According to a recent article in the Ontario publication The Star, bullying and intimidation is rampant within the medical community including insults and cyber bullying is ongoing in that province.

What has happened to our medical system where bullying of doctors by doctors has to be exposed in the media and why is this just coming out now?

It makes one to wonder what’s happening here in Alberta. Is there bullying going on, is there a dirty secret group of people who are our caretakers actually threatening other caretakers and if so who is going to step in and find out if this issue is rampant in our province.

We have a doctor here in the Crowsnest Pass, who after two years of suspensions and reviews by our own College of Physicians and Surgeons has limited his ability to be a doctor.

Dr. Martiz is only allowed to see male patients and only under the supervision of Dr. Sara. Every time I was in his office with Buddy it was packed full of people wanting to see their doctor.

Dr. Maritz was my doctor and he did a damn fine job as my doctor. I now am forced to see a new doctor, and he’s great by the way, in a clinic that has every doctor, excluding Dr. Martiz. So I’m forced to go to a place with really no other option but to drive to Pincher Creek.

Quite honestly I feel discriminated against, if you want my honest opinion. I feel bullied at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta. They have taken my rights away to see my doctor. The man who delivered my children, the man who should have been with my parents when they died and the man who took care of my precious Buddy in the last few weeks of his life.

Who is pulling the strings that it is so hard for Dr. Maritz to just run his practice? Will they allow him to have more physicians in a beautiful office, a second office that allows people a choice?

I wonder when the College of Physicians and Surgeons are going to get off their proverbial butts and let this man just be a doctor. Why the supervision, why just men, quite honestly I trust this man as my doctor and shouldn’t I be given a choice. Shouldn’t I be given a choice of which clinic I want to attend? Why should I only be given one choice?

So I really wish someone would look into the bullying I perceive going on in the Crowsnest Pass towards me. I would just like my doctor back. I would like the choice to see my own physician, the one I’ve had for over 14 years. I want to go into a clinic where I feel safe and where I feel I can get the best medical care for my family. Wait, my family can go there because they are all boys. I’m just the one left out in the cold.

At least that’s the way I see it.