Back from the Doctor's

So a slight adjustment in meds, something to help me sleep better (oh, please, oh, please, oh, please!) and a referral to start counseling again. Pretty much what I expected but really good to have accomplished. It's a relief. And best of all, in this age of crappy health care, two follow up appointments booked with my doctor and strict instructions to call sooner if I need to. I really, really like her-you can tell she actually cares about her patients and isn't just there to bill the system for office visits.

Mini rant-living this close to Montreal, there are quite a few one day a week doctors in town. That is, since in Quebec there's a limit to how many patients a doctor can see, the way that some doctors get around that is to have 4 days a week in Quebec and one in Ontario. Cornwall happens to be the closest community of any size to the border. Because of the doctor crunch sometimes all you can get as a family doctor is one of these. What good is it having a doctor that is only in town one day a week, who books appointments for every 10 minutes (and often overbooks), has no local hospital privileges, is unknown to the rest of the local medical community and who makes very little secret of the fact that the patients at this office aren't really part of their practice? Nothing like feeling like a cash cow.

It wouldn't bug me so much if a group of such doctors got together and pooled their resources to create a walk-in type clinic-that would make sense and would be a useful addition to the community. Instead, we have a bunch of offices that are used once a week and doctors who don't want you seeing anyone else. So I guess I need to always plan my illnesses ahead of time for a particular day of the week, well in advance so that I can be sure to get an appointment?

Turned out to not be such a mini rant after all!

I should note that my doctor isn't one of those. She and her husband share a very busy office and live locally, too. The only time she isn't in the office is Monday mornings, when she has hours on the nearby reservation. Did I mention I really like her? :)