Our journalists also experience all kinds of problems and ups and downs in their everyday lives. They give us their personal testimonies, in which many of our readers will recognize themselves.
From now on, orphan patients will have to use a single point of contact to see a family doctor. But you have to be patient: I had to stay on the phone for two and a half hours on Monday before I was able to get an appointment when a computer problem compounded the already discouraging wait times.
• Also read: “I’ll be dead in 2024!” publicly complains that a patient could not get an appointment with a pulmonologist
Like more than 643,000 Quebecers, I still don’t have a family doctor. To put things in perspective, when I signed up for the Family Doctor Access Window (GAMF) six years ago, Gaétan Barrette was Minister of Health.
Faced with the failures of this first system, his successor Christian Dubé then created the First Line Access Window (GAP). With a flick of the wrist, 500,000 Quebecers were enrolled in a family medicine group.
Problem solved!
Finally until the day you really need to see a doctor.
Telephone table tennis
As a good citizen, I therefore called the GAP on Monday, as requested by the government. After 1 hour and 20 minutes of waiting with sweet music, a member of staff finally answers me. “Hello, we will update your GAMF file.”
HM okay. Name, address, nearest pharmacy.
And now I’ll put you back on hold to speak to a nurse. It should take about 45 minutes!
The same goes for the nurse who fills out my health form.
I think I’m finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel…
Sir, I’ll put you on hold again to schedule an appointment with an administrative assistant!
In the meantime, you can imagine that I tried to contact the online service, since the recorded voice has been advising me for 2 hours already. Result: Call the GAP! Well, thanks for the tip.
After another 30 minutes I was finally able to get an appointment with the doctor.
No luck but…
Of course, the problems at Rendez-vous santé Québec could have resulted in an influx of calls to the GAP on Monday, when the site was unusable due to a problem with the Captcha identification system.
“You’re out of luck, it usually takes 1 hour,” the administrative assistant told me when I made my appointment. All the same!
Personally, my job allows me to wait on the phone while I work (and beyond that I thank the three GAP employees whose professionalism was exemplary).
But how could a teacher, say, afford the luxury of wasting an hour or more hoping to get a doctor’s appointment?
I have to say it: when I call a dentist, chiropractor or physical therapist, they answer quickly!
Well that’s not all, now I need To with SAAQclic.