I’ve never had a doctor - well, one that I see as a patient rather than one I work for 
- actually answer the phone when I call. However, I do get them calling me now and then; typically if I leave a message with their staff asking a question, the doctor him/herself will call me back with an answer.
No problem. I’m not saying Canada’s system is perfect or anything. But then again, it’s really not one system - each province runs their own healthcare system, so what’s true in Ontario isn’t necessarily the same in PEI or Alberta.
Also, I feel my GP is definitely better than average in terms of communication style and spending time with patients, and she always refers me to great specialists. (IIRC, in the US patients can directly arrange to see a specialist, but in Canada you have to get an initial referral to a specialist through a GP - they act as a “gatekeeper” to the specialists).
My surgeon emails me. Sometimes just to comment on football, since we root for the same team. But unfortunately, I am likely not his typical patient and have been going to him for years, so there is a bond there now. I doubt he does this with most of his other patients.
Here in Socialistland, my doctor always calls me back.
Our pediatrician calls me, calls me back, and a whole lot more. Damn, I miss Dr Jenkins and wish he would move back to Shanghai.
If the option is between call person myself or explain why I need the person called, have a secretary do it and then tell me they have done it, I might call the person myself to save time and to prevent my head exploding.
If it’s someone I don’t mind speaking to, I’ll call them myself.
If it’s something where not having a misunderstanding is very important, I’ll call them myself.
If it’s a psych patient, and I need to be able to judge their mental state, while we chat about why they missed their appointment, I’ll call them myself.
If it’s bad news, I’ll call them myself.
If it’s confidential test results, I’ll call them myself.
If it’s not important/not urgent/there is no room for misunderstanding/I don’t want to speak to the person, I get the secretaries to phone for me or I’ll dictate a letter.
If doing it myself saves time and effort in the long run, I’ll do it myself.
Well, I guess since it’s my thread I can hijack a little. . .
Whether this is true here in the US depends on which kind of insurance you have. Mine rocks, and I don’t need a referral to see a specialist. I can just look up which specialists are “in network” (participate with my insurance, and most do, because it’s BlueCross/BlueShield), then call the specialist’s office and make an appointment.
But with a lot of insurances, the insurance won’t pay for the visit to the specialist if you haven’t had a referral from your general doctor.
Khadaji, I hear ya. You’re probably the only person I know under the age of 70 who goes to the doctor more than I do! 
irishgirl, that makes perfect sense. But with most doctor’s offices I’ve dealt with, speaking to a real person is difficult, and speaking with a doctor over the phone is next to impossible! I have a great urologist, but when you call his office, you get “Thank you for calling Urology Associates, offices of (doctor’s names); if this is an emergency, go directly to your nearest emergency room; if you need to make an appointment, press 1;” etc. Then, if you press 1 to make an appt. or 4 to “speak with a nurse”, you get voicemail and a promise that they will call you back as soon as they can!
In their favor, though, they do usually call back pretty promptly, and they do always have a doctor on call on the weekends who will call you back if you call the emergency after-hours contact number.
After lab tests my internist would say if I don’t hear from him then everything’s fine. Then I wouldn’t want to get a phone call from him! 
Other times, he has called me to tell me that a particular test I took at some other facility came out just fine. I went to a specialist once who treated me for some infection and he said that he would call me to see how I’m doing the following morning. And he did! The thing was that there were various antibiotic options and he wanted to make sure that the prescribed antibiotic was working. But overall, doctors don’t call me much.
My nephrologist calls me regularly after any tests done. The only time someone besides him will call me from his office is if I need to come in for a shot because I’m anemic.
I am not sure he treats all his patients that way. I have his personal cell phone if I have questions or any complications.
My oncologist has called me twice, once over Memorial Day weekend. i was surprised both times. But it wasn’t ever bad news and it kind of made me happy that he was thinking about my case over the weekend.
I’ve never had major surgery. I’ve had oral surgery a few times, and both times the surgeon himself called me later that day to see how I was doing. This is, in my experience and according to other people, unusual.
I’ve had doctors phone me personally, either after surgery to follow up on how I’m doing, or when I’ve called their office and asked to have them phone me when they’re done seeing patients because I have a question or something I don’t want to discuss with a receptionist.
Well, it usually is her husband who calls me, although she’s been known to call me in person for medical stuff related to my mother.
SiL is the GP for the whole family. As she’d start telling us “you should take this” and “your doc should have ordered xyz test” whenever we’d been to the doctor, we figured we’d skip a step.
Our GP calls us at home to discuss lab results. Once, he called at 9:00 pm on a Wednesday to go over some hella high cholesterol counts with my husband. I half expected the guy to drive over and shove the Lipitor down my husband’s throat himself!
I love it. I have never before had a doc who cares enough to call me.