by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
“Dear Valued Patient. . .”
I opened the envelope, unfolded the letter inside – and stopped breathing. I’ve known this day would come ever since my family doctor had to start working part-time a few years ago for family reasons. But still, I could barely comprehend the blur of words on the page:
“Dear Valued Patient. . .retiring from active practice. . .my last day will be . . .”
It had finally happened to me. Just like that, I’d joined the endless line-up of almost one million people here in British Columbia who do not have a family doctor. Continue reading “Dear Valued Patient: “Bye-Bye!””
Many years before I finally left a decades-long professional relationship with my family physician, I had observed distressing changes in her practice. I didn’t say anything about these changes at first. They began with her new all-cash medical aesthetics clinic (think: nonstop before-and-after Botox videos looping in every exam room).
I recently had the honour of being invited to be the guest lecturer at a university class of young students learning about chronic illness. (The word “young”, of course, is relative, since almost everybody on earth is now so much younger than I am). These students were absolutely terrific – enthusiastic, smart, full of questions and ideas about healthcare. But about halfway through our 3-hour class together, I began to observe a pattern in the way some of them approached their small group exercise assignment. 
Heart Sisters 