THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF HEALTH CARE FOR YOUR CHILD: CHOOSING A DOCTOR
All children at some time have illnesses that require medical attention. Most will be relatively minor, such as the coughs and colds that are a normal part of growing up. Sometimes an illness may be more serious, so that prompt and expert medical attention becomes a matter of life and death. Access to good medical care for your child is very important, and parents need to choose a doctor carefully.
In some communities there is only one doctor, so there may be no choice. Most parents will have a choice of health care providers for themselves and their children. Some families will have gone to the same doctor or clinic for many years, and it seems natural that the children should also attend that doctor. While there are obvious advantages in the one doctor or clinic seeing all members of the family, many parents choose a different doctor for their children, for reasons outlined below.
If your family moves into a new community, you can obtain a list of local doctors from the Australian Medical Association or sometimes from the local hospital, or else ask friends, neighbours or the local maternal and child health or community nurses. Parents should not hesitate to ‘interview’ doctors to see whether they seem appropriate to provide medical care for their child. If you don’t have a good instinctive feeling about the doctor after talking to him, it may be wise to seek somebody else.
Here is a checklist of some of the things that you may want to consider in choosing a doctor for your child. The list is not intended to be complete and is not in order of importance. You may wish to add points you think are important.
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