Sitting in a consult room of the Fredericton After Hours Clinic, I’m reminded of Dahlia, the five-year-old daughter of the man I’m currently billeting with.

Flashback. It’s a Saturday morning and she bounces into my room yelling, “Wake up Bron! Let’s play doctor!” I somewhat grudgingly agree although my sleep deprived brain isn’t fully aware of what I’m agreeing to. She pulls out her box with her plastic stethoscope, toy syringe and band-aids and starts to come up with the most creative cures for each mundane illness I come up with. A bad stomach ache was cured by drinking a cup of water, putting a Dora the Explorer band-aid on my hand and then reading her cinderella en Français.  I wish my real medical care had been that good.

There is a huge deficit of New Brunswick doctors. On top of being one of the overall poorest provinces in Canada, about 1/10 people here don’t have a family doctor. The walk-in clinics here are crowded.

This had been my second try to come and see a doctor. The first, I had been turned away ten minutes before the clinic even opened, and told that they had already accepted all the patients they could take for the night. I was shocked. Never once had I been turned away from a clinic like this. Have I waited four hours to see a doctor? Yes. But to be turned away entirely? This was something new. I was told to be more than an hour early, in order to ensure a spot on the list for the night.

Take two. I show up an hour and a half early. When the desk finally opens, people swarm it. I am still only number six on the list, despite haveing been among the first there.

Sitting in the consult room, the nurse asks me why I’m there. “I need a new prescription for anti-malarials.” She leaves and the doctor comes in. Here’s where it turns back to make-believe.

“So…your here for…[looks at chart] oh…[looks confused]…”

“I need a new prescription for an anti malarial. The last one kept me awake for three days.”

[Doctor gives me a blank stare.]

She finally speaks.  ”Oh umm…Anti-malarials…Do you know any?”

“Okay! Let’s play doctor! I’m the doctor and you’re the patient!”

Alright, so I didn’t really say that. I wish I did though. I was surprised and frankly confused. While I don’t expect every run-of-the-mill doctor to be an expert on tropical disease, I do expect them to have some basic knowlege. It seems to me that malaria is extremely common in many parts of the world and even simple Canadian doctors should know something about it. At very least, they should try to make themselves look good!  After the above incident the doctor left for ten minutes. I suspect it was to go google it in the back room.  Too bad she didn’t try that earlier.