April

This is further to the discussion regarding access to primary medical care in the BCMJ (2004;9:441) in which Dr J.R. Dale notes that walk-in clinics are often more challenging to work in because of the lack of knowledge of the patients’ history.

According to the Vancouver Sun, 7700 billings were made in which patients were identified as homosexuals—a shocking infraction of the rules of confidentiality. My wife and I were trained in continental Europe—the Netherlands—where confidentiality was much stricter than here. In the 1960s Belgian doctors went on strike because the government wanted the diagnosis before paying. Here we did not notice any such reticence.

A number of weeks ago I answered the phone at home in the middle of dinner knowing that the only people who call at dinner time are telemarketers, pollsters, and family members requesting a return plane ticket from some place with an unpronounceable name somewhere in Eastern Africa.

In recent months the College of Physicians & Surgeons of BC has been pilloried by the local press regarding the licensing of physicians who have received their training outside of Canada. Many of the columns or editorials have contained misinformation or incomplete facts and leave readers with the impression that the taxicabs of BC are occupied by foreign-trained physicians who are unjustly denied a licence to practise here.

There is no doubt that certain psychiatric disorders—including depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, and psychoses—can make pregnancy and the postpartum period a less-than-joyful time for some women.