Editor:
I read with interest the opinion piece about a doctors’ office closing without notifying patients.
I had a similar experience, so it's apparently something that happens even in "normal" times.
In my case, my excellent GP closed his family practice to devote himself to cosmetic surgery or some such, and I and my husband (and I assume his other long-time patients) were left with what became primarily a drop-in clinic, with occasional opportunities to compete for limited "new patient" spots with the doctors who came and went at that and other nearby clinics.
I only discovered this several months after the fact, when I tried to make an appointment with "my" GP and was told that he had left.
After several years without "our own" doctor and without the continuity of care that should provide, my husband and I found out that someone in downtown Vancouver was accepting patients. Since then (5 or 6 years), we have needed to travel an hour or more on transit from northeast Burnaby to see a doctor.
This kind of thing shouldn't be allowed to happen.
Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta, Burnaby
