Finally, after two years of walk-in clinics, a new doctor, thanks to Health Care Connect Ontario.

The fact that such an organization has to exist at all shows just how bad the doctor shortage has gotten, and how much things have changed since before the pandemic.

A petite Middle Eastern woman, in her 30s, and in the neighborhood, at a plaza, only two miles away. None of this nonsense of having to go all the way out to Nepean for appointments, with nothing comparable in the south end, where I live and like to call the outer-inner city.

The walk-in clinic I frequented (also in the neighborhood) this past year wasn’t so bad, it too populated with Middle Eastern doctors and staff. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen a Caucasian GP, for some time now. A new generation of Canadians, many of them immigrants, are working their way into the medical system, streamlining operations to cope with the growing population.

Gone are the days when the doctor would do the menial stuff; taking height, weight, blood pressure, giving flu shots, actually started before the pandemic. Now you’re greeted by an assistant, who does all the aforementioned, in addition to processing and input of a patent’s metadata, before finally seeing the doctor, one issue at a time. Prescriptions faxed directly to one’s pharmacy of choice, from the physician’s computer.

Even at the endoscopy clinic, for a colonoscopy, two years overdue, again due to the pandemic, and previous doctor of 32 years retiring. Except for a middle aged man with a European accent doing the procedure, staffed by Asians, eager to greet and assist patients with a smile, it too runs as a well oiled machine.

Maybe this is the light beginning to shine at the end of a dark and uncertain tunnel, and a new chapter started in this country’s own medical history.


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04/18/2024

Posted on 04/18/2024
Copyright © 2024 Chris Sorrenti