Earlier this year I got a letter from my family doctors office stating that she was taking a leave of absence from her practice. The letter made me believe that the other doctors at the clinic would take over my care until she returned or else one of them would permanently take over my care.
Uh huh … wrong!
Luckily I only had to go to the family doctor once since I got that letter and then two months later I got a call from the head doctor at the clinic and she told me that it didn’t look like my old doctor was coming back and that none of the other doctors there could take new patients. Nice treatment for someone who’d been seeing that doctor for 12 years.
So I kind of feel like I’ve been abandoned by my family doctor and the clinic she assumed would take over my care. Oh and get this – My family doctor had made a movie two years ago – one that she tried very hard to get into the 2009 Toronto film Festival – I think she left her practice to keep trying to get her movie into smaller film festivals and fringe festivals. I even found some information on the internet that makes it look like she’s now turning her movie into a play. No wonder I feel abandoned.
So … I asked my pain doctor to be my family doctor. It works well for me since I see her pretty much once a month anyway and even better it’s walking distance from my home. The only problem is that now I have to get my medical records transferred over from the old doctors office. Naturally their going to charge me for document scanning and it won’t be cheap. Since my doctor pretty much abandoned me and the clinic that was supposed to take over my care refused I don’t think I (and my husband too since he was a patient there as well) should have to pay a fee to have my chart transferred to another doctor.
Do you think that’s fair?