| Canadian Doctors Being Paid
To Diagnose Swine Flu By Phone
As Canadian health officials entrench the medical community
with more flu propaganda, Physicians across the country are being
asked to extend their office hours, defer annual checkups and
increase capacity for a second wave of flu patients. The B.C.
Medical Association has even agreed to be paid for diagnosing
swine flu over the phone.
Provinces such as B.C., Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba have launched
initiatives to discourage or delay face-to-face diagnosis of the
H1N1 swine flu while still increasing capacity.
"The expectation is that primary care providers will modify
their practice to increase capacity to see flu patients,"
states a letter from Dr. Barbara Yaffe, associate medical officer
of health for Toronto.
Doctors are being urged to see patients with influenza-like illnesses
at the end of the day. They are also being asked to postpone non-urgent
visits and screen patients for influenza over the phone or as
they enter the office. This is assumed to help "infection-control
measures intended to protect other patients" they say.
People suffering from flu symptoms are being urged to stay home
and call Telehealth.
PreventDisease.com recently reported that flu
kits being marketed by Ontario's pharmacies also encouraged
the public to contact Telehealth to have their condition diagnosed
over the telephone by call handlers with little or no medical
training. Call
centre misdiagnoses promoting antivirals have recently caused
several fatalities in the UK.
In B.C., Doctors will receive a $14.74 payment for telephone
advice regarding the flu and a $31.15 fee for office visits.
Provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall says both new codes
offer increased access to care and the option of telephone advice
is a sensible alternative to having swine flu patients visit a
doctor's office.
Family physicians and specialists have been able to claim for
H1N1 telephone advice since Oct. 1, but the office visit fee code
won't be enacted until Kendall advises that swine flu cases have
outstripped seasonal flu cases.
Public health officials in B.C. were recently exposed engaging
in cover-up operation to conceal flu origins. The provincial
public health lab in Vancouver instructed doctors to stop sending
swabs indicating that all flu symptoms were automatically being
categorized as the H1N1 virus.
Meanwhile, skeptical Canadians who doubt the effectiveness of
the H1N1 vaccine will look intently at the United States who began
to vaccinate its citizens against swine flu on Monday, a full
month ahead
of scheduled Canadian vaccination campaigns.
The U.S. is one of the first countries to roll out its portion
of what may be an unprecedented effort to immunize upwards of
a billion people around the world over the next few months.
Mother of two, Jody White says "I'm very hestiant to give
this swine flu vaccine to my kids in light of all the controversy."
White stated she won't blindly follow her doctor's advice, but
will instead interact more with her community and monitor reports
on any side effects of the H1N1 vaccine experienced by Americans
to help her decide.
Reference Sources: healthzone.ca
October 7, 2009
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