I had yearly exams here for about 9 years, and always waited for over an hour, several times more than 2 hours. I know that emergency cases can upset a schedule, but it is clear that Dr. Macintosh is overbooking and cranking out/billing patients as quickly as possible. Her manner is brusque, to put it kindly. Many of the patients are elderly (not to mention vision-impaired), and I've seen them get shunted, hurriedly, in and out of her exam room with no sensitivity to their frailties. I've had to make a future appointment (ka-ching) for a simple, 2-minute procedure (not requiring the Dr.) that could have easily been conducted while I was there. I've never even had an actual conversation with the Dr., just a hurried, 3-4 minute exam, followed by her indicating the door and summoning the next patient. The waiting room is the gloomiest I've ever seen, crammed with sorry, old mismatched chairs - never enough, given the wait time and sheer volume of hapless patients. Furnishings look like they were salvaged from the alley, incl. a fake-wood framed trifold mirror from a 70's bedroom dresser, inexplicably pinned to a wall. Old, dusty magazines (the 'free' ones) are stacked here and there, among other detritus. Come on, surely there's some room in the budget to make it look presentable?
After (finally) requesting a new referral from my GP, I asked Dr. Macintosh's staff if I could sign the official form releasing my records to the new Opthalmologist. They resisted, muttering something about the records being the property of Dr. Macintosh's office (they are, but by law they must be released to the patient). I insisted, so they, rather reluctantly, proferred a form which I signed and then very expressly confirmed with them that it would be 'in my file'. I made several follow-up calls over the next 2 months, asking if my records had been transferred, and each time they gave me vague assurances that Dr. Macintosh still had to approve them, but that it 'would happen'. Guess what? They never got sent in advance for my appointment with the new Dr., so he had no choice but to do a thorough exam and history, duplicating some tests that I'd already had within the last year (conducted, by the way, with a professionalism and efficiency that was dazzling by comparison. Plus there was a clean and comfortable waiting area, and a happy and very professional staff).
When I called MacIntosh's office the next day, they told me that there was no signed approval in my file. The phone was passed around and all concurred that I must have been mistaken about signing it. Now I'm left wondering if there's even any file at all. I'm not blaming the staff - they're just following orders, and they are definitely not treated respectfully by their boss (you see a lot when you're cooling your heels for hours). They're even more beleaguered than her patients.
I'd like to note that I appreciate how lucky we are to have 'socialized' medical care here in Canada, but it saddens me to see our system being exploited like this. read more