Canada will face a worsening shortage of doctors over the next decade unless governments put more resources into medical schools, physicians said at a national conference Friday.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/09/29/doctor-shortage.html
The reality of this has struck close to me. Last year a local medical practice was transferred/sold to a new group of doctors. The old guy (nice jewish guy) retired so what are you gonna do anyway. The new ones (east indian) ran the place into the ground within a year. The receptionist spoke poor english, their hours were inconsistent, and they didn't even have current magazines for patients to read in the waiting room.
Regardless, they have now closed the office and moved it outside of Toronto. The problem is that there must be thousands of patients on file over the years, many of them seniors I suspect. The only notice given is a sign on the door. All of these folks are now without a family doctor at one time. Many won't know until they call or drop by to make an appointment. They can request to have their records transferred to a new doctor of course.
This really makes me angry that so many people will be left in the lurch. It's almost like an essential service. These people won't travel 20 km to continue the shoddy treatment they've been getting this past year anyway. Now they'll all need to look for a new doctor. Good luck.
The only thing I could think of doing was to contact my MPP and a couple of media outlets (who I'm sure will delete the email anyway). The MPP's assistant says she has contacted the guy so maybe we'll see something done but I'm not sure what if anything can be.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/09/29/doctor-shortage.html
The reality of this has struck close to me. Last year a local medical practice was transferred/sold to a new group of doctors. The old guy (nice jewish guy) retired so what are you gonna do anyway. The new ones (east indian) ran the place into the ground within a year. The receptionist spoke poor english, their hours were inconsistent, and they didn't even have current magazines for patients to read in the waiting room.
Regardless, they have now closed the office and moved it outside of Toronto. The problem is that there must be thousands of patients on file over the years, many of them seniors I suspect. The only notice given is a sign on the door. All of these folks are now without a family doctor at one time. Many won't know until they call or drop by to make an appointment. They can request to have their records transferred to a new doctor of course.
This really makes me angry that so many people will be left in the lurch. It's almost like an essential service. These people won't travel 20 km to continue the shoddy treatment they've been getting this past year anyway. Now they'll all need to look for a new doctor. Good luck.
The only thing I could think of doing was to contact my MPP and a couple of media outlets (who I'm sure will delete the email anyway). The MPP's assistant says she has contacted the guy so maybe we'll see something done but I'm not sure what if anything can be.
