Via The Canadian Press:
WINNIPEG — A Manitoba lesbian couple rejected by a family doctor from Egypt for religious reasons says Canada must better educate foreign-trained physicians.
Andrea Markowski said she and her partner Ginette were stunned when the Winnipeg doctor told them during a "meet-and-greet" appointment she was uncomfortable accepting them as patients and had never treated "people like you" before.
The doctor said she only treated "husbands and wives," said Markowski, who is legally married to her partner of 18 years.
"It was like a kick in the stomach," said Markowski, who just moved to the city from the Northwest Territories. "It was definitely a traumatic and unexpected experience ... She is a doctor who is paid with public funds.
"I have a really hard time understanding how her religion affects her ability to care for me as a human being."
The couple have lodged a complaint with the province's human rights commission and the Manitoba College of Physicians and Surgeons.
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms ensures no one can be denied health care on the grounds of sexual orientation, Markowski pointed out. The bodies regulating doctors in Canada must therefore take more responsibility to ensure foreign-trained physicians are ready to practise here, she added.
"We've stumbled upon a pretty serious problem and we want to make sure that it gets fixed. In some ways you feel a bit like a prisoner. There are so few doctors, it's hard to see one, but they still are accountable to provide good service," Markowski said.
"The College of Physicians and Surgeons in Manitoba and other places in Canada has to broaden the way that it assesses the skills - particularly of foreign doctors who may be coming from places where beliefs and norms are quite different - to make sure that they really are able to practise the physical, mental and emotional care of patients."
Dr. Kamelia Elias did not return phone calls seeking comment. But she told the Winnipeg Free Press that she has no experience treating gays and lesbians who have "sexual problems" and "a lot of diseases and infections."
"I said it's better to find someone who has experience and will take this type of patients," she told the newspaper.
Gay-rights organizations are calling for better programs specifically aimed at nipping prejudice in the bud.
The registrar of Manitoba's physicians college said foreign-trained doctors do undergo an orientation before they can practise in the province. Bill Pope said doctors coming from other countries suffer from culture shock when they come to Canada. Some of them have never done a pelvic exam on a woman or put on a plastic cast, he said.
"How much of a change do you think it would be if you or I were put down somewhere in a Muslim Arabic country or Uzbekistan? It would be a shock," Pope said. "We would hope that we would be forewarned about areas where we could potentially create problems without our knowing it."
The province's college has recently extended its orientation for foreign-trained doctors from one week to a month, he said. There is also some discussion of holding a session with the Manitoba Human Rights Commission so doctors get a briefing of the expectations of them under the charter.
The head of Canada's gay-rights organization said transgendered people are sometimes denied health care. But Helen Kennedy with EGALE said this is the first instance she's heard of involving a lesbian.
As the number of foreign-trained doctors in Canada increases, it's incumbent upon colleges and the country's Immigration Department to ensure they accept gay, lesbian and transgendered patients, she said.
"This is really sad. It really shows a bigger problem with people who are medically trained coming to Canada from other cultures. There is nothing in place to assist them to make the adjustment and to get the training that they need when they come here."
Still others say all doctors would benefit from a better understanding of gay and lesbian health issues.
"All physicians need to get more training on this," said Gens Hellquist, executive director of the Canadian Rainbow Health Coalition. "What little they get tends to be focused on HIV and AIDS, which is only one of the range of health issues."
Read it here. Also, read about it at No Apologies:
Lesbian “human rights” complaint against Manitoba doctorAnd via the Winnipeg Free Press:
Lesbians a mystery to city MD, by Jen Skerritt:
A same-sex couple has filed a human rights complaint against a south Winnipeg doctor, claiming she refused to take them as patients and told them she doesn't know how to treat lesbians.
Andrea and Ginette Markowski, who recently moved to Winnipeg from Yellowknife, were stunned last week when a family doctor at Lakewood Medical Centre suggested the couple look for another physician since homosexuality violates her religious beliefs.
The legally married couple also claim the doctor said she has no experience treating lesbians.
Andrea Markowski said she and her partner of 18 years made an appointment with Dr. Kamelia Elias after they heard she was accepting new patients. She said Elias started to take the couple's medical history and asked how long the women had been together -- at which point, the doctor told them she's never treated lesbians before.
Markowski said she asked Elias whether treating a same-sex couple was a problem for her, and alleges Elias said yes.
Elias told the Free Press she has no experience treating lesbians and gays who sometimes have "sexual problems" and other diseases. Elias practised medicine in Egypt before spending four years in Steinbach and said she's never treated gays or lesbians in her two decades as a physician.
"They get a lot of diseases and infections," Elias said during a phone interview. "I didn't refuse to treat them, I said it's better to find someone who has experience and will take this type of patients. There (are) some doctors who can treat them."
Shelly Smith, executive director of Rainbow Resource Centre, said lesbians actually have lower rates of sexually transmitted infections, which are more commonly transmitted by men. However, she said gynecological health is still important for women in same-sex relationships and that rates of breast cancer tend to be higher among lesbians since they may not bear children.
The couple has filed a complaint with the Manitoba Human Rights Commission and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba.
"We were so shocked," Andrea said. "It's kind of ironic. We came to the big city to get discriminated against."
Manitoba doctors can accept or refuse a patient based on their current patient load, but can't discriminate based on race, gender, sexual orientation or anything else enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Read the rest here.Ok, let's get this straight. So a physician, one among many, wasn't comfortable with having these two women as patients, and this ruffled their feathers enough that they went to the Manitoba Human Rights Commission? Wouldn't they rather go to a doctor who would be comfortable treating them? Who could administer to their needs more properly? Wouldn't that be better not only for the doctor, but for the patients as well? And is this doctor the only one in that little 'burg known as Winnipeg?
But because these two women wanted to be treated by one doctor - one specific doctor - and were told that said doctor would not be comfortable with seeing them as patients, this was grounds for a lengthy bureaucratic process, which will do...how much damage to this physician's career and reputation?
I would love to have the amount of ego to assume that I could do the same - with anybody who didn't want me to bring a backpack into a store because I'm f**king sixteen years old and I fit the profile. Fortunately, I have other things to worry about in life.
Although I would raise the question that perhaps this is an inevitable result of a more socialized health system. If doctors are bound by strict rules that they have to treat everybody, regardless of the doctor's own comfort levels, then that's a problem for the doctor, and the patients as well. And I might add that in a private practice, if someone refuses you service, you go to the next quack whose office you can find in the phonebook.
I sympathise with these two women to an extent. To be told that a doctor cannot in good conscience treat you because you're gay must smart. Even though that 'good conscience' was quite possibly a result of the doctor's inexperience with lesbian patients. But in the end, what harm has been caused? And what good can come about because of this complaint?
