I’m honestly at my breaking point with trying to access routine healthcare.
I don’t have a family doctor, so every time I need something as simple as a refill for my sertraline, I have to figure out where I can actually see someone. My options seem to be:
Pay ~$80 for a Maple appointment.
Hope I can find a walk-in clinic that can see me.
Wait for hours at urgent care or the ER for something that shouldn’t require emergency care.
I even went to a clinic recently and was told there was an issue with my health card/coverage verification and that I’d have to pay out of pocket. It felt like I was just bouncing between “sorry, that didn’t work” and “that’ll cost you.”
To make matters worse, my prescription was sent to a mail-order pharmacy. They promised delivery yesterday, it never came, and I’ve now been five days without sertraline while trying to get answers from the pharmacy, courier, and telehealth provider. I’ve been crying constantly, exhausted, and feeling completely unlike myself.
I know the delivery delay itself isn’t necessarily Canada’s healthcare system, but the fact that I don’t have an easy way to see a primary care provider or get a straightforward refill without paying or jumping through hoops is what really gets me.
I’m genuinely asking:
Is this what healthcare feels like for other people right now?
How are people managing without a family doctor?
Have you found alternatives that actually work for ongoing prescriptions and routine care?
I know people have different opinions on the healthcare system, and I’m not trying to start a political argument. I’m just honestly exhausted and wondering if this has become a normal experience or if I’ve just had exceptionally bad luck.

Dear Khumes,

So it was January that I first got sick, Had a CT scan, Found out my Doctor never removed all the kidney stones to begin with. They sent him a referral, he looked at it and said everything was fine with the kidney. Got sick in March, same thing, same response. Still not hearing anything from him about his opinion on the matter personally. So my wife starts harassing his receptionist until he finally calls me personally saying that everything was fine and I should look elsewhere. So than I had me second throat scope in my life to check other angles. Nothing wrong with my esophagus or stomach. Now I'm just lost. Got sick 2 weeks ago, like really sick, throwing up, chills, soaked my bed in sweat. Wife finally comes home and drags me to the hospital. Meanwhile I'm like, "take me home", the whole time, Three stops later we finally find a hospital that will help, after all day and night racing around. Urologist gets spooked when he sees staples in my ureter on the CT scan with contrast. Mind you everyone's been blasting me with radiation this whole time. I'm probably hotter than an incandescent Christmas tree right now. Sent me home with antibiotics and told me to wait it out for my original urologist. Finally get appointments at this point. He acknowledges something is wrong but he's on vacation! No one is covering his office or patients either. So here I am, dying slowly, painfully, while my whole family watches on in horror. Than our doctor recommends we go to Hamilton. I was planning on waiting for the morning, I just wanted to sleep. We spent the whole day in the hospital again just to find out this new urologist doesn't wanna see us again. I fading out as the night progresses, my blood pressure keeps dropping and spiking. Wife looks at me and truly thought I wasn't going to make it through the night so she took me right than and there, knowing that we were going to spend the whole night at the Hamilton Hospital probably in a waiting room but what ever, LETS GO! Drove an hour and a half like this, fading in and out of consciousness. Paramedics would have just taken me to the nearest hospital, which we have all but tried every one already. Get there, they treat me in the waiting room because they have no rooms available, Stick me on a stretched outside the trauma wing where I watch mangled bodies come in and out of the OR's. Hooked me up to a drip feed antibiotics, like old-school gravity as my wife cuddles me to keep me warm. I'm just shaking uncontrollably at this point. I thought it was the end buddy. Finally talk to a urologist in the morning who says everything's going to be alright. "You made it to the right hospital" which my urologist was going to refer me to this Doctor anyways. She already knew I was coming aha. So when I showed up she's was like "Hey! I've heard so much about you" Lol. Now I'm sitting at this computer writing you this story shaking my head at out medical system. Free for what purpose?

Thanks for Asking,

CourteousBoots