That’s a tradeoff a lot of Quebecers are making these days. More than 780 doctors left the public system there last year, compared with 14 in the rest of Canada combined. The exodus of doctors for the private sector in Quebec has increased 70 per cent in just four years, according to data from its Health Ministry.
Patients who spoke to White Coat, Black Art describe a situation where even those who do have a family doctor may face a month-long wait for an appointment, making it a choice between getting out a credit card or waiting all day at the hospital for an acute problem like pneumonia or a urinary tract infection.
Critics say the situation in Quebec should act as a warning of what could happen elsewhere in Canada if incremental steps in the direction of privatization are allowed to add up to giant leaps.
Earlier this month, Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé announced his government would table a bill that would force new family doctors and medical specialists trained in the province to devote the first few years of their careers to the public system.
If you’re not urgent you’re 100% at the end of the line. I’ve been at both ends, the front and the back. The front sucks way more. They bring you in fast if you have a potentially fatal condition. And it sucks.
I know waiting sucks too but better than being close to kicking off. Public clinics around here (BC) are generally reasonable if you don’t have a family MD. Go in first thing in the morning to get on the list and they’ll call you back an hour or so before they can see you so you don’t need to wait in the lobby all day.
It makes perfect sense to register at an emergency room and then leave, so you don’t clog up the waiting room and get exposed to all the diseases that are there.
The issue, of course, is legal liability if someone comes into the emergency department and then is told to leave.
I’ve actually never heard of being called back by an emergency room. I very much have a sense that no thought at all is given to patients’ time.