City adds a doctor referral service
To make it easier to find a doctor in Boston, the city's health department is starting a telephone referral service that will connect residents with primary care physicians who are accepting new patients, Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced yesterday.
"The bottom line is," Menino said yesterday in an interview, "how do we get more primary doctors to serve in our city?"
One way, he said, might be to require medical institutions to include subsidized housing for doctors in new research buildings. The mayor said he is meeting with the Boston Redevelopment Authority next week to explore the feasibility of such a mandate.
The referral service marks the first tangible result from a task force Menino convened to explore how primary care services can be improved in the city. Menino formed the panel of specialists after state authorities ruled that pharmacies and other stores can open health clinics inside their shops. That decision outraged the mayor, who proclaimed at the time that "allowing retailers to make money off of sick people is wrong."
The mayor ordered the Boston Public Health Commission to explore means of stopping in-store clinics in the city. Not finding an easy way to do that, the city instead created the task force, to investigate what some specialists refer to as the "primary care crisis" of too many patients and not enough doctors.
The referral service, which is expected to be operating by Labor Day, will be available through the mayor's health line.
In coming weeks, the health department will canvass community health centers and hospital-affiliated clinics in the city to compile a list of practices taking new patients.
"We will be able to provide the helping hand to people who need help with connecting to services," said Barbara Ferrer, executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission.
"One of the most important things we need to do as a city this rich in resources is make sure that all of the residents, particularly those who are most vulnerable, have really good access to primary services."
Callers to the referral line will be connected with city workers who staff the health line from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, Ferrer said. Information will be available in several languages.
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Stephen Smith can be reached at stsmith@globe.com.
