Doctors & Dollars

Although it would be nice to think that all doctors are first concerned with helping others, and secondly with making money; a recent story out of Ontario suggests that this isn’t always the case.

An Ontario parent took their child to a walk-in clinic after learning that the next appointment with the child’s family doctor was 9 days away. In response to the visit to the walk-in clinic, the doctor threatened to remove the child from the doctor’s patient roster.

Apparently, Ontario doctors are financially penalized when a patient on their roster visits a walk-in clinic; in response, some doctors are retaliating by “firing” patients who seek care elsewhere. In this instance, the doctor made it clear that he did not want the patients to visit an alternative medical provider other than the emergency department at the local hospital; this “advice” was not to do with the level of care in other facilities, but instead with the financial penalty the doctor would incur.

These types of situations highlight some of the challenges of Canada’s medical system in its current form.

Source: Globe and Mail