Don’t blame doctors for doing their best

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

The editorial writer believes that we family doctors are feeling so comfortable with our income and lifestyle that we can kick back, relax and see fewer patients. Perhaps the writer can tell us why so many family doctors are giving this all up, quitting, retiring early, or choosing other work.

Yes, the UBC study and the Canadian National Physician Survey support the fact that GPs on average are spending less time with fewer and fewer patients. But as the writer astutely points out, our whole primary-care infrastructure consists of us self-employed GPs running private businesses. We are paid a fee for every patient contact, so therefore, the more patients we see, the more money we make. So, why are there more and more patients without family doctors and lineups at Victoria walk-in clinics?

The only way this can be explained is that we already work 10-hour days. We cannot see more patients without adding more time to our day and divorcing our spouses and never seeing our children. Yes, fees have risen a little in the past 10 years, but the complexity of patient care, the burden of paper work, regulation and office administration have all increased exponentially faster. GPs are burning out and quitting.

Yes, it is a disgrace that so many people cannot find a family doctor, but please stop blaming the remaining ones for just trying to do their best. We need more family doctors. We will not achieve that by asking them to “bear more of the burden.”

Eugene Leduc, MD Victoria