Is Dr. McDreamy taking patients?

I know I’m not the most political minded person out there, even with Healthcare being a big issue these last few years, I’ve never put much thought into our system, figuring, at least it’s better than our southern neighbors and many other countries. But now, that I’m not a spring chicken anymore, it’s beginning to weigh on my mind.

For the first few years of adulthood, when I finally had the responsibility of taking care of myself, I didn’t do a very good job. *Wry smile* Big surprise. Healthcare was just one of those “ignorance is bliss” situations. I am not really sure what I was afraid of not being ignorant about, but at that time in my life, staying ignorant was my convenient copout. It only took me about 3 years to start caring (medically speaking) and I realized it was scarier not to know, but by the time I actually wanted to get a doctor, it was next to impossible. I had one briefly at the Health Science Center but one time they said she was no longer there, they could not find my file and so I hadn’t been assigned to a new doctor either. So began my years as a walk-in patient. I tried calling around to different doctors but they all said they were not taking any new patients or they needed a letter from my previous doctor. Well that was an impossible task since my last regular doctor up and disappeared with my file, and the one before that was in Steinbach when I was 17 years old. I was frustrated but I figured, that’s just the system.

I lucked out a few years ago when my parent’s doctor moved to Winnipeg and agreed to take me on as a patient. The only thing he wouldn’t handle was pregnancies but he said he would refer me to someone if and when that time came. I thought I was set until he retired. But now I am not so sure. My first issue is that it takes 3 months to make an appointment for my yearly exam, I called in August I get one in November. I realize that there is a shortage of family doctors in Manitoba, so ok, but recently some issues have come up that I had planned to talk to him about, certain issues that are time sensitive, and so I was frustrated it was going to take 3 months to even begin to look into them, never mind be tested, and if my suspicions are right, get referred to specialists. Now I’ve just been told my doctor decided to just take a few months off and hand off his appointments to a ‘substitute’ doctor who isn’t even full time so she can’t take on the appointment when I had it, I have to wait until December. Now I am really unimpressed! With a shortage of family doctors, to just decide with no notice that you are going to take months off! I realize emergencies do happen, maybe that is the case, they didn’t say, but if it is not, my quality of life has just been lowered so he can have a vacation.

So do I bother looking for another doctor? First I’ll probably need a letter, which I can’t get until Doc is back. Second, will that improve the wait times? Will I just have to wait another 3-4 months from the time they accept me as a patient to get an appointment? I’m finding it hard to know what to do. I can’t help but feel bad when I think of all the people who are much worse off than me, medically speaking, and how much harder this must be for them. But in the mean time I still have to live my life, live with my concerns.