VANCOUVER -- British Columbia doctors are speaking out about the rise in abuse, threats and vitriol directed at them and their staff as pandemic fatigue and restrictions have frayed nerves to the breaking point.
While the vast majority of patients are calm and civil, several doctors in the Metro Vancouver area describe physician message boards and group chats increasingly reporting negative experiences. Anecdotes include patients screaming at staff, racist taunts, anonymous threats and doxing (publishing personal information online for malicious purposes).
“It’s normal that a lot of emotions come out (at a doctor’s office), but what has been different this year is how many times I’ve had to stop in the middle of a visit with a patient and say ‘excuse me’ and walk into the hallway of our clinic as someone is yelling at our receptionist," said family physician Dr. Eric Cadesky.
“We’re seeing people are distressed and sometimes that distress is manifesting in a lot of ways,” he said. “It might be threatening a doctor. And some people who are feeling helpless, feeling lonely, have gone to extremes when they’re at home and their connections to the outside world are through their wifi.”
He’s written an open letter pleading for patience and understanding of what doctors and their colleagues are going through, pointing out they’ve been exposing themselves and their families to considerable risk during the pandemic. The full text of the letter is embedded at the bottom of this story.
Common patient complaints and frustrations are centred on long waits for appointments, test results and access to vaccines, virtually all of which are out of doctors’ control.
“It certainly seems people are on a very short fuse these days,” said Dr. Matthew Chow, president of Doctors of BC. “Fifteen months into this pandemic, there’s just a certain degree of pandemic fatigue that’s set in, coupled with the winter, coupled with extraordinary restrictions.”
“We just want the public to understand we’re just human being. We’re just trying to get through this pandemic as much as anyone else. We don’t make the rules, but even if we were making the rules – and some of our public health colleagues are part of that — it’s not like they wanted a pandemic or wanted to restrict these people.”
CTV News asked the physicians whether they thought some people may be lashing out at them as proxies for the medical system and government, and they agreed.
“I think the way some of the rollouts have been, some of the unforeseen difficulties we’ve had in getting people vaccinated, convincing people to get vaccinated and some of the confusing messages — all of that has led to increases in depression and anxiety we were already seeing throughout the pandemic,” said Cadesky. “The pandemic has been very, very difficult for doctors and other frontline workers, and sometimes we’re the only interaction that people may have.”
Some public health settings in Metro Vancouver have even installed signage to warn irate patients.
“Violence, foul language and abusive behaviours are not acceptable,” reads one such sign used at Providence and Vancouver Coastal Health COVID-19 testing sites. “Verbal threats or acts of violence will not be tolerated and may result in removal from this facility and or/prosecution.”
ADVOCATES, WOMEN OF COLOUR FACING EXTREME REACTIONS
While many doctors have been grappling with irate patients, some physicians are facing those challenges as well as anonymous threats and taunts due to their public profile.
“I’ll get letters and emails saying, ‘How dare you, you’re a terrible person,’ a lot of expletives I can’t say on TV,” said Vancouver general practitioner and UBC clinical assistant professor Dr. Anna Wolak.
She’s a spokesperson and co-founder of the B.C. branch of Masks 4 Canada, a grassroots organization involving health-care workers and professionals who began advocating for mandatory mask use and are now promoting vaccines, making them targets of anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers alike.
“We were talking about, ‘If you’re opening letters, you really should be wearing gloves because we don’t know what people are capable of,’” said Wolak of the discussions among doctors as they grew increasingly anxious about the nasty messages in letters and emails.
She’s not the only one facing vitriol online. Dr. Bonnie Henry is undoubtedly the biggest target for venomous comments and even death threats, which have prompted a police investigation.
“Asian doctors, female physicians are getting a lot of abuse as well, and we feel like door mats,” said Wolak. “But we understand that it’s coming from a place of anxiety, so we take it, and there are a lot of doctors who have a lot of stories about this.”
COMPASSION FOR PATIENTS, BUT WHAT ABOUT DOCTORS?
All the doctors CTV News spoke with spent equal time speaking of compassion for a stressed and anxious public and describing the abuse and harassment they face.
“I know my patients are under a great deal of strain, particularly those who want to share their appointments, deliveries, or medical procedures with family and yet are being asked to be seen alone or with a single support person,” wrote Dr. Kathleen Ross, emphasizing that outbursts are the exception rather than the rule.
“All in all, I would say that the public has adapted exceptionally well to the necessary rapid changes in the delivery of primary care throughout this time of crisis,” she added.
But Chow, a practicing psychiatrist, pointed out that the number of doctors seeking mental health supports has doubled in the past year, amid the many stressors of the pandemic. He sees signs some will hang up their stethoscopes.
“I’m quite concerned,” Chow said. “I’m seeing early indicators there will be people leaving the profession, people leaving certain disciplines of medicine because people have been so burnt out by this.”
“Some of my members were down to their last two pairs of gloves at the beginning of the pandemic when we were having difficulty sourcing protective equipment, not being able to see our families as some physicians isolated to protect them because they worked in the COVID ward — then you add onto that abuse or harassment and it’s overwhelming.”
