You can be fired by your family doctor for visiting a walk-in clinic in Ontario — and there’s little you can do about it
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/you-can-be-fired-by-your-family-doctor-for-visiting-a-walk-in-clinic-in/article_366ace28-6f8f-11ef-8e2c-5359772a7ec4.html
20 Comments
We can , vote ford out
What the heck? That’s lame!
Your doctors office will provide you a list of walk in clinics that they are associated with. We agreed to this, and signed a form, when they took us on as patients more than 15 years ago.
So it’s a Friday afternoon and I need some immediate medical attention and these are my options:
1- call my Dr and get an appointment in 3 weeks
2- clog the emergency room for something that isn’t an emergency
3- go to walk in and loose my Dr.
So my choices are stupid, stupider and stupidest.
Isn’t the issue that they actually don’t get paid in some instances? I don’t mean for the walk in clinic visit, but for subsequent visits to the family doctor. The whole system is a rip off to our family docs. I bet a huge percentage of them regret the time and sacrifice it took to get qualified.
Lmao my family doctor was so pissed when I went to a clinic and ended up getting diagnosed with MS so I can see this
I asked my doctors office this a few months ago. I was told it doesn’t effect them in any way if I go to walk-in. I’m in Ontario if that matters.
Can’t be fired by my family doctor if I’ve never had the privilege of having one in the first place 😎
Whatever. Most family doctors only work 2 days a week anyway….
Yet we can’t fire drs
Jesus what kind of family doctors are out there? Mine has always advocated me seeking help if I need it. They need to start issuing suspensions to doctors who do this. Anyone who creates a barrier to healthcare should be punished. Fuck this.
Yes, apparently you need to contact them to see if it is ok. Like WTF!?
This should fall under uncompetitive practices. Can they fire you for getting another Doctor’s opinion? It should be illegal if they can.
Having just spent two weekends in two different emergency departments in TO I am honestly considering moving my family out of the city and possibly out Ontario for the first time in my adult life. The individual doctors and nurses were great but the system is fully fucked and you’re on your own to ensure that you get the appropriate follow-up. I have no doubt that there are a significant number of deaths and long term health implications that are occurring due to to state of Ontario health.
For perspective, I have a fair amount of experience with our healthcare and I have gone from proud and thankful to genuinely fearful of anyone in the family getting sick.
I’ll leave it to the doctors and nurses to comment about the actual cause and effect, but it’s beyond dire and you feel lost without any alternative. I’m not necessarily advocating for private healthcare but when you’re desperate and feeing alone anything would be better than what we have right now. it’s a very bad time for you or your loved ones to get sick.
So who works for who then. We pay the taxes which pay the doctors. So makes sense a doctor can fire you?? What the fuck
You will go see a different doctor if your family doctor can’t see you in time. So even if they de-roster you, who cares? they weren’t seeing you in time in the first place.
Secondly, if you go to the ER then the family doctors don’t deroster you because OHIP doesn’t claw back funds if the patient visits the ER.
It’s a perverse system that the Ministry of health has built.
My physician is part of a practice of six. And yes they will drop you as a regular patient if you use outside private walk in clinics.
Couple years ago they sent a letter around to all registered patients explaining that the Ontario government bills the family doctor if you are rostered.
What my clinic does, is you call and see if they are doing after hours clinics. If they are you come on in, if they are not; there is a regional urgent Care Center that they rotate out of, or if the condition warrants it they will suggest you go to a hospital.
Telehealth private clinics and purpose built walk-in clinics result in your physician getting charged to surcharge on a rostered patient accessing those services.
I’ve never heard of somebody being de rostered when they contact their physician first, and then seek guidance on what alternative access to use.
“What if I just take this money I have and hire a doctor to see me right away and not grunt at me to fuck off after 30 seconds and look for excuses to ‘fire’ me as a patient?”
“Grr, you monster! That sort of transaction is forbidden by law!”
Who the fuck has a family doctor lol
LOL what family doctor?
I havent had a doctor in a decade in Toronto.