To see a doctor in a clinic, you don't really. You call, schedule an appointment, they get you in same day.

To see your GP is a bit trickier, but generally they can get you in pretty fast when needed in my experience.

Certain other 'functions' like getting an MRI take longer. Few months on that one. I'm still waiting on mine, and it's because I'm 'low priority' now that I've been diagnosed already.

is it true that there are shortages of GPs? I have seen news stories that while healthcare, or visits to the GP are free, there is such a shortage that its difficult to find a GP to see. One news story said that the GP office holds a raffle in one town. They have been adding ONE new patient per month, by raffle. They spoke of how crowded the practice is since so many MDs want to be specialists.

We have the same issue here in NH. We have so many specialists, but not enough internal medicine, or general practice MDs. For a while when I first moved to this area, it was hard to get an appointment. To see a GP you would have to wait, and then when you got here, it was a long wait in the lounge before you got in. its better now, as they have concentrated on adding more GPs, but its still not what it could be. There is ONE single MD for this entire town of 6k people. Yes, they can go to another town, or to the hospital proper for an MD, but its still too many for one man.

Yup, that's pretty much it Dej, but I'm not sure about the raffles here. At least not in NB. There's a shortage. Bless those doctors who don't have their own practice that do the hospital AND after hours clinics.

Being an MD aint what it used to be. It used to be you could hang out a shingle, and just take care of the locals. Now you have mountains of paperwork, office staff to worry about, regulations to meet, and requirements and standards of care to be met for each patient. you get pennies on the dollar for the care you provide, and more time is spent badgering insurance companies to care for their patients, then taking care of the patients themselves.

Most practices around here are not accepting new patients. Even after older patients die off, there is no room for new ones because the hosptials they are affiliated with forced them to open the doors to more patients than they could handle. So many places you sit for an hour in the waiting room, and then an hour in the exam room before an MD finally comes in to give you 3 minutes.

Im not sure I could do that job. too many folks telling you how to run your business, and too much paperwork.

I kind of view my health insurance like my possible future social security income...not meant to pay it all but just something to augment the funds I have to kick in myself.

My insurance didn't cover LDN to begin with either, but I had an "Exception Form" filled out by my doc, and it does now.

A lot of times they just haven't caught up with what's on the market, and they just need to find a code for it.

Cherie

Well, I have my immediate manager looking into this, and the pain doc looking into it... it is ultimately my employer that elected out of this drug in particular (they pick and choose). Now as Cherie mentioned they might just be behind the times, but at the same time they could have refused for other reasons.

All else fails, I'll go to my local chapter of the MS Society over this one. I don't know many people that can afford to pay out $500+ out of pocket per month.

Give me the card and I'll grow it myself. Sheesh.

isnt it hard to light to the liquid spray

I hope it helps Laura enough is enough