8 comments

AlexiaresOctober 24, 2021

A few years ago doctors in the city I used to live took to posting policies saying they would only discuss "one medical issue per appointment" because so many patients, especially women of course, would wait until they had several issues to discuss because otherwise the doctor would shit on them for wasting their time.

KissMyOvariesOctober 25, 2021(Edited October 25, 2021)

What?!

I just did this. I mean I got an emergency appointment because I was having kidney pain and wedged in blood test orders, a mammogram order, and medication refills. Doctors really want one appointment per issue? Really it comes down to $$$. More appointments means more $$$ from the patient and the insurance company.

And of course women put this stuff off. We are less wealthy than men. Why not cover multiple issues in one appointment?

AlexiaresOctober 25, 2021

It is absolutely about billing, even in Canada, especially in Alberta, which is where that city was. Where I live now they claim it is about not letting your appointment go overtime, but they actually don’t let you make an appointment at the clinic accessible to me. You are supposed to drop in and wait for whenever they get to you, so it is literally necessary to line up outside the building a half hour or more before it opens. Lots of vicious little tactics to undermine public health care, hardly necessary when GPs are basically extinct.

bumpyjerboaOctober 25, 2021

This is an informal rule where I live. It took me a decade to get a referral for a persistent rash because it was never "bad" enough to be the Main Issue at my appointments. Now that I have a mild but chronic condition, nothing else ever gets any attention. Yay medicine!

IrishTheFrenchieOctober 24, 2021

So true.

I've done this so many times I can't even count them all.

sicktodeathOctober 24, 2021

Yup. I can’t even tell you how many doctors have blown me off.

WatcherattheGatesOctober 24, 2021

Nailed it.

[Deleted]October 24, 2021

Sadly me.