The Saskatchewan Surgical Care Network: “Wait Time Information”
“The SSCN is committed to providing Saskatchewan residents with the most complete and up-to-date wait time information available. This web site provides information regarding: Wait Times/Lists (by Specialty)….”
I suppose that means there is a minimum wait time of 5 months for everyone. fair is fair.
March 2009. My, that IS up date. We should all be thankful the government is running healthcare, since they know what’s best for all of us.
I required surgery this spring, from the time I first saw the surgeon on March 17th to my surgery April 8th, I did not consider that a long wait time, as all of the pre-op tests had to be completed. Elective, non-life threatening surgeries generally have longer wait times. Universality, publicly funded health care is a cornerstone of this country and we should fight tooth and nail to preserve it.
Our town’s mayor began to experience abdominal pain last October. She was finally able to get in for a scope in January – which they could not complete due to a blockage.
So she was scheduled for exploratory surgery – in May.
Her husband finally took her to the emergency room when the pain became unbearable, where she was admitted. She spent two weeks on intravenous antibiotics due to abdominal infection and finally had her surgery. She had a blocked colon.
Yes, we should fight tooth and nail to preserve _that_.
But Michael Moore (the well known expert on Canadian health care) said…..
No problem T. You can fight ME tooth and nail. I’ve been practicing for a long time, so bring your A game, pencil neck.
Universal, publicly funded health care is a myth. What we really have is rationing and a ban on private enterprise.
It galls me to no end that I cannot -buy- a surgical procedure or a simple imaging test. Particularly in a system where they can’t even keep the f-ing web site that lists the WAIT TIMES updated.
In principle such things are no different than buying a car or having one’s roof repaired, and it is obscene to have this situation in an ostensibly free country.
Questions, comments?
Is bribery used in Canada to get the care you need? I could see that occuring in the USA as well as medical travel. The well off will not put up with this.
Mr T: Canada was built on the traditions of the British monarchy, British common law, French civil law and the tolerance of each other. It was built on the religious traditions of the Roman Catholic Church AND the Church of England. Canada’s society and wealth was built on the English Protestant work ethic and French Catholic joie de vivre, links to the land (ie. the farm) and importance of the family. And most importantly it was built on the rule of law. These few things are the cornerstones of Canadian society. NOT UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE.
~~favill~~
I’m onside with T. And I acknowledge that there are problems, as outlined by Kate.
And I agree it is rationing health as you mention Phantom.
I can only refer to my experience as well. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, and she received stellar care, right up until the end.
I was killed( no vitals, drowned in my own blood – killed) in a headon collision, and I received stellar care. As is evidenced by my posting here.
There are always opportunities for improvement.
Kate, do you think that if there was private care available, a doctor would willingly relocate to a province like Sask, that he would need a twin otter to cover, to cover his costs? give your head a shake.
Your mayor might have had better access to care, or maybe all the ‘good’ doctors would be in the GTA, filching off the old, fat, rich people.
And what recourse would your major have then?
I’m onside with T. And I acknowledge that there are problems, as outlined by Kate.
And I agree it is rationing health as you mention Phantom.
I can only refer to my experience as well. My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, and she received stellar care, right up until the end.
I was killed( no vitals, drowned in my own blood – killed) in a headon collision, and I received stellar care. As is evidenced by my posting here.
There are always opportunities for improvement.
Kate, do you think that if there was private care available, a doctor would willingly relocate to a province like Sask, that he would need a twin otter to cover, to cover his costs? give your head a shake.
Your mayor might have had better access to care, or maybe all the ‘good’ doctors would be in the GTA, filching off the old, fat, rich people.
And what recourse would your mayor have then?
T’s KoolAid poisoning? NOT covered!! 🙂
Aaron, so we should force people to move to places they don’t want to live? Why don’t you move to Cuba?
The practice of small, isolated towns paying for the education of a medical doctor in exchange for several years of local residency is so common they made a TV show about it.
When you leave people alone to contract freely for the exchange of goods and services, they tend to come up with all sorts of clever solutions to problems.
If ObamaCare passes, then what additional stresses will Canada’s health care system face when all the Canadians that choose to get treated in the US on their own dime have to stay in Canada and are added to our waiting lists?
“Kate, do you think that if there was private care available, a doctor would willingly relocate to a province like Sask”
Want to hazard a guess as to when the exodus of doctors out of the province began?
Three guesses. The first two don’t count.
By the way, have you ever been to downtown Bismarck, North Dakota?
http://tinyurl.com/nsnd9t
John, that was the very first thing that popped into my brain box when I heard about govt run health care in the US.
Where are we going to go now if we don’t want to wait 18 months for a new knee?
Let me ask the following question, which is not at all rhetorical: If Canadian healthcare is as bad as the comments on SDA imply (and I am willing to believe that it is), why do Canadians put up with it? Is it not in your power to vote a change in the system?
As I said, the question is not rhetorical. I ask it because I really want to know. Personally, I oppose all aspects of the nanny state because I consider it demeaning to the spirit and a destructive form of greed. But that is simply my opinion and somewhat beside the point. If Canadian healthcare is a travesty, why do Canadians put up with it?
Alternatively, if you couldn’t pull a Dr. Fleischman, you could move a sick person somewhere where there are intensive care services.
It’s about freedom.
Arron D – I’m honestly sorry for your accident, but you weren’t “killed”, since you’re alive and posting.
Arron D. said: “Kate, do you think that if there was private care available, a doctor would willingly relocate to a province like Sask…”
What you you think Arron, they -make- doctors move to Sask? Like sending guys to Siberia? “Comrade, your new posting will be Deslile Saskatchewan, my condolences.”
They actually tried that recently in Quebec to cover ER staffing shortages. The ER docs told them to shove it, as I recall. Then they tried actually -paying more money- for remote ER postings, that worked pretty well.
Half of what’s wrong with health care in Canada could be fixed by firing 95% of the health system bureaucracy tomorrow morning, starting at the top. The other half of what’s wrong would be fixed by merely allowing private care.
Funny how you and T are so convinced doctors and nurses are eeeevile and have to be controlled by virtuous government employees. One might almost suspect you’d been reading the Obama propaganda.
RSP,
All the Canadian political parties would never bring up the question of shutting down or changing the universal health care myth, because the other two parties would use that against them. Canadians for the past 40+ years have become complacent. There are huge numbers of people on the welfare rolls and more to follow now that economic hard times has reared its head. Most Canadians are uncomfortable with the idea of being self-reliant. I believe that’s a symptom of allowing a communist/socialist to get hold of the country in the late sixties and slowly, over the course of two generations, made us all reliant on the government.
RSP asks: “If Canadian healthcare is a travesty, why do Canadians put up with it?”
We don’t. When it fails completely, we go to Buffalo NY where we can BUY healthcare. Or Mayo in Rochester MN, where the Borg implant people walk around downtown with their IV stands and the hotels are full of Canadians. Or any border state, where the hospitals are all very, very familiar with the Canadian dollar.
Why do Americans put up with the obscene taxes in New York? Or the murder rate in Chicago? Or the ATF?
Canada use to have fair and equitable health care system – back in the 60’s & early 70’s. Those days are long gone.
Arron D. I think you have God to thank for your survival, not our health care system. I am glad you received the care you did – someone is looking out for you.
I am wondering if those of you who have had positive experiences also had additional health insurance through your employer or a private plan?
T – you sound like you are simply parroting the propaganda you have been fed – word for word.
The declining birth rate, abortion, and aging baby boomer’s coupled with government cut backs utterly decimated our health care system over the last 25+ years (so much for being the pride of Canada – too bad the government does not buy the propaganda it sells). Both Liberal and Conservative governments di their fair share of the axing, and now our health care system is bleeding to death.
BC’s answer to the crisis is a “medical do it yourself guide” (1 3/4″ thick) that was delivered to every household in BC.
‘Half of what’s wrong with health care in Canada could be fixed by firing 95% of the health system bureaucracy tomorrow morning, starting at the top. The other half of what’s wrong would be fixed by merely allowing private care’. part of post by ‘The Phantom’.
Thank you, could not have stated it better myself.
Australia, you pay for the public system with your taxes, BUT you can also buy insurance and opt to use the private system. In Canada I can buy medical procedures for my pet that would be illegal if I bought them for me or my family. It’s all about the freedom of choice.
My ex is a MD. Her GP said she may have a brain tumour. She could not get a date for diagnostic imaging. Picked up the phone, set a date for two days later, paid the 400 bucks and found out she wasn’t going to die soon. She believes in the system but is not blind to it’s shortcomings. She felt bad about jumping the line but liked having that choice when it was required. As it turned out she would have had to wait about 7 weeks and could have been tested the day before Christmas. Someone else got the call instead.
Phantom,
I’ve personally had a heart attack and a knee replacement as well as many other ailments requiring health care in Canada. While things didn’t always go perfectly I’m certainly more than happy with the way things turned out.
I suggest that you and your rightoid rightard prima donna ilk move to another country like Iran or North Korea. In short, if you don’t like it just leave.
What would be the point of moving to North Korea? They have the same form of “healthcare” system.
Phantom: I think Americans put up with high taxes because most Americans don’t pay them, at least not in a way that is obvious to them. I don’t have the figures readily at hand, but a relatively small percentage of the population bears most of the tax burden. It seems to me, though, that healthcare is different in that the poor performance you describe has a direct impact on a large number of voters.
As for the murder rate in Chicago, if Americans indeed “put up” with it, it’s probably because most are not directly affected. If the killings spread to the suburbs, “tolerance” will end quickly enough.
not schtirred enough @11:13 – “I suggest that you and your rightoid rightard prima donna ilk move to another country like Iran or North Korea.”
You don’t quite get us, do you?
North Korea, noch!
Where are we going to go now if we don’t want to wait 18 months for a new knee?
India , Middle East.
not stirred enough said at, you my friend are a liar. You are a university aged boy, probably an English major who wouldn’t know a knee replacement from a colonoscopy.
No doubt you’d love to see me and everyone like me in a concentration camp. That’s because you are a camp guard at heart.
Thanks for telling the truth about yourself and your ambitions, camp guard.
I finally got my eye surgery 15 months after diagnosis. I was no longer able to read, drive or work as my sight had deteriorated completely. When I finally got the surgery 3 weeks ago my experience with the health care system was very good.
It seems silly to have to wait 15 months for a surgical procedure that takes 3 hours from admission to discharge. Especially when your productive life is put on hold.
The problem where I live is not a lack of surgeons, operating rooms or support staff. It is strictly money. Hospitals get block funding. When it is gone it is gone. Instead of being viewed as a revenue generating customer you are viewed as a cost.
Former head of the Canadian Medical Association Dr. Brian Day has advocated having the money follow the patient – ie. the hospital doesn’t get paid until they perform the surgery. In this way they have an incentive to do more surgeries. Unfortunately the government does not like this option as it makes it more difficult to control their expenditures. So rationing we continue to have.
What is really sad about the current situation is that the demand for health care services currently is far in excess of what the government (and public) is willing to fund. By not allowing private expenditure we are curtailing the growth of the health care industry. Canada would instantly create tens of thousands of high paying health care jobs if we just allowed a private option. It seems insane to me that there are Canadians who would deny me the right to spend my money on health care services right here in Canada.
A private company sets up a clinic that performs MRI’s at half the cost of the hospital up the street. This could be covered by health care and subsequently save money.
The current system won’t allow it. Why?
Because the work isn’t performed by a unionized government employees.
When you lefties want to talk about healthcare, instead of health care jobs, give me a call.
from “T”
“I required surgery this spring, from the time I first saw the surgeon on March 17th to my surgery April 8th, I did not consider that a long wait time, as all of the pre-op tests had to be completed. Elective, non-life threatening surgeries generally have longer wait times. Universality, publicly funded health care is a cornerstone of this country and we should fight tooth and nail to preserve it”
who would have thought brain surgeons are short waits?
Waiting in pain should be called an universal cruelty, not a care. It is amazing that even on this forum, there are maniacs who want to defend institutionalized torture on massive scale.
Phantom,
I’ve had both, a knee replacement and a colonoscopy…I know the difference. I also know the wait times were quite reasonable and the price was right.
I’m a P. Eng. practicing in Ontario not an english major.
My offer still stands; there are many countries in the world that would gladly take you and your money for upgraded medical services. You are free to go anytime you wish.
What are you talking about? This country is taking our money now, and then legislatively rationing services and we don’t have a right to demand better?
RSP said: “…if Americans indeed “put up” with it, it’s probably because most are not directly affected.”
There you go. The average working person has no interaction with the health system until they are over 60. Then it starts to get ugly. Most of the Canadians getting killed by the healthcare fiasco are old ladies who die on waiting lists for “elective” surgeries.
Loss of mobility will kill you just as surely as a bullet in the head, it just takes a little longer. Six months waiting for a hip or a knee will easily kill an elderly diabetic. But who cares? They’ve made their contribution to society, right? Time to cut loose the dead weight, comrade!
Hitler had a nice term for them: useless eaters. Obamacare is calling it “natural death”. You know, like “natural” herbal shampoo. Its good for you!
Bottom line RSP, we are all the frog getting boiled one degree at a time. The water is getting hotter so slowly you can’t tell you’re being cooked. One of the things that makes Obama such an idiot is he has abandoned incrementalism. He just turned the gas on full blast and now he’s trying to hold the lid on.
Just recently had a liver transplant.
I’m alive and thankfull.
During recovery I received a private room as is needed for bacteria control.
On the second night after the operation our floor recieved the identical meal as the previous night, except this time it was still frozen.
The nurse made it clear that my complaint was frivilous as I was lucky to be alive.
She microwaved all our plates into a meal unfit for a starving pig.
I also complained that my bedding was soiled and needed changing. It was changed twice during the week I was there, BY ME. Thats quite a trick when
your hooked up to gawd knows how many IVs.
The floor was so filthy that I had to don footwear to go to the loo. Not swept or washed once.
This was in a hospital considered on of Canada’s best.
The union mentality was rife and “sickening”.
Great post with terrific comments. The crime rates in the states seem to reflect the political leanings of the voting population. So, the Democratic political machines in St. Louis and Chicago result in lax bureaucracies of which policing is just one of many. Registering one’s vehicle is an all-day affair similar to a politically correct police department that can only enforce the law if no one is offended during the process. New Orleans is another example.
Here in the pleasant fly-over land, laws are enforced and it takes about 10 minutes to register a vehicle. As another commenter indicated, we are experiencing a drug war in a small segment of the city. Once it spills over into the suburbs, city officials will have hell to pay.
As for nationalized health care, it doesn’t seem to be the answer for the problems we’re experiencing in the states – rising costs. The few million that don’t have health care here could be covered if government officials would get serious and actually research and plan a solution. They instead have turned it into a political issue for ideological purposes. That won’t change. In the meantime, don’t touch my corporate health care. It ain’t cheap but it works.
T,
Glad to hear your wait time was brief. Having read other posts from yourself would it be presumptuous to assume lobotomy?
not stirred enough said at said: “I’m a P. Eng. practicing in Ontario not an english major.”
Please try to make your lies faintly believable, camp guard.
“from “T”
“I required surgery this spring, from the time I first saw the surgeon on March 17th to my surgery April 8th, I did not consider that a long wait time, as all of the pre-op tests had to be completed. Elective, non-life threatening surgeries generally have longer wait times. Universality, publicly funded health care is a cornerstone of this country and we should fight tooth and nail to preserve it”
who would have thought brain surgeons are short waits?
Posted by: cal2 at August 10, 2009 11:43 AM ”
Ahhhhhhh.He got in so fast,cal2,because there really isn’t that much call for lobotomys or electro shock anymore.They use the schools and universities for their brainwashing/wasting now.
NSE said
I’ve had both, a knee replacement and a colonoscopy….
gutzy statement on this forum not long after a brain surgery statement, given your record.
Wait times were deliberately engineered in Canada by government to ration care and reduce costs.
In the early 90’s, governments across Canada (Rae here in Ontario) cut med school spots while demonizing doctors as greedy. At the same time, they capped doctors billing and tried to lie about their income by equating billings with doctor’s paycheques. The two are not remotely related. Doctor’s billings pays for the whole system. You have to pay for the real estate you have your office in, the nurse, the utilities, the janitor, the receptionist… whatever is left over is doctor’s pay.
In addition to that, the various Canadian provincial governments maintain a list of drugs covered under provincial plans. This is rationing. Period. It is no different than the HMO bean-counters deciding what is covered except the government has a monopoly and can’t be fired.
At the very time the governments were drastically increasing the number of university places for law, humanities, and just about every other academic discipline, they were cutting med-school spots.
Now we have a “doctor shortage.” Funny enough the only other group the education system was cutting back on was nurses. Gee, I wonder why?
But there is certainly no shortage of sociologists and social workers…
Leftards still gripe about US HMO’s as if they were worse than the state-monopoly HMO’s which we refer to as “universal health care.” If you have a lousy US HMO fire them. If your provincial government decides you should die on a waiting list there is no recourse, all those lawyers who the system graduates each year in place of doctors won’t do jack and the media will attack you in the rare case they acknowledge your (temporary) existence.
What leftards like T really mean is that they will fight for their place at the trough so long as it is other people who die for their privilege. I guarantee they’ll change their tune the second they have an expensive ailment their government doesn’t want to pay for.
Folks,
T may be a provincial employee paid to tout how great universal healthcare is to us peons. He comes across as one of the masses, but is probably in the employ of the OHIP or whatever office takes care of that now. However, he would be the best example of how your medical tax dollars are used not to pay for medical staff or equipment but to ensure the longevity and continued existence of the governmental department.
~~favill~~
For the record: I have estimated the cost of Health Care in Canada at about $100. per week for every man woman and child. ($172 billion/33 million.)
I have had excellent health care even in the small NWO village where I live and in the cities nearby. (250 km) This includes radiation treatment for prostate cancer, colonoscopies, ultrasounds and CT scans all of which required very little waiting. So, I’m not ready to trade it for a private system but favour a mix of private and public.
Not Squashed Enough:
“My offer still stands; there are many countries in the world that would gladly take you and your money for upgraded medical services. You are free to go anytime you wish.”
Deal. Just give me all my tax dollars back (including McShifty’s Ontario Health “levy”) and I’ll gladly travel for better care.
Or at least I would if I didn’t have queue-jumping privileges due to all the family members I have in the system. They doctor who operated on my throat was my Mom’s classmate in med-school. Suffice it to say that the wait time for an initial consultation with an ear, nose and throat specialist was longer than it took for me to get the surgery.
And no, I don’t feel guilty for jumping the Queue. If I have no say in the system I’m forced to pay dearly for I feel no shame in gaming it when I can.
As Steyn notes (or quotes,) your dog has access to better, faster care than you do.
NO waiting for dogs.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjVmNDIyYTI0OTFiMDkyOTUzMWExZDYxNjc3ZjE1ZTA=
Definitions of cornerstone on the Web:
• basis: the fundamental assumptions from which something is BEGUN or developed or calculated or explained; “the whole argument rested on a basis of …
• a stone in the exterior of a large and important building; usually carved with a date and laid with appropriate ceremonies
• a stone at the outer corner of two intersecting masonry walls
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
• The cornerstone (or foundation stone) concept is derived from the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation, important since all other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornerstone
T
You’ve been brainwashed T. Canada was formed July 1, 1867(I’m sure you knew that/sarc), yet it’s “cornerstone”(medicare) as you call it didn’t pass in Canada until 1966 with the Medicare Act. I just happen to be designing a concrete foundation this morning, but I hadn’t considered having the building erected without the foundation in place. I guess they won’t miss it for 99 years.
My wife has been waiting almost three years now to have hardware removed that we were told by a doctor shouldn’t be left for more than 6 months because of increasing difficulty to remove.
You and Aaron D are arguing for an inferior system based on anecdotal evidence. That makes you a retard. The problem the Americans have is regarding the costs associated with malpractice and the perception that 10’s of millions of Americans are not or cannot get coverage. As far as care in the system goes, the American health care system is second to none. This isn’t in dispute, even by the left.
IMO, the personal attacks directed toward “T” are unjustified and unproductive. He has simply related details of an experience he had with the health system. If you think his account is fabricated, it suffices to simply say so, though you should also be prepared to furnish reasons for calling him a liar. Simply calling him a lobotomized idiot is not an argument. Indeed, it reminds me of supporters of affirmative action who call their opponents “racists”, as though that accusation alone should end all debate.