Changing Doctors?

Hi everyone,

I really need to find a new GP, but am having trouble. GP's accepting new patients are very hard to find where I live, especially when they find out I have a "chronic heart condition". I've been turned down by 2 so far. Is it acceptable protocol to ask your GP for a referral to another doc because you are not happy with your current care? My current GP is hopeless when it comes to AF. It's a long story that I won't go into here, so lets just say I'm her only cardio patient, and certain things have happened over the past year that made me lose all confidence in her. Should I go ahead & ask her to refer me to someone else you think, or keep searching on my own? I've found that when I tell a potential new doc's receptionist that I'm unhappy with my current GP, they get very agressive and/or snotty, but I don't want to be in the position that I ask my GP for a referral, she drops me, and then I have NO doctor.

Any advice appreciated,
Kathleen

Kathleen, whenever you encounter a front office person who is unpleasant to deal with in any way, cross that office off your list of prospects, because the best doctor in the world is no help if you cannot get by the dragon at the door.Luck to you. Where do you live?
PeggyM

Can you call up your closest local hospital and ask for a referral? Then go and pay the $15 [online service] or so for a report to see if the doctor had any malpractice suits to his medical record.

Funny thing is, after my first major bout of AF that sent me to the ER where I was first diagnosed, they DID refer me to a GP (I hadn't been able to find one after returning to the city 2 years previous)...my current one! It was her very first year in practice and she still had openings, even though she didn't even have an office yet (was "temping" for other docs in the clinic). Like I said, GPs accepting patients are rare creatures in this town (Edmonton Canada) and I can't afford to be without one.

Kathleen isn't there a website for your town of GP's where you can probably find one that will accept you, over here we have NHS direct and can find them that way. Just type General Practitioners and the area in your search engine.

The best thing isn't to say that you wern't satisfied with previous GP, as it's like a close knit community when it come to complaining about one GP to another. She probably refused many other cardio patients as she probably not had any training in heart, which really surprises me these days.

I can't see why you should be refused because of your heart condition thats not on, especially if they ended up with it themselves.

Good luck i'm sure you will find a GP very soon.

babs

Sadly that's the way it is here. Edmonton's a bit of a boomtown with not enough professionals to go around so they are very choosy. Many will say "diabetes ONLY, or prenatal ONLY or addiction ONLY etc. The receptionists do a pre-interview over the phone (Why do you want to change, what are your medical conditions, are you on medication, will you be requiring obstetrics, etc etc) and then if they think you might be OK, they say "well, come in for an interview with the doctor and she'll see if she wants to take you on." I'm not kidding, an interview. I had to do this to get my current GP even though I had a referral from the hospital ER.

so much for nationalized health care.

Finding a new doctor can be a daunting task. I had been going to a family doctor for years and he was ok until afib showed up. It was always a fight trying to get blood tests done in order to help define the causes of my afib and assesment of stroke risk. The standard tests were no problem but getting tests for levels of Magnesium, Crp, homocysteine, fibrinogen, aldosterone, cortisol etc. he would get obstinate and argumentative about. Also he was trying to force me to take coumadin, which I refused. He made me so mad I fired him.

The search for a new physician is tough. All the really good ones are not taking patients. Their waiting rooms are already full. If you can't find one by the best method, which is a good recomendation from someone you trust, then you will have to search for one. You can start here.

[www.cpsa.ab.ca]

My doc now is ok but that may be because I've mellowed some and accept his indifferance to the afib puzzle. Besides I probably know more about it then he does. I chose him because he was close and available and the woman Doctor I wanted to see wasn't taking patients. I thought a woman would be more understanding. After reading your experience I guess that isn't the only criteria one should use.

I think it would be ok to ask for a referal. If you don't want to get one from her, try going to a medicentre or clinic and ask the doctors and nurses there who to go to. Or use the above website and find one yourself. Thats how I found my EP and I'm happy with him.

Happy Hunting

Adrian

Thanks Adrian! It's almost reassuring to know other Edmontonians have the same problem. I've checked out Capital Health and all they gave me were names of walk-in clinic docs (NOT an option) so I'll absolutely check out this other site. Your experience sounds very similar to mine....after diagnosis she immediately wanted to start me on coumadin without even a refferal to a cardiologist, and did start me on Metoprolol. I had a horrible time on this drug which at first she refused to believe, and then almost got angry when she discovered she was going to have to get a little more involved and find a different med for me. She didn't bother and referred me to a cardiologist instead. There's a heckuva lot more to the story though, and I no longer trust her.

Thanks again for the help,
Kathleen