On any given day, between rounds at Western Memorial Regional Hospital and visits to his Corner Brook clinic, Dr. Mark Smallwood sees upwards of 45 patients.
He is the main source of their health care, an important cog in the health-care wheel.
But lately he’s feeling disheartened and that the work he and other family doctors do is being undervalued. And it’s all because of comments made by someone Smallwood said should know better.
In a story published by the CBC on Jan. 2 Health Minister John Haggie is quoted as saying the province could use nurse practitioners in place of family doctors.
Haggie’s comments go further to say that a large part of the work of family doctors
can be done by nurse practitioners and, in some ways, produce better results.
“At a time when leadership should be looking towards trying to unite people to come up with a better plan for health care it’s a divisive comment,” said Smallwood on Thursday.
And it erroneously represents what family doctors do.
“I’m not just dealing with coughs and colds all day.”
He said most of his stress and complexity is doing rounds in the hospital for an hour and half before getting into the clinic and then seeing complicated patients who come in with multiple medical issues.
And his work doesn’t end when patients walk out the door.
There’s charts to be completed, follow-up tests to be ordered and contact made with other specialists to ensure the issues his patients are dealing with are addressed.
“Much more complexity than simply getting a nurse practitioner to deal with Problem A and tie a bow on it and finish it.
“There’s so much more to it,” he said.
As someone who was in the health-care field, Smallwood said Haggie, a former surgeon, should have a better understanding of the complexity of care and the vital role that family medicine has in patient care.
“And just to simply say that that’s replaceable, that someone else can do a better job, is extremely, I think, embarrassing for him to say that.”
Smallwood also said there is no proof that using nurse practitioners in day-to-day care is more cost effective.
Smallwood said Haggie’s comments strike a chord with all his colleagues who are working their tails off to do a good job, to balance their own lives and make sure things don’t slip through the cracks and the pressure to do all that.
He said family doctors feel there can be changes in the system to make it work better and would happily have nurse practitioners work as part a team.
But he’s concerned Haggie’s comments mandate there will be change and it will come without consulting with family doctors.
“It’s not the way problems are going to be solved.”
