Wednesday, December 18, 2013

I went to the hospital this morning to have the final test in a series that had been ordered by the doctor a few months ago. When I asked the technician who she would send the results to I was already thinking, “I’m going to phone for an appointment with him”. I knew the doctor who ordered the tests was a resident, and I also got the name of the doctor he was working under.

Putting my plan in action this afternoon, I waited until the receptionists were back from lunch (they get a long lunch break), and I didn’t steam too much over the ten minutes I was in the queue before getting an answer. I asked, with confidence, for an appointment with the resident doctor only to be told that he was no longer there! I would have to call back tomorrow and book an appointment with the on-call doctor.

For much of the rest of my reading time I scoured the phone book looking for other doctors in town. When I had my list assembled, minus the specialists and mental health doctors, I started phoning. No one, and I mean no one, is accepting new patients. I did find that two of the doctors have walk-in clinics on certain days of the week, but if their walk-in clinic works the same as my clinic’s walk-in I could be left just as frustrated.

So, tomorrow I will head to the clinic at 8:30 in the morning hoping that there is a doctor who is on-call, hoping the on-call hours are in the morning and not in the afternoon, and hoping that all the spots aren’t booked.

Perhaps I should have checked into those mental health specialists after all!