8월10일 켈거리 헤럴드에 실린 기사입니다.
의사와 훼밀리 닥터를 만나기가 쉽지 않다는 켈거리의 현실..
이곳에서 사는한 "건강이 제일"이라는 것, 명심하시기 바랍니다.
**Calgarians travel to small towns to see doctors**
Frustrated Calgarians are travelling more than 100 kilometres to access family physicians and walk-in clinics in small towns, in a bid to beat the citywide doctor shortage.
Other patients are driving up to an hour to emergency departments outside Calgary where they can be treated and return home more quickly.
Canmore Hospital chief of staff Dr. Rick Balharry said the influx of outsiders was having a big impact "volume-wise" on hospitals in Canmore and Banff.
"Some people would rather drive out here where they might have to wait an hour, instead of the six or eight hours they would spend waiting in Calgary," he said. "A three-hour round trip can sometimes seem preferable to six hours sitting and going nowhere."
Dr. Balharry's private Canmore practice also picks up one or two new Calgary patients who are seeking a family doctor each month, but demand ensures they typically wait two to three weeks for an appointment. Medical centres in Canmore, Cochrane and High River also report increasing demand from Calgarians desperate to find a family doctor.
"We've already had four or five patients in this morning from Calgary and Cochrane," said a receptionist with a Canmore clinic that did not want to be named. "Mostly they can't get a family doctor or they can't get an appointment with their own doctor." Even the Vulcan Medical Clinic - located 1 1/2 hours southeast of Calgary - has fielded requests from would-be patients from the city. "Surprisingly some Calgarians have called, but we take people in our own county first and foremost," receptionist Jan Hurl said.
Relying on rural doctors comes as Calgary's nine walk-in Medicentres have slashed their opening hours this summer in response to the citywide doctor shortfall. But most medical centres outside Calgary - with the exception of those in Canmore and Banff - have little in the way of excess capacity. Most have typically closed their books to new patients because of doctor shortages and ballooning resident numbers in their own areas. The Alpen Medical Clinic in Cochrane, though, does have room for Calgarians.
** 켈거리에 소재한 클리닉 센터를 한군데 모았습니다.참고하시길 바랍니다.**
http://www.canoe.yellowpages.ca/business/AB/Calgary/walk+in+clinic/1%2C3/2244072.html?src=&adid=&stype=si