Couple says doctors’ offices need accessible exam beds

SASKATOON Mark Kennedy and his wife decided to speak out about the need for accessible examination beds in doctors’ offices after he was unable to get treatment at a minor emergency clinic because there was no one at the clinic who could perform a lift.

Kennedy, who uses a wheelchair, is able to transfer himself onto an examination table if the table can be raised and lowered. In September, he had to get pressure sores checked, so his wife Celene Dupuis called ahead to the clinic at the facility where his doctor practices. She was told it wouldn’t be a problem, so Kennedy went in.

When he got there, he learned there were no accessible tables on site and no one at the clinic could perform a lift. When he asked if he could make an appointment with his family doctor, he was told that would only be possible if his doctor’s availability coincided with a time when staff approved to perform lifts were available. He ended up getting a referral to a hospital to see a doctor he doesn’t know.

“It just kind of caught me off guard that they have to schedule with your doctor and the appropriate people on staff to make sure everyone is there to lift me up onto a bed,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy hadn’t needed to get on an exam table at his doctor’s office before then because his surgeon had performed all of his examinations following the ATV accident that rendered him paraplegic a few years ago. He was a patient at the clinic before the accident.

Dupuis noted chiropractic and dental offices have hydraulic beds and chairs that can be raised and lowered.

In a statement to Postmedia News, the Ministry of Health said doctors’ offices are private businesses and are not included in the ministry’s requirements for medical or health facilities. Doctors still have an obligation to provide reasonable accommodation to patients, since the physicians are subject to the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code, the statement added.