May

It’s a funny old world. In my clinic this afternoon I was showing a patient a page in our fee guide, stating the fee for lifestyle advice. My patient is involved in federal initiatives for tobacco cessation. She was surprised (as was I, when I arrived in BC) to find that an MSP fee is not payable for lifestyle advice, including smoking cessation.

As a physician actually practising in the North, I take great offence to the letter of Dr Marlene Hunter in the January/February 2003 issue of your journal [BCMJ 2003;45(1):16-19]. I find it distressing that a person who lives and practises in Victoria can write about rural, isolated or northern issues with any credibility. I note from her article that since 1981 or 1982 she has been part of a rota of family doctors who went north for a month every year or so.

In mid-March my wife and I flew back into Vancouver International Airport after being in Argentina for a few weeks. The two stops in the US on the way home were highlighted by the long waits created by the Bush administration’s orange alert security status and a requirement that we decontaminate all our shoes. This was a bit of an undertaking because we had a special bag just for activity footwear that included riding boots, hiking boots, Tevas, running shoes, and street shoes.

During the dispute between the Vancouver Hospital and the surgeons concerning the lack of surgical resources to take care of even the most urgent patients, the surgeons felt obligated to close the emergency department until adequate resources were available to deal with the patients.

This prompted a response from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia reminding these doctors about their responsibilities.