Woman's heart concerns dismissed, says grieving husband

A Manitoba man says his wife might still be alive if a doctor had listened to her concerns about her heart, rather than rush through the appointment.

Bruce Angus says two weeks before his wife Samantha, 60, died of a heart attack, she went to a doctor in Selkirk, Man., complaining of back pain.

When Samantha tried to tell the doctor that she was also having problems with her heart, she was dismissed, according to her husband.

"The doctor just tapped her wristwatch and said, 'One appointment, one problem,'" he told CBC News.

"My wife didn't even get to mention what the problem was. The doctor got up and walked out of the office."

Then last week, Angus was watching television with Samantha, his wife of 32 years, when "all of a sudden, she just fell over in her chair and she was gone," he said.

Angus is filing complaints about the doctor with Manitoba's health minister and with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba.

"If somebody's got problems, they should be able to talk about them, whether it's one or two," he said.

A leading health analystagrees, sayingthe "one appointment, one problem" policy could be hazardous to people's health.

Dr. Michael Rachlis said some doctors rush patients because they're under too much pressure.

"The tendency is for the average physician to interrupt the average patient after only 18 seconds," he said. "So with that kind of termination of the patient's story you often don't get to the real problem."

Using other health practitioners such as nurses could relieve some of that pressure, Rachlis suggested.