I accompanied my wife on every appointment she had at MRC (now called Originelle). I have to say she was silently tolerant of the issues we encountered at that clinic! I, on the other hand, had to bite hard on my tongue not to say something...
But now, I have to just vent about why we had to high-tail it away from MRC/Orgininelle...
- Waiting for Dr. Tan was like watching paint dry... long and boring (he had promised us faster service if we left McGill and went to his private clinic. So, we took the bait and, boy, were we wrong!! It's even a longer wait at MRC/Orginelle than at McGill - well, we're back at McGIll now and so happy!)
- Talking to Dr. Tan is like finger nails scratching on a chalk board... irritating. There was something about the way he spoke with us that made us feel uncomfortable about our choice of him as our fertility doctor.
- Ultrasound techs kept asking the same historical medical questions... why not just look it up in my wife's history before asking?!
- Dr. Tan NEVER remembered details of our case (ok, with lots of patients I can understand), but don't ask us to refresh your memory! Read our file that's in front of your face doctor!! Plus, it wastes time if he has to always look up your file and ask you your history - this cuts into your Q&A time and he then rushes you out.
- Forget about asking Dr. Tan about the side effects of potential medications... he'll just tell you to look it up in the blue book or on the internet - seriously, what kind of doctor tells you this? It's not very professional and in fact, it's downright lazy! Are we suppose to look it up ourselves and interpret the medical jargon correctly? A basic list of the typical side effects would have been helpful but he couldn't even do that!
- Dr. Tan was away a lot so he was not present to review our file - he relied too much on his staff to fill-in the details and that wasn't good enough for us! We needed to know that any doctor is really mindful of our case and not just looking at us like another number. It's not too much to ask for doctor who remembers your main infertility issue, is it??
- The clinic doesn't have enough medical staff to cover when Dr Tan is away - scheduling wasn't always convenient to us. Unlike other clinics that are open almost every day of the year, this clinic is usually closed over the holidays and one time they made us reschedule because of the lack of doctor availability.
- Turns out that Alper Mumcu is not a licensed doctor in Canada and he should not have done an IUI on my wife! (I'm considering filing a complaint with the medical board)
- And from what I hear from my wife's friend who still goes there (she apparently sees another doctor there) that the staff has changed a lot; She said her original coordinator has left and some of the excellent nurses are gone too. Everyone seems to be new and inexperienced. [Usually a high staff turnover means internal issues]
(And what's with that creepy fake tree in the stairway??!! Seriously, it's ugly and doesn't give any sense of calmness - lol)
I needed to do that! Ahhh... good to get that off my chest!
We've been through a lot just like all of you here have been too. It just frustrates me to see how complacent this clinic/doctor seems to be with patients....