Triaging the waiting list: maybe there’s hope after all
KAMLOOPS — Got a call from HealthLink B.C. The message said to phone them back, so I did.
A pleasant woman there explained that they are fleshing out their information on people who are on the waiting list for a doctor. She wanted to know if she could ask me a few health questions; I told her to fire away.
It was all about any chronic conditions, medications, surgeries, that kind of thing. It took a few minutes. She said if other members of my family wanted to get on the list for the same doctor, they should phone, too, and go through the same questions.
As I was talking to her, I wondered how they intend to use the information. One thought that crossed my mind was that a lot of doctors don’t like to have to deal with patients who have a lot of different medical issues, so I patted myself on the back for sounding like a patient who’d be pretty easy to handle. A prescription here, an ache or a pain there, collect your premiums and send me out the door with a re-assurance that I’m not on death’s doorstep, yet.