Ad - Sunday, December 9, 1984 - North Shore News

NE OF THE
PLAINTS 1

hear

Strictly personal

by Bob Hunter

RECURRING COM-
about doctors is the

amount of time you have to spend cooling
your heels in the outer office, waiting for them to
get around to poking at you.

My own doctor com-
mented one day while | was
in his office, having had to go
in because of something to do
with my wife, that he might
as well take a quick look at
me while he was at it, since
“the men are so hard to get
to come in for a check up ”’

1 almost took a swing at
him. The reason we're so
hard to ‘‘get to come in’’ 45
because we have to work for
a living, fella! Who's got
time to founge = around,
waiting for an extra hour or
two after the scheduled time
of your appointment while
Dr. Kildare fiddles with his
stethoscope?

Another complaint 15 that
they make you come all the
way down to thetr office
again to look at such things
as X-rays when they could
just as easily tell you’ the
results over the phone. The
reason”? Well, of course, they
get to tag on another visit to
be added to their Medicare
billing number in Victoria

With all due respect, doc:
tors are overwhelmingly on
the take. There ts no doubt in
my mind that one of the
reasons for the 118 per cent
rise in the costs of the
Medical Services Plan over
the last five years has been
the avarice tf not duphiaity of
the many doctors to over
book themselves regardless
of the havoc wrecked on pa
tients’ work schedules, whe
sel up unnecessary extha Visits

to pad them incomes, and
who mollycoddle hypo
chondriacs for the sake ol
bucks

Also, by berg such tighs
wads when it comes to com

puterizing them offtees. they

dilow a dot oof prescrptron
drug abuses to go unchecked
Picter tothe patient) cither a

pull popper or a pall deader

who goes to sevensl different

dostors for prescriptions ana

Kets away with ou bee ause
most dhoetors are stell using
the atbsurddy outdated poras
tice oof havity puatients bites

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kept in splendid notepaper
isolauion.

Some of the $2 million that
the B.C. Medical Association
plans to spend setting up a
pohtical lobby would be bet-
ter invested, :f you ask me, in
setting up a central computer
bank with drug files that
could be accessed by tn-
dividual doctors’ terminals.
P|

““By being such
tight-wads, they
allow a lot

of prescription
drug abuses to
go unchecked. ’’

Obviously, not all is: well
with Brittsh Columbia's
medical system Not when
medical costs are nearly 30
per cent higher here than else
where tn Canada and rising at
double the rate of inflation
Not when the Royal © olum-
bian Hospital has to close
down its neurosurgical
facilities due to lack of beds,
respirators and nurses Not
when 10 to 1S per cent of
deaths from accidental in

hurts, doc

juries could be prevented by
proper management of pre-
hospital care.

It's no joke any longer
when the chairman of the
Saskatchewan Alcoholism
Commission urges the use of
breathalyzers in the operating
room to check the condiuon
of doctors before they start
to slice. (Twice as many doc-
tors are hooked on narcotics
as ordinary people and seven
per cent of them become
alcohohes.}

Of course, it's a well-
known polling result that
most doctors feel underpaid
and that the reason they take
on all those extra patients is
to boost their meagure in-
comes. Well, pass the hankte!
Who DOESN'T teel under-
paid?

At the moment we are
heading toward a glut of doc-
LOTS Accordingly, the
BCMA 1s) moving toward
having a say in who can prac-
tise and who can't

But the uming of the move
couldn't be worse It seems
obstous that the unwashed
masses as well as steely-eyed
politicians have got around
to notioing that professional
bodies such as the BOMA can
sav they actin the public in-
terest all they like, but when
something really hits them in
the pocketbook, they close
ranks, reacting yust like any
other trade union

Just wanted to get that off
my chest, Dow It’s been
bothering me Thanks

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Charged
with NV
robbery

NORTH VANCOUVER
RCMP has charged Douglas
Alan Nielsen with armed
robbery following a $95
tobbery at a convenience
store early Thursday.
Nielsen, 27, appeared in
court Thursday to face the

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charge and was remanded
until Dec. 14 to obtain
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Nielsen was arrested and
charged after a lone male
produced a_ knife and
demanded cash from. the
clerk at a Seven-Eleven store
at Third Street and Chester-
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