CheckupWe you live overseas you don’t get to see your regular doctor that often. We are fortunate in that the school I work for flies us home once a year, otherwise we would be more or less stuck out here. So last year at this time we scheduled a visit with our doctor in St. Thomas that we have had since we moved there in 1979. A week before we boarded the plane to come home he cancelled on us, and closed his office for a month. No physicals for us that year.

This year, once again, Pam booked our physicals back in March so we could fit them in during my two weeks in Ontario. Last week his office let us know that our appointments had been cancelled. Those of you who live in Ontario know that this is all too common anymore, and none of us dare complain because doctors are so rare that you are fortunate if you have one at all.

So we had the work done here, and really what is the fuss all about? We went to a clinic, paid forty bucks Canadian and had the work done. For that we got a full work up, including cancer screens and a consult with a doctor on our results. I am, as I suspected, disgustingly healthy, with a BP that men half my age can only wish for and negligible cholesterol.

We really need to get on the same page back home. The model of public health that we have been clinging to doesn’t work. It is just not cost effective. Over here they run it as a business, and given a certain level of competition, that business is efficient and reliable. I’m sure OHIP back home isn’t paying out forty bucks for an annual physical.