There’s a movement inside of Healthcare to get the average Dr’s office humming like a dentist. Which, if you’re concerned with patient care at all, is impossible. You’ll see it with posters saying only one issue per visit, which also greatly imperils the patient as sometimes a diagnosis will change based off one symptom. You’ve got a good attitude about this. Please share it
As far as I can tell, my psych is doing well enough to not worry about his living, not particularly keen on getting rich, deals with some super heavy things and curses at the stupid computer system he’s required to use, so he’s probably chronically low on fucks to give for seeing the maximum amount of patients per day.
But yeah, when you see him walk out of one room with a heavier-than-usual frown on his face, taking a deep breath to compose himself before walking into the next one, you start to wonder how many times he’s had to put on a stoic face before seeing you. And then he sits down, asks how you’re doing, whether you’ve done that thing you mentioned wanting to do last time and gives you full attention.
I have nothing but respect for that man. I’ve moved a good bit away from him now, but I’d still rather take the long trip to see him for my regular appointments than search for a new one.
This is the product of clinics being owned by corporations chasing a specific return, and not being owned by a local group of physicians who actually want to care for people.
Shop local applies.
We get the same issue in Ontario with family health teams. The structure of the corporation matters, but so does the funding model
Sometimes I wonder though if it’s because drs get to bill OHIP per visit as well so if you try to squeeze more than one complaint in in a visit then they only get to bill once.
It’s also a product of poor government funding models. We have universal healthcare in my country, and it works great for anything hospital-related. But GPs had the amount they get paid by the government frozen for nearly a decade as costs continued to rise, and once unfrozen, no effort was made to make up for the lost decade. So GPs are forced to either charge out the arse for private fees, or operate on a ruthless patient-unfriendly schedule to maximise throughput just to be able to make ends meet.
