Originally posted by sahibjee
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Next time, call Telehealth Ontario before going into a clinic or hospital (if the child is not bleeding or near death). You have the OHIP information, they can verify it on the phone with you. Then, they can assess (over the phone) the situation and do a referral for you. If they tell you to go to a clinic or hospital, ask them to call ahead and confirm your attendance with the child (they usually do) and then ask them to validate that the child is registered in the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) with the clinical staff there.
The intake will already be setup for when you show up, a clinican has confirmed to the clinic that there is a need for you to be there (pre-screened) and that the child in question has valid health care insurance... And this is from a government employed REGISTERED NURSE who has access to the client registry.
If Telehealth Ontario can service a caller with just the oral presentment of the OHIP number... There is no reason a clinic cannot. But, to avoid the issues with under-trained reception staff... Just call Telehealth Ontario first. You may actually find out you don't need to drag the child to the clinic.
In fact, if the other parent blabbers about in court that you didn't take the child to the doctor immediately and the nurse told you not to... Just request the medical record from Telehealth Ontario (they provide them on request) and produce the CONCRETE evidence you did call and were advised by a registered medical professional that attendance at an acute care setting was NOT needed.
Also, your child should be registered with a family doctor that is part of a family health care team. As part of the family health care team they have to be directly linked to an after hours clinic. You can then go to this clinic and the doctor on call will have access to all the necessary information regarding the child in question. In fact, the child's doctor may actually be on call or another doctor in the practice that has seen the child in the past and familiar with their medical condition.
Every child in my opinion, in the province of Ontario, should have a family practitioner of medicine who is part of a family health care team.
Leverage Telehealth Ontario. The service is great and the nurses are all really helpful. They can do a lot to help get you into the right care setting if necessary.
Good Luck!
Tayken
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