How a Doctor Wasted My Time

Yesterday I had an appointment with my new cardiologists - in Victoria. Not a big deal - but I had been waiting a while to see him. Not that anything new is going on but it seemed to me that it was important that a specialist review my relatively minor heart condition just to ensure that things had not changed.

To cross the Malahat - a relatively small mountain that lies between Duncan and Victoria, the law requires one to have snow tires. It doesn't often snow in southern BC but that particular highway can be a bit slippery and one accident can block the road for hours. I do not have snow tires so I took the commuter bus. It left at 6:15 AM. It cost $10.00 - one way.

I got to Victoria by 7:30, had a great breakfast at my favourite breakfast spot in town (John's Place), got on a city bus (I bought a day pass for $5.00) bought some warp cotton at a store and then got on another bus to get to the doctor's office. I knew I would be early, but I had a book to read and I was content to wait the 45 minutes.

The doctor was a bit behind schedule - to be exact he was 45 minutes behind schedule. His assistant did the cardiogram but did not do a social history or collect any information at all. The doctor came into a room - we talked for about six minutes and we were done. It was obvious that he had not read my file or even looked at my most recent echocardiogram. I gave him the original referral letter from my cardiologist in Peterborough but he demonstrated little interest in my medical history. When I mentioned that I was chronically tired, he suggested that sometimes the medication I am on has that effect. He suggested that there were other options including a different medication or surgery. As the possibility of surgery to correct the problem had never been discussed with me, I asked him about it- but all he said was that that would be in the future.

He made another appointment for September.

I hung around Victoria until the first commuter bus left at 3:45 and I was back in Duncan by around 5:00.

11 hours of travel and hanging around and $25.00 in transportation costs - all for 10 minutes total time of medical contact. Whatever the province paid the doctor for his time was a waste of the tax payers' money. My GP could have done exactly the same thing - wasting less of my time and while she may not be technically as qualified as the specialist was - I would not have left her office as dissatisfied as I did yesterday in Victoria.

I know doctors are busy - I know that there are ever increasing demands on their time. But I would have preferred to wait a few extra weeks for an appointment if it would have meant that I would have had a more detailed review of my current heart health. As it was - he just wasted my time.