Reply #11: Community Health clinics are fine and dandy but they are limited. [View All]

[juno jones]

I go to a community clinic.


If you want or need a test that is not on their lists, you must be referred out to another private doc and will probably pay full boat.

They do not supply pain medication, muscle relaxants, etc. To get them you must go to a specialist where you might not get your sliding scale discount. Funny thing is, some of these forbidden medicines are OTC in Canada. I once had to beg for vicodin after a tooth extraction at a community clinic. I was initially told that it wasn't their habit to give that and ibuprofen should work just fine. After pulling my molar out for crissakes!

If a clinic is administered by a religious/faith-based charity you might not get the full spectrum of health options at your disposal, this is especially true for women.

Many of these clinics have dental facilities-sounds great, but most adults can only access them in emergencies. There is pretty much no preventative care availiable after the age of 18.

The medical departments won't take emergencies and tell you flat-out to go to the ER, making the ER once again the fall back for the poor suffering from minor infections and injuries much more economically dealt with in a clinic setting.

Caveat: Perhaps community clinics are just bitchin' in other necks of the woods, but this is what I've observed personally so far.


Unless community clinics are held to certain standards ensuring parity of care with people insured by the private sector we would simply be creating, and codifying, a two-tiered health system. They may be better than nothing but they don't replace single-payer by a long shot.