Incompetency at its finest

This post may be long. I need to process all this and writing is my best way of doing that.

For our New Zealand residency applications, we need to have extensive medical forms filled out. This includes physicals and for Colin and me, blood work and chest x-rays. We found out we needed to do all this back in September. We phoned every doctor in this area and none would take us. Finally, we phoned a doctor in Saskatoon. They agreed. We made sure they understood that these were 16 page forms and would be very time-consuming with all 4 of us. That was fine.

October 9. We head to Saskatoon. The doctor is extremely rushed. He barely waits for our answers before ticking boxes on the forms. The whole time we were there, I got a very bad feeling about him, like he wasn't truly understanding how vital this all was. We left the office and left the forms with the nurses up front, expressing very clearly how important it was to be filled out correctly and sent back to us ASAP. We knew we'd have to wait a little bit for the blood results, but it was still early, so we weren't too concerned.

A couple weeks go by. We've heard nothing. I call the doctor's office and ask where things are at. They aren't finished with them, but will send them as soon as they are. We call a week later. They say they'll be in the mail. We wait over a week. Still not here. I get antsy and phone again. They've been sent. Yesterday, they're here! I think my day is made! Until I open the envelope.

The forms are all in random order, completely disorganized. The blood work forms and x-ray forms are all there and dated only a FEW DAYS after we were there. The passport pictures we provided, that were supposed to be attached to the forms and signed, were all just put into an envelope. They obviously didn't listen to a word we said. The whole form was exactly as we had left it 5 weeks earlier. No added signatures, no information filled in. Nada! I am LIVID!!! We are already SO late in applying for residency. I'm already freaking out that we aren't going to have the papers in time for us to travel.

So, I call the doctor's office and tell them the problem. They are stone-cold on the phone, not apologizing, not even asking questions to clarify. I ask if the doctor will be in the next day. She said yes. I said I would be there and he will complete these forms in my presence. Next, I call the Saskatchewan College of Physicians and Surgeons and talk to someone in the complaints department. I tell her the story and ask for advice. She says to go in and let him know I've contacted them. There are definite guidelines for doctors in filling out paperwork in a timely manner and she would be happy to send them to him. She told me to call back after my meeting with the doctor and let her know how things go.

So, I pack my kids up this morning at 8am, and drive an hour and a half to get to this doctor's office. I thankfully have my God-send of a mother-in-law with me to watch the kids while I go in. I can't imagine confronting this doctor while wrangling my busy boys. Colin is working, otherwise he would have come.

My heart is pounding as I go in. I tell the nurse I am there to get the doctor to complete my forms. I'm told to sit. I sit for a couple minutes. I can tell she just wanted me to sit to show me "who's boss". I wait for a minute or two and then go and stand by the counter and ask, "How long will he be?" She takes my forms and leads me into one of the exam rooms. The doctor comes in and acts all casual and normal, like it's no big deal that he didn't complete the forms correctly. I show him all the sections that need filling in. He spends an exorbitant amount of time converting pounds and feet into kilograms and centimetres. And keeps leaving the office and coming back to look at a chart to help him. And then gets it wrong several times, crossing things out and basically making our forms look sloppy and awful.

Finally, he finishes and I tell him I feel he's been very disrespectful to me and my family, and has wasted my valuable time and resources in coming in. His job was to return these forms in a timely manner and he immediately starts talking over me. He refuses to listen to me. He turns it around and starts telling me some cockamamie bull about how I should have come in. I try to explain where he went wrong but he clearly won't hear it and actually stands and starts backing me out the door. I tell him that I have contacted the College of Physicians and Surgeons and he says, "I don't give a damn". By this time, he has "herded" me out to the waiting area and I firmly tell him that he has been extremely unprofessional and he gives me a look that could kill and motions toward the patients sitting there and, through gritted teeth, says, "Don't talk!" I said, "I WILL talk."

I still shake as I think about it. I am trying to get ahold of the College of Physicians and Surgeons to let them know how it went and to get their advice on whether this warrants a formal complaint.

I don't think I have ever encountered such incompetence, such ignorance, and such disrespect. This will leave a bad taste in my mouth for a very long time.