Really? Not questioning your experience, matt (I’m sure such things can and do happen), but with my wife having been a clinical audiologist who still occasionally practices, I’m shocked at the wait.
Generally, she could book patients within a few days. Rarely was it any longer, unless the patient wanted it that way (say, they’d be leaving town for three months and wanted an appointment for the first week they returned). And when one of the ENTs down the hall in the medical arts building where she practiced felt the patient needed a hearing test before he could proceed with his exam, she could usually find time to fit them in right away.
Even when a farmer friend of mine in rural Ontario needed to see an audiologist, he was able to see the one in a nearby town within about two weeks.
You’re right about it being a scarce specialty though. There are only three schools in Canada where one can study audiology (if memory serves, they are UBC, U of Western Ontario, and Dalhousie), so it is not unusual for Canadian hospitals and clinics to look to graduates of American schools for qualified practitioners; and indeed, my wife is one such transplanted American. Perhaps the problem in this case has nothing to do with whether health care is government-run; but rather, is a factor of our educational system–in other words, it is our inability to see that more of our own schools need to teach this specialty, thus producing more home-grown graduates.
At any rate, matt, my wife still keeps in touch with her Ontario colleagues. If you’re going to need the services of an audiologist, and you’re going to be in Ontario at about the same time, she could probably recommend a colleague who doesn’t tend to have long wait times for appointments. A couple of weeks, tops; but certainly not six months.
I responded in the original thread to the Pap test question, which aligns with the responses given here.
In my one experience seeing a specialist, I got an appointment in under a week.
To be fair, though, I should underline the key variable of having a family doctor. Large numbers of people don’t. There are huge shortages of doctors in rural areas, but I also know people in Toronto who have been trying to find a family doctor for the better part of a year.
It’s a very different system as it’s not so ‘on demand’ from a patient viewpoint.
You can see that for some elderly people they may feel they ‘need’ a hip replacement before their doctor does. More likely, of course, they are prioritized and a hip replacement isn’t life threatening, so people in severe pain would get access before those who still enjoy mobility. In a tightly funded system emergencies can throw off schedules for non urgent surgery.
My bedridden Mother In Law’s Dr comes to our home, whenever I need him, sometimes the same day I call. She/we are entitled to home care support and provided nurses, therapists, etc all provided in our home, without cost to us. Her senior citizen drug benefit means for all the 17 pills she takes daily, she pays only $100 per year, then only a discounted dispensing fee, and not generic meds either, whatever the Dr prefers.
Is there a wretched beauracracy to get through, yes. Still it seems a pretty good system to someone in my position.
As for my Dr, whom I will see this afternoon, I never have any difficulty getting to see her or any specialist I’ve been sent to. The exception is less than urgent surgeries, you can wait to see the specialist and to have surgery scheduled, but I don’t really mind and it never been much of a wait anyway whomever I was seeing.
And, of course, I’ve never paid a Dr or hospital in my life and I’ve had, I figure, the average number of bumps, bruises etc.
When I lived in Vancouver or Victoria I never had a problem getting a general appointment (week or so), and when it was time for the pap smear, they’d call to set me up usually within a week or two.
The one time I had to see a dermatologist, I had an appointment the next day. (I had a mole they didn’t like.) Then I was referred to a specialist who looked at it and asked to remove it. When I agreed, about 5 nurses piled into the office and they did it right there and then. I could walk in to get the stitches removed anytime.
When my mother was dying from cancer, she never had to wait for anything treatment-wise.
Now that I’m in the US, I find that I have to wait a month for a general appointment except for the time I was having dizzy spells, then they got me in a week later.
Fifteen years ago, in Nova Scotia, there was just one lithotriptor in Halifax and a nine-month wait to get an appointment. Anyone here ever live with kidney stones ?
When my father somehow got my grandmother into the hospital for lithotriptor treatment in four days, I asked him what had changed the schedule.
Even then it depends where in Toronto you are. We live just west of the city limit in Mississauga. I phoned the local hospital asking if they could provide a list of family doctors taking patients. They E-mailed me a list with multiple names. But then I hear it’s a different story on the east end.
But how’s that different from any place in the USA? Surely many family doctors in the USA have full dance cards?
I do remember now that I had to wait a couple of months to see a specialist once.
Maybe it’s because I work at a teaching hospital where it’s possible our docs are in high demand, but the average wait for an appointment with a specialist is around three to four months. Same for MRI’s.
There is also a clear and documented inequity in our health care system. Docs, and CEO’s, and those connected to them, will receive special, expedited care. I, myself, got an MRI within two days. I was asked when I’d like my surgery. This, when most everybody else waits for months.
I’ll also use this post to remind you that the links I provided in my earlier post, contained objective data derived from whole populations. With all due respect to everyone who’s answered the OP, data is much better than anecdote.
I think there are something like two audiologists in all Montreal, or some other ridiculously low number. I’ve seen one at Saint Mary’s and one at Saint-Luc. But I don’t really mind, as it’s not an emergency or even painful – just a mild annoyance. (I actually forgot to make a new appointment, which was supposed to be last March.)
The last statistic I heard for my city (pop. 80,000) was that approximately 20% of its residents do not have a family doctor. That means long waits at clinics.
I have lived here for 10 years and have a doctor, albeit not a great one, but he’s capable and easy to get along with. If I have an urgent need to see him, I can get in the same day, if it’s semi-urgent, usually the next day or two will work. If it’s just a regular appointment they book about a week ahead.
I don’t see him for my pregnancy - he doesn’t do obstetrics anymore - so I go to the maternity clinic at my hospital. I phoned today to get in for a non-emergency appointment and was able to book it for Wednesday morning.
Haven’t had any experience with surgery, although my hubby is having his tonsils out, and that surgery was booked in early June for this September.
I have a family doctor, and I book my yearly physical/pap smear at least two and sometimes three months in advance.
It’s been that way for at least three years now.
Having said that, I am perfectly healthy and I only turn up for those so I can get my birth control prescription refilled. I imagine if I had any concerns I would be seen sooner.
According to the radiology tech and a couple of the nurses on my breast cancer survivor dragon boat team, mamograms in our region of Ontario are done in one to two days if there are no symptoms of cancer. There is also a bus that travels to communties in the region that does mamograms on a walk-in basis.