Doctors’ Protest Misguided?

Doctors take an oath to work for patients’ needs. Doctors advocate when no one else will…at least docs like to think they do.

Most people probably don’t associate physicians with public demonstrations, marches or chanting.  When physicians finally get inflamed enough to walk the streets waving placards, what do they protest?

Probably some terrible patient suffering, right?

Guess which of the following problems pulls physicians into a protest march:

Current Problems Doctors Could Protest

• Patients dying in waiting rooms due to long waits.
• Patients paralyzed due to long waits for surgery.
• Patients forced to travel to the USA at their own expense for care.
• Elderly patients left with no toilet, no shower, no privacy with bright lights and noise all night long in the ED for days.
• Poaching physicians trained in poorer countries that desperately need physicians to work here instead of training our own.
• Packed waiting rooms – literally wall to wall – that are unsafe and degrading.
• Acute care hospitals packed with nursing home patients.
• Surgeons out of work while patients languish on surgical wait lists.

No, doctors do not march against any of these.  Many would argue that protest marches don’t help, but some doctors think they do.

So what makes doctors-who-march angry enough to protest?

Last week some Canadian physicians joined a protest march because patients paid for medical care in Canada:

B.C. doctors urge provincial ministers to take a stand on public health care.

“…urging [politicians] to protect medicare…”

Protesters allege “…the profit that you can make from illness and suffering is absolutely tremendous.” The “absolutely tremendous profits” some make in Medicare were not mentioned.

Dr. Vanessa Brcic of the B.C. Health Coalition admits “Wait lists are unacceptably long in some cases… but for-profit health care is not the answer.” As if profit does not exist in the current system.

A Personal Story

My friend living out west needed spine surgery.  He couldn’t work and suffered daily.  He got referred to an Orthopedic surgeon (orthopod).

He waited for an appointment.  And waited.  And waited…

Finally, he paid for spine surgery at the Cambie clinic.  His financial losses from disability dwarfed the surgical fee.  He went to work pain free soon after surgery.

Much later – after being back at work for weeks – a secretary called with an appointment for the orthopod.

Blind Numb Misguided

Patients at the Cambie clinic get pain relief, go back to work and return to normal life.  They access care on their own terms.

Why will some physicians march against clinics like Cambie but say little about patient suffering due to system failure?

Have we become blind or numb to morbidity caused by Medicare malfunction?  After 45 years of rationing and controlled services, have we forgotten outrage when it causes patient harm? How will those in the future view our complacency when they look back on us now?

What do you think: Does it seem misguided when doctors protest to protect a system that pays them well but lets patients suffer?

photo credit: Globe and Mail