Nunavut needs permanent resident pediatrician

Pediatric residents complain about having to come to Iqaluit. (“Doctors’ newspaper paints unattractive portrait of Nunavut,” Nunatsiaq News, Jan. 21) As a parent, I don’t want them here. We need a permanent pediatrician.

When young children have to be taken in to see the pediatric resident, provided there is one at the time, we have to deal with a different person each time. And each time we have to go through the same spiel of giving patient history.

Once this is done, the follow up care is poor, because one resident doesn’t know what the previous resident has done, even with a file in front of them.

As for their living conditions, doctors should remember that they are coming to work in a territory that is, in many ways, akin to a Third World country. If they want to live in luxury, they should pay for it, not us.

Like so many transient government workers, the doctors appear to just want to make their fortune and run without contributing to the improvement of health care in the community.

With the high turnover rate of doctors, it feels like a cattle call when it comes time to see the doctor. I know the doctor I see one week will not be the same one I see the next time I go, so why bother establishing a good doctor-patient relationship?

Recently, I learned that five years worth of different doctors consistently failed to read a simple thyroid function test correctly. It took Dr. Stubbing to notice that I’ve been on the wrong dose of medication for all those years.

Thank goodness for caring, long-term doctors like Dr. Stubbing. He is the kind of general practitioner that we need. Other doctors should aspire to the dedication and commitment he has shown Nunavummiut.

(Name withheld by request)
Iqaluit