Claire Cameron is a novelist, essayist and author of the forthcoming memoir How to Survive a Bear Attack. This poem was assembled using quotes from articles about experiences of Canadian family doctors and their patients.
I don’t have a family doctor
From a young age I knew I wanted to be a doctor my parents gave me an anatomy book I studied the history of medicine I wanted to help people
The workload was daunting I often stayed late consultation notes, pharmacy faxes the fatigue and burnout
I was months behind messages from my patients started piling up I’d recruit a second doctor income has not kept up with the rising costs is this even a viable career?
I got bad news: family doctors are retiring our relationship with him was suddenly severed what’s going to happen if I don’t get my renewals
Who will book her ultrasounds? I felt a pain in the right side of my chest already spread to my lungs a family doctor would have likely caught it sooner
Your hacking cough your sinking mood that persistent rumbling pain only option is often to wait for hours at the local emergency
It’s not for lack of trying spent seven months cold-calling clinics on wait lists all over the city 25 calls a day asking if she can take on a new patient
In some parts of the country, a third of adults 125,000 people in Newfoundland and Labrador 2.5 million of the province’s residents British Columbia, 28 per cent one in four Quebeckers
We’re slipping through the cracks so much more sickness a wealthy country like Canada leaves millions of people twisting in the wind.