Stomach scope in Ottawa?

My family doctor referred me to specialist for a stomach scope due to a possible stomach ulcer and said it would be about a month or so until I heard back from them.  That was 2.5 months ago, so I decided to follow up on who this doctor was and possibly get an approximate timeline.  Well, I call her office and the answering machine says that if you were referred and have not received a call yet be advised that she will not be calling as she is going on maternity leave and is only going to see those who have already been called.  I was like "say what??!".  So I left a message hoping maybe she would still see me but got a voicemail today telling me I should get referred to another doctor as she has a 12 month backlog already.  12 months!  If I had not called there I would never have known this.  It really ticks me off that there is not a better communication between the specialist and the doctors *****fer patients.  So now I am at the bottom of the list again because I have to start the referral process all over again.  Sigh.  This time I am going to get the name of the specialist and follow up right away to make sure they receive my referral and are still accepting patients.  For Ottawa peeps who needed a stomach scope, how long was your wait?  Who did you see?  Thank you for any feedback - so frustrated right now...grrrr

Oh I am so sorry. I find it extremely rude when Drs do something like this. I certainly would spread the word that she is this kind of doctor, she should have let people know. 

It is rude for sure and not professional.  Why did she not get back to my doctor so she could refer me to someone else?  When I spoke with the receptionist at my family doctor's and mentioned that I found it really strange that the specialist did not call my doctor to let her know, she told me that unfortunately it is common with specialist to not inform the referring doctor.  Hopefully this mess does not slow down the process too much.  Not much to be done I suppose except hope for the best.  Thank you for you your reply and I will definitely let people know how she deals with her referrals.

Wow.  I am also waiting to hear from the Ottawa clinic for an endoscopy.  You would think she had someone replacing her?  Guess I am going to be making some calls tomorrow myself.  Thanks for posting this info.

It would be worth it even if it gives you more information about the approximate timeline.  Just ask your referring doctor for the specialist's name and contact information, then give the specialist a call yourself.  I really hope you don't have the same person - her name is Bolano in just in case.  Good luck to you!

Definitely not professional to still be accepting referrals when the doctor isn't available to take the appointments.

The gastro clinic that I've been going to is Star Endoscopy on Carling -- they have a web site you can check them out on.   Dr Tambay is the doctor I saw  but there are a number of other doctors who work out of the clinic.  I've been happy with my experience with them, very clean, very professional (although I've only had colonoscopies -- but they do the stomach scopes as well.)

Hope you can get something set up soon!

Thank you very much for your reply.  I will check out the place you mentioned - sounds really good, I might even call and ask them what their wait times are like.  How long did it take from referral for you to get your colonoscopy? How long until you got a call back for an appointment?  Just trying to get and idea as to what the wait will be. 

I was referred in 2010 and I think it was about 10 weeks from the referral to the colonoscopy.    I'm not sure what the wait would be now.  They sent a letter with the prep instructions and appointment time rather than calling and I recall that it was fairly soon after the referral was made.

That gives me an idea as to what is a normal wait, thank you for sharing that information.