A website that lets patients rate their doctors, including about 3,000 doctors in Canada, has been earning mixed reviews, depending on who's receiving the diagnosis.

It's clear that RateMDs.com's rising popularity in Canada comes much to the chagrin of those like Dr. Anthony Lockwood, a Winnipeg cosmetic surgeon who received a "negative" overall quality rating of two out of five, based on only two reviews.

"One of the reasons is I tend to be a little bit blunt with people, and I'll tell them the truth. Not necessarily what they want to hear," Lockwood said.

RateMDs.com is a California-based website that launched in 2004 that asks visitors to anonymously rate doctors based on punctuality, helpfulness and knowledge.

Two weeks ago, the site had about 1,500 ratings posted for Canadian doctors, but that number has since doubled. Among those 3,000 reviews, about 170 are of Manitoba doctors.

Site co-creator John Swapceinski also founded RateMyProfessors.com, a similar site that allows students to rate their university professors.

"What's more important than health care? It's literally a matter of life and death in some cases," Swapceinski said, adding that site staff aim to ensure the reviews are fair.

"We review these ratings within 24 hours of their submission. Consequently we end up deleting about two per cent of the ratings that are submitted," he said.

Whole story needed: doctors

Lockwood, as well as the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba, said they're concerned the site's critiques do not tell the whole story.

"It doesn't include their apparent competency, their continuing medical education, the fact that they continue to do this, the areas of practice that they are [in]," college registrar Dr. Bill Pope said.

Doctors also worry that those who post reviews can do so anonymously, and fear there's nothing to prevent one person from registering multiple complaints.

"There's no accountability on the website because there's no names involved — except mine, of course," Lockwood said.

But Swapceinski defended the site's anonymity, arguing that patients may require it.

"In certain patients, that by criticizing their doctors, that they could possibly get on some sort of a blacklist in the medical profession," he said.

Pope said the college maintains its own website that does not grade doctors, but lists Manitoba doctors' training and any disciplinary or legal actions that have been registered against doctors.