My husband's choice for general practitioner was not my initial choice.  However, given my disappointment with the ability of my first-choice physician over the two years I had given my health and medical condition over to her care (on the retirement of our old doctor who had seen to our family's health needs over forty years), I decided to seek professional support elsewhere.  Although my husband's doctor had long since closed his practise to new patients, on enquiry he agreed to an interview with me.

During the interview, in response to his query, I first spoke of the lack of diagnostic acuity evidenced by my doctor's failure to identify symptoms I presented with as harbingers of chronic heart-related problems that had become so acute I admitted myself the day following her examination to the emergency department of our major general hospital.  Where my condition was considered to be so alarming I was immediately surrounded by doctors, tests taken and I was installed for a five-day stay at the Heart Institute.

That, with my more recent disappointment at her lack of commitment to providing what appeared to me to be basic medical care, referring me on to an Urgent Care Centre for treatment she should have provided, led me to the conclusion I could no longer rely on her for the professional medical attention anyone should expect of a general practitioner.

The interview was such that I supplied the doctor with all the relevant details I could muster with respect to my state of health as a 75-year-old woman who is physically fit, energetic and committed to prolonging quality of life as long as possible.  Smoking was a concern to him, an exercise regimen as well, and in both areas I fit the bill, having never smoked, and physical activity representing an important part of our daily routine.

We spoke casually of much aside from my medical history which in fact has been extremely sparse over the years, other than the revelations of the last two years that I have high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels, a very worrisome combination.  With a low degree of arteriosclerosis, all conditions which are being monitored annually by a cardiologist, and for which a prescription drug protocol has been established.

And now, I have a new personal physician.  A young man, who received his training in the United States and decided to settle in Canada, from his origins in Eastern Europe.  A frank, practical individual who assured me that he was eminently accessible; I need only to call and he would make himself available either that same day or the day following.

Unlike my previous doctor, there will be no need for him to see me personally just for prescription renewals; they can be done through other arrangements with the pharmacy that has had my family's prescription records over the years.  And it is my intention to call upon the professional services of my new doctor as infrequently as possible, confident that infrequent calls will be all that will be required.