Phone The Doctor

Some doctors don't see patients person to person, other than by special request. That's the way it is now. The inanimate receptionist person says, once you call and  get past the list of doctors and clinic hours and that you are important to them but that they are busy and will get around to you as soon as possible - click - music.  When you do finally and gratefully, hear the human voice it usually says , will you hold please - click -music and finally and later, a  voice that says, sorry to keep you waiting. Only then, can you say that you would like to make an appointment. The efficient voice comes back on and says yes, in two weeks, you may with your FAMILY DOCTOR  and he/she will phone you at such and such o'clock on such and such a day. You are asked also, if you wish to make an in person appointment. That's the second choice. Most of us settle for the phone call, because it might be  simply to ask a question that requires a brief answer or perhaps to seek a prescription renewal. If you are taking blood pressure medication that is on-going, you are asked by the doctor over the phone, what your blood pressure is, you being the one who takes it regularly.  When I had a swollen throat, I needed to see the doctor to presumably have the swelling felt. It was a privilege apparently to capture an office appointment.  One person I know of, without ever actually seeing the doctor,  received in the emergency ward, the news by the hospital doctors who were very present, that the diagnosis was a malignant cancer in the last stage. When asked, how long,  the person was told by the emergency doctor, that it would be about two years with or without chemotherapy or surgery. The patient opted out of chemotherapy so that the remaining time would be less miserable but the family doctor was away on holiday, therefore, he could call his doctor on his return. I will say nothing of the condition of the hospital ward but it is not somewhere I would want some I loved to be. When a ward bathroom is filthy and flooded and it take six hours to clean up, it's not a pleasant place to hang out.  The person has yet to sit actually in front of the family doctor due to the doctor being on holiday far away. No other doctor is available to replace the holidaying doctor who well deserves the time off. Nevertheless, the doctor did at one point call the patient with the cancer. The patient, not the doctor, asked if it would be all right to call the doctor during his remaining time and if it would be okay to "keep in touch" once a month. Well, not actually  in touch  physically, but via  phone calls, please. The doctor gave the patient permission to do so. Now, I realize there is a shortage of doctors to go around,  and there are walk-in clinics and emergency rooms where one can sit before a real live doctor eventually and eventually, is often a long time,  but my concern is, as a mere patient, the growing number of  regular phone-call-doctors. Perhaps I am old-fashioned as I am told over and over again, being the age I am, but to me a doctor needs to shake my hand, say hello in some way, and sit opposite me to be my own personal life-saver when it comes to my health. I like to think that there is a professionally trained and experienced human being who is taking time to talk to me, to look at me and speak to me personally with whatever is the medical situation we are dealing with. A phone call is something that comes out of a plastic speaker on a plastic thing and sounds like plastic.  It is not the voice and presence, of a warm blooded, caring doctor who has seen me through numbers of health issues, knows all my personal junk and who cares enough sit and kindly chat with me during my fifteen or so minutes in the little room. It makes me, as a patient,  feel happy that someone very special and knowlegable is my health care friend. The doctor knows all about me in a way that no one else does. The doctor advises me and when I hear that voice, I trust. I know that I have the best help there is because it is my family doctor. And we all trust our doctors. I don't trust phones much.