As with everything else in life, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. I don't care if they have cancellation lists, those spots get filled by parents who call in every week or so to remind them that they will take the soonest available no matter how early or late that appointment is. I have never ever been called for a cancellation even though I ask at every opportunity to be put on the cancellation list. I only have gotten a cancellation spot when I called the doctor each week. It often takes a month or two of calling to get that spot, but it only takes a minute or two to call and ask, Know what I mean????
I usually put it on my calendar on Mon or Tues mornings, and make sure my phone calendar is set with a ringer to remind me to call at 8:15-8:45, somewhere in there.
I don't think that all of the cancellation spots I have gotten were true cancellations - I am sure that at least some were because they saw I was not going away until my child was seen.
I would put ZERO stock into the psychiatric hospital scheduling follow up care. We have had multiple hospitalizations, psychiatric hospital and medical hospital, and we have NEVER had them make an appointment as part of the follow up care. We were always told that our doctor was told that we would be calling to make an appointment and we would get the very first available appointment. That was NEVER with-in 2 weeks. For medical issues it was with-in a month or two, and for psychiatric hospital issues that appointment was often six months out. That is why I would start scheduling the calls and calling every week.
Be prepared because it there are problems you are going to have to do the psychiatric hospital or ER route for care. It is what it is, and no hating it will change it.
I odn't know about Canada, but here docs come out of residency with six figure school debt and they end up in things like plastic surgery and other high end specialties because they have such huge payments to make each month. I wish we could put programs like some rural states have into practice everywhere. The town ponies up the money to get a doctor through training and then this is repaid by five or ten years of medical practice in that town. If the doctor refuses to go practice in that town, they end up paying every dollar back, due immediately and NOT on a schedule - the whole amt is due right away. It gets doctors into very rural areas and they have a big commitment to honor. I think we need to do that more, because at least n the states it is common for docs to have half a million in debt the day they are able to open their own practice. That is a big scary amount of money, Know what I mean????
Keep on pestering - it truly will get the appointment that you need, and usually nothing else will. Also call after hours when you have problems. Usually they will either have a message to call a number to contact the doctor, or they will transfer you to a nurse line and you tell the nurse what is wrong and the nurse can call the doctor. There were nights that I called that number three or four times - I just would wait half an hour or so and then call again until I got some answer.
You do have to pay attention as you call because some things will have them just send you to a psychiatric hospital. So you learn over time what to say and not to say to give the right amt of squeak.
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