Doctor in Muskoka/Barrie/Orillia area to refer Bariatric Surgery??

So my cousin has been thinking about WLS for years now. She is 31 years old and had enough of being overweight. And like the rest of us, has tried everything and failed. 

She went yesterday to her family Doctor in Bracebridge to get a referral to the Bariatric Centre and he flat out said "I do not believe in surgery so no I will not refer you. People need to lose weight on their own and you just need to eat protein and no carbs".

So since he is no help at all, I wanted to try and help her myself. She really needs help I feel so bad :( 

Is anybody in the Bracebridge/Muskoka/Orillia/Barrie area and can give me a name of their (or any) doctor you know that will refer somebody for this? This would be greatly appreciated!!!!

Thank you everybody!!!

XOXOXO

That is very sad to hear. Not uncommon though. My friend finally got her referral done here in Barrie just this week. Same issue with her Dr, he said she needs to give it one more good try. Really? She is 60 years old now, she is beyond ready and like so many of us, tried a million times.

After speaking with my family Dr who had referred me for my wls, she explained that Drs really are not in a position to deny their patient a referral, regardless if they agree with this procedure or not. My Dr suggested my friend go back to her Dr and bring a copy of the referral document, have most of it filled out and get the Dr to sign it and have them fax it to the registry on her way out of the office. My Dr also mentioned that if her Dr would not do the referral she could visit the walk in clinic here and they would do it. 

Good luck I hope she finally gets this done.

Annette 

Is your sister seeing a specialist for anything?  She can try going to them.  I'm not sure what's in that area, but in my town, we have a Family Health Team, that we can go to if we have a non emergency issue and our doctor is not available.  If there is something like that or a walk in clinic, she could try there.  My doc wasn't overly thrilled with it either (this was before the Family Health Team), so I asked for a referal to the clinic directly as they have Weight Loss Programs there.  They evaluated me and refered me to surgery.  It's a bit longer, but if there is no other way.  Some doctor's won't see patients that are not their clients.

Good luck to your sister!

Cathy

I don't live in that area but I did have the exact same issue. I had to ask one of my specialist to refer me and completely bypass my family doctor. It worked! 

Wow!! I did not realize this was so common!!!!!!!! This is horrible that Doctors can have their own opinion and not help others because their opinion SUCKS ASS!!!!!!!

Ok I will see what I can do to help her find a new doctor to refer her. This is just crazy.

thanks for all your help everybody!!