Dr. Welby retires

Do you remember Dr^s will be?

For those who don't have gray hair, D^s Welby was the hero of an American series that tells the adventures of a family doctor.

He was not just a doctor: he was a saint.

With his younger colleague, who rode a cool motorcycle (and who made all the female viewers sigh and say to themselves: “If I had a doctor like him, I would need mouth-to-mouth resuscitation every week”), the kind Dr.^s Welby visited his patients regularly.

Listen to them, examine them and solve all their personal problems.

He was a doctor, a priest, a psychologist, a friend and a father.

family friend

I thought of Dr. Welby on Tuesday as I was reading Héloïse Archambault's text about those family doctors in the Laurentians who retire with a heavy heart at the thought of abandoning their patients.

“Wow, are there still doctors like this? I thought to myself. Doctors who wear their hearts on their sleeves?

Because, let's be honest, when you follow the news, it sometimes seems like most doctors are more concerned with their wallets or their next round of golf than they are with their patients.

Yes, I know, it's a cliche and a stereotype, just like the alcoholic journalist who should never be contacted after 2pm because he will be completely unconscious.

But that's the idea we sometimes have as doctors.

“Give me your sun card, tchik-a-tchik, thank you, hello!”

It is good to remember that there are still disciples of D^s He meets in the profession.

I was talking about this, in a cup, with Dr^s Benoît Hippel, family doctor at CIUSSS de l'Estrie-CHUS.

How important it is to have a family doctor who has known us and followed us for years. We tell him things we wouldn't even say to our partner!

“Sometimes,” D told me.^s Heppell, I'm the only person my patients see in a month. There is a lot of loneliness, abandoned people… I bought shoes for some of my patients…'

“Make time for yourself”

The lack of family doctors poses a risk to physical health, but also to mental health.

It is reassuring to know that we have a doctor watching over us.

“D” told me: “There are ancient doctors who helped women give birth… and then helped their daughters give birth 20 years later.”^s Hebel. They know all the family history!

This is likely to happen less and less.

Because young people, says Benoit Heppell, have another relationship with work.

What is important now for many young doctors is to “feel good”. To have “their time.” The famous “work-life balance”.

“Now, I have some news for them,” D said to me.^s Hipple. Medicine requires a lot of your time! If we use a perhaps outdated term, it is a profession. These young people will leave the profession after 20 years!

And there will be no more of the old D^s will be.

Unfortunately…