1.From what I hear they make more money in walkin clinic than as a GP.
2. I even argued with one. He wouldn't do any test I required or any follow up.
3.This other doctor did prescribe me antibiotics which he isn't suppose to do in a walkin clinic.
I know they get paid by paid per visit. so the faster you work and get more patients throughout the day the more money they make.
4.That's why they usually have a time limit with patients, both for walkin clinic or GP.
5.Also as a GP I hear they don't get paid for the follow up. I don't know if that's true or not.
6.But going to a walkin clinic is basically waste of time unless it's something really minor.
7.If we had enough GP in Ontario there wouldn't be long wait times at the hospitals either.
8.I remember waiting about 8 hours at the hospital. A person with a heart attack can wait up to 6 hours.
First, let me preface my post by saying that I am not a physician. However I have acquaintances that are, as well as friends that work in the healthcare field. I also practice shiatsu so I get to talk to my share of hurtin people.
I numbered your post so that i could address some of the points.
1. A physician working a walk-in clinic in Canada is not making more than a GP with a practice. These are usually done after hours at a med centre or at something called a mixed practice which will have regular patients and take walk-in patients as well. Most of the time these guys are getting paid less than a plumber to cure what ails you.
2. I don't understand why patients argue with Doctors. If you need a referral then you should get one. Most people I know would just tell an arguing patient to find another doctor.
3. When someone walks into a clinic with a cold, they expect to walk out with pills.....even though they aren't indicated. We are becoming a mass medicated society facing pernicious strains of antibiotic resistant bacteria because patients insist on getting pills even when the guy with the medical degree thinks otherwise. Who told you that a doctor in a walk in clinic was prohibited from prescribing antibiotics?
4. They don't have time limits imposed......they have a limited amount of time in order to help as many people as they can and weed through the folks that show up with the sniffles or tummy aches from eating too much pizza.
5. why on earth would anyone do a job they didnt get paid for?
6. This is the problem with the walk in clinic premise. People go to a walk in clinic to get things taken care of that should be taken care of by their family physician. The idea behind the walk-in clinic is to help the people that dont have regular access to a family physician.
Ongoing needs should be taken care of by a GP. Patients expect Doctors to have some magical ability to treat them like an old friend, even when they have 2500 other patients they are trying to provide care for. Patients need to be pro-active in their own healthcare and assist doctors in providing it. If you are neglegent in looking after yourself don't expect a doctor to pull a panacea out of his butt and send you home.
7. If we had people that cared about their health enough to look after themselves the emergency rooms at hospitals could be used for.....well emergencies.
8. Anything can happen, emergency rooms deal with things in priority......emergencies first, sniffles last.
