As lucky as I am to live in a country that provides free healthcare...there are some WHACK policies that seriously need to be re-looked and re-written. I'm only going to talk about one shortcoming to keep this post's length at a minimum.
Today I'm going to talk about the "no news is good news" policy.
I went for a routine 'female check-up' about 2 weeks ago and the doctor said she'd send everything to the lab and I'd only receive a call if there were any abnormalities, otherwise, I could just assume everything went well and I could re-schedule my check-up next year.
Tuesday, I receive a voicemail on my answering machine at home to call the doctor's office.
A little concerned, I call back and ask what they were calling me for.
The receptionist says, "Dr. so-and-so would like to discuss a lab report with you. Please come in tomorrow."
I ask her if she can tell me what it's about.
She says no. Of course.
I ask her if I shoudl be concerned about anything.
She says she can't say anything...I have to wait to talk to the doctor. Of course.
I hang up, distraught.
I rack my brain to figure out what could be wrong. Then I start imagining something could be wrong. Then I fully believe I'm dying.....you know...one thing leads to another in a logical order in my brain.
Sharl calls the doctor's office right back and asks if we can come that night.
The receptionist says no, they're closing.
Sharl complains to her that it's unfair to leave patients with news like that without any information and how it is upsetting me.
She repeats that we have to wait to see the doctor tomorrow.
He hangs up, annoyed.
We have a bit of a restless sleep that night.
The next morning, Sharl comes with me to the doctor's office early in the morning.
We wait for over 30 minutes in the waiting room...then another 15 minutes in the doctor's office.
Finally he comes into the room and looks over my lab results.
"Oh....it looks like your doctor didn't collect sufficient samples for all of the tests...but everything else looks fine. You should book your next appointment in 6 months instead of 1 year."
That's it?!
Sharl asks why they couldn't just tell us that on the phone.
Doctor says that's just their policy.
Total crap.
If you can do secure banking over the phone, surely there should be a way for doctors or nurses to deliver this kind of information over the phone! We should get PIN #s or PVQ's or something so we can access our patient information files. I can understand how some information could be told in person....but this?? Come on. With all types of information moving online and through communication devices....how come our healthcare is so behind the times?
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