Why can't I get a doctor?

(started in February - posted in March)

Anyone who claims medical care is the same accross the country has never been sick in New Brunswick.

It is impossible to get good medical care in Fredericton anyways, unless you have lived here all your life. I have lived here for over 10 year now, and just recently managed to find a doctor willing to take me on as a patient. Me, and 5000 others, and believe me, this Doc doesn't put the hours in to care for all of us!

All of this is very confusing to me. When I first arrived in Fredericton I started looking for a Doctor. I have now been to every possible doctor's office/clinic in Fredericton. They are all full - won't even put people on a waiting list. Intrieglingly, only once in 10 years have a walked into a clinic with more than 2 people in the waiting room (except for the after-hours clinics of course, which are always bursting with people who don't have regular family doctors). Same with the clinic which was finally willing to take me. 5000 patients, and never any more than 2 patients in the waiting room. What's up with that??

Well - here's what I think. There are no patients waiting to see doctors because there are no doctors working. I think most doctors in town don't work full weeks. How else can we have such a shortage here? I mean this is a serious problem. A person shouldn't go 10 years without seeing a doctor!

And now, I guess I have a doctor, but it is so hard to get an appointment, I might as well not even have one. I broke my finger last June and finally got to see a doctor about it November. That's right, kind of a waste of time after 5 months, but it was still bothering me so I decided to be persistent. What took the 5 months? Well, for one thing, the clinic never answers the phone. So after 3 weeks of phoning to book an appointment, I stopped trying, hoping that my finger would heal fine on its own. Wishful thinking. I had to actually drive up to the clinic in November to get an appointment, because when I started up again in November, they still weren't answering their phone.

Twice now, since I got a doctor in Fredericton, it has been easier to book an appointment and go see my old family doc in Ontario. So I guess I still do have quality medical care - I just have to drive 1400 km to get it. What's with that?

Anybody else have these problems?? Love to hear. Oh, and Mr Lord, if your reading this - good job (she says, extremely sarcastically)!