I got a call last week from Dr. Kevin Koopman of Cowrie Medical Clinic, asking to do a follow-up on the clinic offering Saturday walk-in hours. While the expanded service has been well-used, he reports that clinic staff have been faced with rude comments from people frustrated when the clinic is full, or when it is closed because of holidays.
“I wish I could accommodate everybody that had a request but that isn’t, unfortunately, reality,” said Koopman, noting that there are more than 5,000 patients unattached to doctors on the Coast and so one doctor offering 15-minute appointments between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Saturdays isn’t nearly enough to see everyone. (Cowrie offers the only Saturday clinic on the Coast.) But frustrations are misdirected when they’re toward staff. “Some of the comments toward our staff have really just been awful to hear,” he said. “And if it continues, we’ll just shut down the clinic altogether on Saturdays.”
It’s easy to underestimate the impact of our words (a cruel email that hits the right nerve can ruin one’s day) and easy to forget how our frustrations affect others. We need to remember this in the ferry lineup as much as in the doctor’s office.
There is nothing fun about this health care crisis – as someone without a doctor, as someone who has family members without doctors, I’m there with you. But direct your frustration in a constructive way and toward people who can do something about it (the province and other political players).
I spent several hours this week reading the Sunshine Coast Housing and Social Needs Assessment that lays out the stressed workforce situation – we don’t need to risk that further by abusing front-line workers. We need them all. And they all – we all – deserve respect.
