The Flying Shingle
Monday, January 3 2011
Dear Editor,
For nearly four years now, the Gabriola Health Care Society (GHCS) has used the doctors on this island to their own ends by repeatedly stating that the doctors are threatening to leave the island due to burnout if a third on-call physician is not hired, and a new clinic is not built.
We have excellent doctors on this island and none, we believe, are capable of such an act.
First and foremost, any doctor who holds their community hostage by threatening to remove their services if they don’t get a new clinic could be in danger of having their license revoked by their governing body.
Our doctors are here to heal, not threaten. And they all do a wonderful job. We do not believe claims by the GHCS that certain doctors on Gabriola are, in essence, holding their community to ransom.
What patients rely on is stability and continuity with their health care practitioners; working with people who they can establish trust with over the long term is often tantamount to successful healing. Using the “danger in losing our doctors” angle in fundraising efforts, or to push through rezoning applications is a form of emotional blackmail. It establishes an atmosphere of fear that is counter-productive to any doctor/patient relationship. After all, why would anyone go to a doctor who threatens his or her community?
It is utterly unconscionable to try to sully our doctors’ reputations and practices in this way. Spreading rumours of early retirement because of ill-health of one island doctor is again undermining the reputation of our health care practitioners.
This is something to which the community as a whole should take offense, and should tell the GHCS, in the strongest possible terms, is not acceptable.
Our doctors deserve better than this. So do we.
Tony Gibson and Shena Meadowcroft
For nearly four years now, the Gabriola Health Care Society (GHCS) has used the doctors on this island to their own ends by repeatedly stating that the doctors are threatening to leave the island due to burnout if a third on-call physician is not hired, and a new clinic is not built.
We have excellent doctors on this island and none, we believe, are capable of such an act.
First and foremost, any doctor who holds their community hostage by threatening to remove their services if they don’t get a new clinic could be in danger of having their license revoked by their governing body.
Our doctors are here to heal, not threaten. And they all do a wonderful job. We do not believe claims by the GHCS that certain doctors on Gabriola are, in essence, holding their community to ransom.
What patients rely on is stability and continuity with their health care practitioners; working with people who they can establish trust with over the long term is often tantamount to successful healing. Using the “danger in losing our doctors” angle in fundraising efforts, or to push through rezoning applications is a form of emotional blackmail. It establishes an atmosphere of fear that is counter-productive to any doctor/patient relationship. After all, why would anyone go to a doctor who threatens his or her community?
It is utterly unconscionable to try to sully our doctors’ reputations and practices in this way. Spreading rumours of early retirement because of ill-health of one island doctor is again undermining the reputation of our health care practitioners.
This is something to which the community as a whole should take offense, and should tell the GHCS, in the strongest possible terms, is not acceptable.
Our doctors deserve better than this. So do we.
Tony Gibson and Shena Meadowcroft
No comments:
Post a Comment