CM S.
1/5
First off, I just wanted to make a disclaimer and say that I love my doctor. This review is not at all indicative of the level of care I receive from Dr. Fidele Bana - in fact if there’s one positive I can impart on anyone who reads this review, it’s that Dr. Bana is an incredible healthcare worker. He’s attentive no matter how many patients he has to see in a day, he’s patient and diligent, and he treats you with dignity and respect.
My issue lies with the receptionists. Considering the insane workload that those in the healthcare industry take on, I’m not expecting a bright, sunshine-y attitude and I don’t fault the women at the front desk for being a little curt or impersonal at times (although in my opinion doctors and NPs deal with more complex issues and yet they’re able to maintain a respectful dialogue, so take that as you will) but it’s the lack of accountability that I fault them for.
Twice now when my pharmacy has needed to send in a refill request for my bipolar medication I’ve been given the run around and to add insult to injury, have been made to feel like I was personally responsible for their screwups. Their recommendation is that you give them at least a week to respond, yet the first time I encountered friction they had TWO ENTIRE WEEKS and multiple phone calls from both me and my partner (who had to step in on my behalf because of how frustrated I was becoming) as well as my pharmacy urging them to please respond to the request. At no point during this wild goose chase was there any contrition on their behalf, and considering the medication I need is incredibly important and comes with some nasty side effects, this is unacceptable.
I’d informed Dr. Bana about this experience and he was very apologetic even though it wasn’t his fault, and the next time he faxed over my prescription he had me stay in the office while he did so in order to make sure it went through to my pharmacy. He informed me that if I didn’t get a call from them in the next couple of hours to confirm that they received my prescription, to please call him back. Luckily that wasn’t necessary but the level of care and concern from my doctor should be highlighted as it’s a shame it isn’t also reflected in the staff upfront.
I know they’ve had complaints before about their so-called “attitudes” but as I stated earlier I don’t fault front-facing employees for not being “on” all the time as they’re human beings who certainly have to deal with quite a lot, and I imagine patients are not always kind to them. My compassion ends is when they don’t follow through, have the audacity to suggest the patient is at fault for their screw-ups, and then offer little in recourse even if just to apologize.
The lack of accountability is quite frankly insulting and worse still is that they’ll even lie to avoid it:
1. They’ll tell you that faxes typically take 24 to 48 hours to be received despite this no longer being the 1980s. Faxes take at most 15 minutes and even then that’s for huge multi-page contracts.
2. They’ll tell you that your doctor was away from office for a couple of weeks only for your doctor to inform you that no, he was absolutely in the office during that time and as such was more than able to sign off on the request.
And my favourite line of bullshit:
3. They’ll tell you that they’ll send back the request that day only for your pharmacy to receive not a single fax from them.
I think the most troubling aspect of this all is that we go to Wabano because of the way indigenous people are routinely disregarded, dehumanized, and degraded by the healthcare system, so you’d think that this clinic would be a relative safe space by comparison. But sadly that isn’t the case, and in some ways it feels worse being treated this way as it’s done by your own people. As the saying goes: Not all skin folk is kinfolk.
In short, the one star is entirely because of Dr. Bana and if we were basing the rating solely on him it’d be five stars. If he ever opens his own practice I’ll be the first to leave Wabano in the dust.
