At the time when, after a certain age, you particularly need your family doctor, he is just about to retire. You really can’t blame him since he’s already turned 75. It goes without saying that he made plenty of effort, and it was probably reluctantly that he had to give up his profession, his passion.
I will miss my annual meeting with him very much. Not only did he know how to conscientiously treat my minor and major physical ailments, but also his humor and his ability to listen had a comforting effect on the moral level. The few minutes spent each year consulting him were well worth the hours I had to spend waiting for him while he took care of his other “patients” with professionalism and kindness.
“Patience and length of time do more than strength or rage,” says the maxim. But recent contacts with a person in charge of our health system risk giving the lie to this adage after I learned with dismay that, having no longer a family doctor, it was now impossible for me to obtain an annual health check-up. covered by health insurance.
When I have paid taxes all my life and still do, my only recourse would be to go to a private clinic and pay hundreds of extra dollars a year to access this important medical service that I consider it essential.
This situation is clearly contrary to the spirit of the Canada Health Act which specifies that Canadian residents must have satisfactory access to necessary medical and hospital services without having to pay money. All insured persons of the Régie de l’assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ) without exception should thus be able to enjoy free access to a health check-up, a necessary — even essential — preventive act to prevent the onset or aggravation of diseases, especially in the elderly.
Two classes of citizens
The Quebec Health Insurance Act indicates that the cost of all services provided by physicians and which are medically required must be assumed by the RAMQ on behalf of all insured persons. Does this mean that the health checkup to which patients who are lucky enough to have a family doctor have free access is required from a medical point of view, but that it would not be so for (insured) patients without doctor ? We often talk about a two-speed medicine in Quebec. No doubt the time has come to also speak of the unacceptable existence in our country of two classes of citizens in matters of health.
If I feel less alone, I hardly console myself by thinking of the some 800,000 other Quebecers without a family doctor who viscerally understand my frustration.
Is it true that the College of Physicians has always taken care to limit access to the profession? Did we really vote for political parties that promised all of us access to a family doctor? How many governments have formally committed to reforming our healthcare system? My spouse has been on the Family Doctor Access Window waiting list for five years. A sympathetic representative of this service reassures her: some have been there for eight years!
As the holiday season approaches, allow me to wish you a doctor for Christmas!… Or at the very least full reimbursement by the RAMQ for an annual health check-up. And if it’s not for this year, it may be for a Christmas that your descendants will celebrate.
On a more optimistic note, it seems to me that the new Access Point for Orphan Clients (GACO) is working well and quickly providing valuable services for a single health problem at a time. The fact remains that a personalized and long-term follow-up, centered concurrently on preventive and curative care, will always represent for me the best formula.