Family Doctors in Vancouver - RANT!

[TRDood]

You need the doctor more than he needs you. Simple.

My family doctor makes me wait for at least 1 hour. I find that it's the chinese ones that overbook. My physio who is white is 80% on time.

I prefer going to the drop in clinic on Broadway and Heather. UBC student doctors run the place and they seem to know their shit. Older doctors just seem to tell you whatever they feel like.
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[Gh0stRider]

ya, my family doctor retired too.

all i got is the drop in clinic.

[iEatClams]

I can relate from my dealings with shietty doctors. I barely go to the doctors except usually to take my mom or dad when they need to see the doc.

I can sorta understand from the doctors point of view as they get a lot of dumbass patients that come in thinking they are going to die when all they have is a small cold or bruise.

Here are some of my examples:

+ 1 for going to see the doctor and he only sees you for like 25 seconds and then bam heres your prescription, next patient. I'm like wtf, how did you prescribe me medicine when you barely asked any questions?

# 2. Another doctor one time when I was younger with my mom opens up this BIG Dictionary looking thing which I assume now must be some sort of medical encyclopedia and looked up info on it right in front of me. WTF??? What I had wasn't even rare or anything either.

# 3. This same doctor as # 2 had blood stains on his waiting room wall for longest time (at least 10 months). I switched doctors so I don't even know if he still has it.

4. Doctor poorly and incorrectly diagnosed my mom and we had to go back the next week. If he had taken more than the 2 mins to ask the right questions then maybe he would have gotten the diagnosis right the first time, saving my him, my mom and I time.

[iEatClams]

Another note,

I find that in Vancouver. In my opinion only, that the caucasian doctors provide better service, diagnosis, and show more sincerity than asian doctors.

It may be that most Asian doctors, from my perspective, only become doctors because :

1. there parents force or encourage them to become one
2. they are only doing it for money

and therefore they dont seem to care when they see you.

I use to have an asian doctor who was really good (he at least appeared like he wants to help you), but sadly he retired.

[dignatas]

my family doctor is semi retired and is his brain is not functioning the same as it use too...

Andrew Louie in hastings near china town. He is a VERY nice guy but recently he keeps on blabbing about when you get old, you will never experience *this* stuff... basically talking about how being old SUCKS...

very nice doctor but his office is very dirty too. Had an ant farm living inside the clinic rofl... But hey, it is east hastings.

[k3mps]

Originally Posted by azndude69

Another note,

I find that in Vancouver. In my opinion only, that the caucasian doctors provide better service, diagnosis, and show more sincerity than asian doctors.

It may be that most Asian doctors, from my perspective, only become doctors because :

1. there parents force or encourage them to become one
2. they are only doing it for money

and therefore they dont seem to care when they see you.

I use to have an asian doctor who was really good (he at least appeared like he wants to help you), but sadly he retired.

most asian people trust asian doctors, so im guessing that's why they are so rushed all the time. when i went to the clinic by my house, most of the people in there were asian and the asian doctors were fully booked while the white guys were just taking walk ins.

[dim_sum]

i think that's pretty good wait times... my doctor made me wait 2 hours once...

Originally Posted by sh0n

This thread about Family Doctors in Vancouver. I would truly appreciate if anyone can recommend me a professional, friendly and reliable family doctor.

I had a family doctor for 25+ years but he has since retired, as a result I'm in search of and have been jumping from doctor to doctor in the last 2-3 years and here is what I notice:

1. Vancouver Doctor's are often on their high horse. They are rudest, unfriendly and ignorant people I've ever met in my life.
2. The doctors and their receptionist know nothing about customer service. I would arrive for an appointment at 1:00 and often have to wait a good 15-30 minutes only for a rushed 5 minute consultation - cause the doctor wants to move on to the next patient.
3. Most doctor's do not accept new patients - is this even LEGAL?

Sorry for my rant but I've had a string of bad events that happened to me with my last doctor. I'll leave her unnamed but some of the antics she pulls:

1. During our consultation, I would talk about what I'm suffering from. However the doctor would leave the room with an excuse pretending to get her prescription pad or patient record and return with a diagnostic. I'm certain that she is going back to her office to read up about it on the internet or in her medical books. I've had this happen EVERYTIME I had an appointment with her.
2. I had an appointment at 12:50pm and was late by 10 minutes due to traffic and she fucking left the office!!!! I know I may be wrong for being late - but I made plans to go see the doctor - took time off. The least the doctor or receptionist can do is give me a courtesy phone call letting me know. I had absolutely no waring hat the Doctor was going to leave the office at 1:00pm sharp!

Thanks for hearing this out.

I would love to hear if any other RS'ers are having the same problems with doctors in Vancouver because I really see these things as being a common problem.

[b0unce. [?]]

I've been seeing my family doctor (dr. angela lee) all my life, her office used to be near fraser and 23rd iirc... her father used to run the joint until he retired and passed on the place to his daughter. anyways she moved to a bigger building and merged with some walk-in clinics near broadway and cambie. it's now called crossroads or something like that, it's just above the london drugs there. i can't stand going to walk in clinics, i hate waiting over an hour to see the doctor. i still phone in and book appointments to see her instead of doing drop ins.

but yeah she's extremely nice and honest about everything. tells me exactly whats wrong and breaks it down for me. she'll be straightforward and tell you whether or not you'll be wasting money on expensive overrated products etc. i've told my doctor the symptoms i had and told her that i went online to seek advice and explained my end result after trying it, before i finished my sentence she told me what i saw online was wrong. She explained everything to me and told me the correct way and stuff. her receptionist has been with her since she opened. she as well is incredibly nice and polite. i've referred some friends to my doctor and they have said nothing but good things about her.

but yeah i can see how it's frustrating finding a good family doctor.

[Slifer]

Originally Posted by Roach

Good thread. And I can relate to how you feel. I haven't had a family doctor in my many many years now. Only use walk-in clinics when necessary but it sucks because they don't know your medical history.

I gave up looking for a new family doctor because of the last two:

- First family doctor lost his practice because he was caught fondling a woman while she was sedated lol.

- The second doctor was strange. One time I went in because I had an eye infection. The doctor somehow asked me to unbutton my shirt. I'm thinking, wtf? He insisted. I thought he was going to check my heart rate or something. Instead, he tells me I have some skin infection. I'm thinking, wtf does this have to do with my eye? He prescribed me some skin cream and and told me to wait a day or two for my eye. WTF.

I went a second time for something else, and once again he tried to tell me something was wrong with my skin. I ended up walking out.

Turns out a few months later he lost his practice as he had some business affiliation to a skin care products company.

I know there are great family doctors out there. Just haven't found one yet and gave up trying lol.

Kev

Man, that woman must have been smoking hot for the doctor to risk his career.

[godwin]

If you guys are worried that your family doctor is going to move / retire. Request a copy of your medical records before he/she folds. Or else you have to pay for the retrieval of the records from storage. When you get tests done, also remember you can request to have a copy of the test results mailed to your home, it is your right (should be a responsibility IMO) to keep records yourself too.

Doctors have the right to refuse taking on any patients, just like any business. However most places the decision is up to his/her staff. Be nice and put up with the receptionists etc. unless you want to wait forever. I notice some older Asian people shower front line staff them with gifts.

If doctors want in for the money, they will also also be selling procedures like Botox etc. things that are not covered by the MSP. They make it really obvious when you walk into the clinic. It is just like people wanting to go to dealerships on Kingsway to buy a car. Just because the dealerships are there, but it doesn't mean you have to go there!

There should be more family doctors coming down the line, because the Gov increased med school positions, they didn't increase post doc positions (ie specialties like surgery etc). More new doctors are forced into family medicine, because you need a minimum of a family med residency to enable you to use the title MD. (You can argue about the quality of whether some doctors want to be a family doctors in the first place). It is actually very hard for new med graduates to come to Vancouver because competition is very fierce.

I always think Health Education at schools didn't keep up with the times and teach students how to get health service / how to describe symptoms etc. If people take personal responsibilities on things like health, we won't be stuck with a huge bill as a society.

[godwin]

They usually don't think they would get caught.. case in point.. Senator Weiner?

Originally Posted by Slifer

Man, that woman must have been smoking hot for the doctor to risk his career.

[Eff-1]

This site will tell you which doctors in BC are accepting new patients:

https://www.cpsbc.ca/node/263

[ilvtofu]

I just went to Sammy Lee @ continental 2 weeks ago and I know what you mean. Receptionist really have no customer service experience and he is a pretty rude/blunt guy. Told me that if I had unprotected sex with GF she could get pregnant... thank you captain obvious. Overall he has a serious attitude problem and seems arrogant, I only went to him because he's the only one I know/been to before.

I've always gone to a pediatric since I was a toddler but mom says I've outgrown him. He's awesome Dr. Cheng @ broadway medical building, very professional old school doc with a professional looking office.

I rarely see the doctor anymore though but I thought I had a serious bladder infection, turns out it was nothing lol

[Ikkaku]

It's the simple fact that the better/caring doctors get a lot of clients through word of mouth. If a family member or a friend asked for recommendation, I am not going to tell them to go to a random half-assed doctor, or a walk-in clinic if my own GP is good. After a certain amount of recommendations, a doctor can only take so many clients, thus they stop taking in new patients.

IIRC doctors have a limit on the amount of patients they can see in a day, or at least get paid to do so. A lot of people studied to be a doctor because it is generally known as a high paying occupation. In a perfect world, we would all have GP's who care about us, but reality is, there are only so many of them that actually care about our well-being.

As well, many of the medical graduates go elsewhere to work because they get paid better. I remember there was a article a while back talking about all the grads leaving for USA after completing their program. There are only so many doctors to choose from, and again, most have a full list of patients due to word of mouth.

[Meowjin]

Anyone have dr.yue on kingsway and joyce?

Great family doctor.

I hope he doesn't retire. He got his med degree in the early 1970's. I'd be devistated

[twitchyzero]

Originally Posted by jaguar604

Most GPs come out of med school at the bottom of the barrel. Any decent doctors will go on and specialize in a field.

lol...nice assumption.
There are many 'decent' doctors that choose family practice before they even got accepted into medical school.

hate the game, not the players

I know so many folks thinks doctors are not caring etc..but one should try working/volunteering at a doctor's office and see how much they get worked and the shit they have to put up with (it's amazing how much patience they can still have at the end of the day)

I do have to agree that asian-predominate offices do have longer waittimes, probably because these C-lais are such worrywarts over nothing and each eat up so much schedule times.

[quasi]

I got a new Doctor about 3 years ago and he's totally awesome, he'd my age to so he'll be around for a while. If I drop in I might have a 30 min wait if I make an appointment might be 10. Even the Doctor I had before this (Just switched cause I moved 40 mins away) was pretty awesome as well.


I have had some bad experiences with Drop in doctors where they rush you out but I've had some good experiences to. I even had one who I only seen once call me at home a few days later to see how the medication was working because he was concerned about me.

[Valour]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHKTE75dgE4

I had a hot female asian doctor perform mine. Sooooo lucky!

[Mercy]

My mom was having shoulder pains and for the longest time he wouldn't send my mom to get xrayd or what ever at the hospital. Finally he sends her after a couple months of my mom complaining. Turns out she had lung cancer. Who knows. Maybe 2 months in advance they would have been able to try anything instead of nothing.
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[Meowjin]

Originally Posted by Mercy

My mom was having shoulder pains and for the longest time he wouldn't send my mom to get xrayd or what ever at the hospital. Finally he sends her after a couple months of my mom complaining. Turns out she had lung cancer. Who knows. Maybe 2 months in advance they would have been able to try anything instead of nothing.
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My mom died due to misdiagnosis imo, but I'm not holding my doctor accountable.

[parm104]

You're going to a Doctor's Office, not a Future Shop, you're looking for customer service? They're educated, they've dedicated their lives to helping others and they save lives...Customer service?? Agreed, a receptionist should be polite and courteous but a doctor's job is to focus on your health, not on whether or not they have manners.

Do you think that a doctor purposely keeps you waiting? No...Do you know how short we are of doctors as it is right now? Of course the doctor's office is going to be busy. You live in a BUSY metropolitan, NOT some rural town with a population of 30.

Also, doctors have EVERY right not to take on more patients. You already have SUCH long waiting times in the doctor's offices, what do you think will happen if the doctor's kept taking on more patients? LONGER WAITING PERIODS...

And you do know that a family (GP) doctor ONLY gets paid for 60 patients a day right? A physician used to be able to see any amount of patients a day, sometimes up to 80-90 were plausible. Now they can see a max of 60, if they want to get paid; any patient seen after that, is done out of their own expense.

[Meowjin]

Originally Posted by parm104

You're going to a Doctor's Office, not a Future Shop, you're looking for customer service? They're educated, they've dedicated their lives to helping others and they save lives...Customer service?? Agreed, a receptionist should be polite and courteous but a doctor's job is to focus on your health, not on whether or not they have manners.

Do you think that a doctor purposely keeps you waiting? No...Do you how short we are of doctors as it is right now? Of course the doctor's office is going to be busy. You live in a BUSY metropolitan, NOT some rural town with a population of 30.

Also, doctors have EVERY right not to take on more patients. You already have SUCH long waiting times in the doctor's offices, what do you think will happen if the doctor's kept taking on more patients? LONGER WAITER PERIODS...

And you do know that a family (GP) doctor ONLY gets paid for 60 patients a day right? A physician used to be able to see any amount of patients a day, sometimes up to 80-90 were plausible. Now they can see a max of 60, if they want to get paid; any patient seen after that, is done out of their own expense.

I totally disagree. You don't want to go into a doctor's office feeling shittier than you do. Why do you think that doctors/nurses etc... have to do bioethics courses when they go to school? It's important to treat the patients courteously because ywhen someone is suffering they don't want to be treated like shit.

[static]

I understand your frustration with the medical system here in BC but perhaps you should realize there are some tradeoffs that are expected with socialized healthcare.

I can relate to your frustration of general practitioners being a)rushed for time b) being unfriendly. However, please realize that your doctor is there to (potentially) save your life. He/she is a professional that went to school to do just that and that should be priority one.

If their bed-side manner is not up to snuff, perhaps say something to them or write them a letter later. I promise if you do either, they will listen. However, realize that they need to see a lot of patients and if you are late, don't expect them to stay. Would you expect your hair dresser to stay late just because you can't keep an appointment? Secondly, just like a business your GP has to see a set amount of patients per day to remain financially viable. Perhaps you could try to write out all your questions/concerns prior to visiting the doctor to expedite the process for both parties.

If the doctors in Canada really cannot satisfy your needs, take a drive to Seattle and see a doctor there. I have found physiotherapists and doctors abroad to be less time pressured due to their higher billing rates, however, you should ensure that you are insured =).

[Windstar]

worst doctor ive been to, and is rude is the drop-in clinic close to broadway and commercial dr. diagnosed me wrong and i spent $60 in medicine.

one i went to that really listened to me and gave me a free sample of a sinus rinse is the Hycroft Medical Building, room 103. Nicest doctor ever! There are 3 family doctors in that room

[cho]

I've been going to dr Ma on main and 16th for the longest time, I think he's pretty close to retiring
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