Choosing to practise telemedicine

Dr Ladouceur’s editorial¹ outlines the very awkward position in which many patients have found themselves during the pandemic.

The most telemedicine I practised in my office during these past months has been 20% per day, with most days less than 10%. We have been careful to follow the guidelines that were appropriately developed and we were happy to be there for all our frightened, lonely, and sick patients in need of care.

I also work in the emergency department about 15 hours a week. There, I have seen and managed situations involving varying degrees of consequences on both morbidity and mortality, because physicians—not patients!—chose to practise telemedicine. These patients understandably felt abandoned by their caregivers.

I have felt quite embarrassed by a lot of the telemedicine practised within my profession during this pandemic. I sincerely hope fees will rapidly decrease to roughly one-third of on-site visits. This should go a long way toward fixing the problem.

Merci, Dr Ladouceur.

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