doctors who work at clinics have other jobs. This is why my GP only works four hours a week.
However, some of the clinic doctors seem like they are just there for the duration of the shift. It did not occur to me that some were going off to other jobs. | |
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