ROTHENBURGER — Getting a family doctor begins with a form

COLUMN — The doctors’ list isn’t working.

Back in April, when our longtime family doctor gave three weeks notice he was closing his practice, I called a help-line number he suggested for the Division of Family Practice.

The idea is that you call this number and you get on a list for a family doctor. When one comes available, in you go. So I called, and was told I’d be emailed a form in about a month.

I wondered why it should take a month to email a form, but I figured, they’re busy, and I don’t want to intrude with my little problems.

A month went by, then another. A week or so ago I called again, and got the answering service. She would forward my name and it would be put on a list.

Since I was supposed to have received a form after my first call more than two months ago, how could I be sure I’m on the list, I asked.

She would forward my name, she said. How can I be sure I’m actually on the list, I asked.

She would forward my name, she said. What about the form, I asked.

She knew nothing about a form. She’d forward my name. I was told I would get a form in a month, I said.

She told me to wait a minute. There was silence, then she came back on. She would have a form sent to me promptly, she said. Took both my email and mailing address to be sure.

So far, no form, no list, no doctor.

There are some three dozen Divisions of Family Practice in B.C., including one in the Kamloops region. The division represents family physicians here. “Together, the members work to imiprove patient access to local primary care….”

Part of the mandate is something called A GP For Me. This program, jointly run by the provincial government and Doctors of B.C., is supposed to help people find a family doctor.

Even then, I read in the newspapers that the days of everyone having a family doctor are in the past. Teams of health professionals are the new thing. Nurse practitioners, and phone medicine and, maybe a doctor once in awhile.

Well, look, I get that. Don’t like it, but I get it. I would just like to know where my team of health professionals is, and how I get on the waiting list. When the people who are supposed to put you on that list forget to do it, or don’t even know there’s a form, or don’t ever get around to sending you the form, and you can’t get on the list, I’d say we’re a long way from this new system of teams of health professionals.

It should be simple, really. Patients without doctors should be assessed as to their needs, and designated for appropriate care. If a family doctor is what they want and what they need, there should be an interim plan until one is found for them. That requires a form.

Thousands of people are without a family doctor, while newly minted doctors who happen to have been trained out of the country can’t get jobs here in B.C. Something is wrong with that.

Cripes, just send a form. Make a list.

Mel Rothenburger can be contacted at armchairmayor@gmail.com. He tweets @MelRothenburger and is on facebook.com/mrothenburger.7.