Health Care Part Two

I had my first real encounter with the Provincial Health Care system on Thursday. This initial visit was simply to set up my account and meet my doctor fact to face. The appointment was for 3:00 but I arrived a half hour early anticipating there would be forms to fill out. I presented my health card to the receptionist and she proceeded to check the computer for my appointment. She did not have me down for 8/11 at all. After a little further searching she saw that my appointment was for Monday the 8^th and that I had missed it. Toni had made the appointment a couple of months earlier in person. It is not like her to get something like this wrong. Later at home we pulled out the appointment card and saw that receptionist had indeed been correct. She had handwritten the date: Aug 8/11. Exactly like that and Toni noticed just the numerical part and eventually entered it in the calendar for the 11^th instead of the 8^th.

At the doctor’s office I was prepared to reschedule but the receptionist assured me that it was no problem at all and the doctor would still be able to see me that day. She gave me my forms and clipboard and I went over to the waiting area to dig in. Despite what you hear about the long waits and so on there were only a couple of other people sitting there. As I worked on my medical history and personal information I found that it was a little odd to not be pulling out credit cards and insurance cards and copying down all those numbers. I was about ten minutes into the forms and about half finished when the doctor popped out and waved for me to come back. I explained that I hadn’t quite finished yet and she told me not to worry and come on back.

In the course of our interview we scheduled a physical. Part of this was an order for blood work. She gave me the form and two addresses of labs that could do the job. I asked about setting up the appointment for that. She told me there was no need for that. You just pick a day to fast for 12 hours and then just show up with the form. No prearranged time at all. She noticed my puzzled look and said, “Welcome to the Canadian Health Care System”.

To recap, I show up three days late for my appointment and still get in without waiting at all (in fact was seen earlier than planned) and then I can walk in anytime I like for blood work. It is not exactly the way it is portrayed in the States. More later.