Being ignored because I’m deaf?
I’m very familiar with being overworked (and underpaid), not having enough time to in the day to get everything done, juggling priorities that change day to day or hour by hour. But when several doctors offices ignore me, or one doctor’s office ignores me repeatedly I am forced to assume it is because I’m deaf and they don’t want to deal with a deaf patient, or with paying for interpreters.
Yes, not everything bad that happens, happens because I’m deaf; and yes, people are genuinely busy and things slip through the cracks. But if it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, walks like a duck… well, maybe it’s AFLAC, but it’s more likely it is a duck. So if it looks like oppression, feels like oppression…
Oppression:
Function: noun
[...] c : inequality of bargaining power resulting in one party’s lack of ability to negotiate or exercise meaningful choice —see also UNCONSCIONABILITY —op·pres·sive /&-’pre-siv/ adjective
-Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
Thing is, I don’t think people are *trying* to oppress me. I don’t think it’s really about *ME.* I think it is their lack of training, knowledge, compassion, whathaveyou that creates this situation. I’m the one who suffers for it, though.
I’ve sent faxes to several doctors over the past two or three weeks and haven’t gotten a response from some of them yet. That, in itself, doesn’t concern me too much. Here is a concrete example, though, that makes me feel I’m being ignored because I’m deaf and they don’t want a deaf patient.
First, when I began looking, I saw that the search field in the local Blue Cross online (ibx.com — Independence Blue Cross, Betty is enrolled in their Keystone 65 Medicare plan) had an option for “language use” which includes sign language. But no doctor showed up when I used that in the search criteria. So I went to Revolution Health and found two doctors came up as sign language users. I faxed Nancy Jane Walker, and the office replied that she was no longer working there, she had moved to Lancaster. The second doctor, however, Rupal S. Kothari, has not responded to three faxes. I can only assume that don’t want a deaf patient for whatever reason (most likely that they don’t want to pay for interpreters, but there may be other reasons. I don’t know, they don’t respond to my faxes.)
Now do you see why I say that if it looks like oppression, feels like oppression… well, it probably is oppression.
I don’t know what rights doctors have in choice of patients. Does all of the choice belong with the consumer? Trouble is, I don’t want to go to a doctor who doesn’t want me.
