Doctors already work long hours

Re: “New light on doctor shortage,” editorial, Dec. 2.

I am a family-practice resident in Victoria. This editorial was offensive in so many ways, given that in my training, I work 60 to 80 hours per week providing face-toface patient care, and the family doctor who is training me does the same, plus spends up to 20 hours including weekends doing paperwork and filling out disability and insurance claims.

Having doctors work more hours is not the solution to the shortage of family physicians. Nor is online prescription renewal. Patients need to be seen face-toface because when a patient thinks “this is a routine renewal,” we need to spend those 10 minutes to assess if the medication is still indicated, if there are new contraindications to continuing it and if the patient is up to date on important bloodwork, etc. An online renewal platform would lead to poor patient outcomes.

Also, the author notes that medical school spaces have increased, but failed to mention that the government has simultaneously decreased the number of residency spots, making it more difficult to apply to train as a family doctor.

What most bothers me about this editorial is that the argument is based on “a study by researchers at the University of B.C.,” and does not provide a title, date or link to this study.

Articles such as these hinder efforts to improve access to family doctors, as the government now has more fuel to blame doctors for not bearing “more of the burden.” Adriana Mejia-French, MD Victoria Editor’s note: The study is “In British Columbia, the supply of primary-care physicians grew, but their rate of clinical activity declined,” Health Affairs 2017; 36 (11) by Lindsay Hedden et al. It is online at bit.ly/2kmCT6H