You can put lipstick on it, but it’s still a walk-in clinic
DESPITE WHAT those in the healthcare bureaucracy would like to think, there’s no way of fixing the walk-in clinic model. They can dress it up and put lipstick on it — as the newly appointed Interior Health board chair John O’Fee alludes to, though not in those words — but they can never take it to town.
The idea has come up that allowing some people to make appointments at the walk-ins by phone through a sort of triage system would resolve some of the problem. It is true that the current system borders on inhumane — to assure yourself of an appointment, you arrive an hour before the doors open (and, believe me, that’s even less fun in winter than it is in summer), join the lineup, stampede inside when the doors are unlocked, grab a number, and wait. We call this healthcare by the numbers.
Then you sit among the coughers and hackers and wait for your number to be called. When it’s your turn, you go up to the counter and are given an appointment time, often several hours later. Those who live in town are fortunate, for they can go home and wait; out-of-towners have to kill time until their appointment.
O’Fee is a good man — I’ve known him for many years, and he’s an example of how it’s possible to be a long-time member of the Liberal party and still be competent.