It makes one proud to be a standout:
“When it comes to wait times, Canadians are selling themselves short,” the report reads.
“Canadians deserve timely access to health care and accurate information on how long they can expect to wait for a consultation, test or procedure. Unfortunately, Canada is one of the few developed countries with universal health care systems where patients face long waits for necessary care.”
I know a few people “in the system”. Wages are obscene, wait times are nil, cost is 0, life is good. For most of us common folk, the system isn’t there for us. Move over Greece, we are on the way.
Now now; our rationed healthcare lists aren’t long Canadians die to quickly to enjoy said lists.
My wife had a lovely run in with the medical system this year. She has always had issues with nausea and vomiting (BEFORE she met me, honest). Just after Christmas she started vomiting after every meal. Her only relief was to literally not eat. After 3 months of this and 25 pounds later our family doctor had no answer and referred her to a GI specialist. We waited a month for an appointment call. It was after our second visit to the emergency ward for serious dehydration that we finally found out that the wait to see this specialist was one year. A YEAR! Can anyone here imagine what it would be like to be unable to eat for an entire year? Apparently her situation wasn’t considered urgent enough to move up the list. It was only because we kept at our family doctor and because his nurse was able to find another doctor willing to see her quicker that we got this resolved. Funny, but one pill before each meal and she has been right as rain for three weeks. If we had been good Canadian sheep and quietly waited our turn where would we be in a year? I honestly wonder if she would have made it physically or psychologically.
So the next time some A****** tells me how great the Canadian medical system is he better be wearing a jock strap.
http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/06/16/14415176.html
Chalk River reactor repairs complete
By CHRISTINA SPENCER, Parliamentary Bureau
“OTTAWA – Final repairs to the aging Chalk River reactor, which has been shut down for more than a year, are complete, says Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.
And not a moment too soon, suggests a survey of nuclear medicine specialists.
The survey, released Wednesday by the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI), shows a clear impact on the diagnosis of cancers and heart and lung diseases in the months after the reactor was abruptly closed in May 2009, shrivelling Canada’s supply of medical isotopes.”
Gee not a moment too soon, I think I wrote to the Liberal government of the day about MRIs and their lack of availability, wrt to my mother, about 10 years ago…
In the meantime they torched a billion dollars on the now defunct Maple reactors.
We now have a repaired Chalk River reactor for radio-isotopes…oh for small mercies we are ever thankful; for the monumental mismanagement we are not…
Sometimes you just have keep kicking their can until they get it right.
Cheers
Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief
1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North”
When your on the short list with North Korea or Cuba. As having the same systems. Its hard to have any positive National patriotism for such a hateful way to treat your people medically.
It torture really when you think about it. Most folks I know view a visit to the Hospital, with as much joy as an heretic in the hands of the inquisition.
Its alway a bleak black time when you know you have to rely on the system. Much more so when your life is being booted about by Government
raised & certified meat techs. You being the meat.
Besides human error you have to deal with ineptitude, indifference& finally humiliation of every sort.
JMO
The other developed nations being….?
The UK and France … I’m guessing.
Coincidently … just yesterday I went in for a scheduled non-critical procedure…. spent the morning getting examined and prepped…. sent home without the procedure being done … becuase the doctor did not WANT to do it.
Got a rain check to come back a try next year.
MY tax dollars at work.
At least for now I can go the US and pay for it …. two weeks notice and all done.
The waiting lists are taken care of in the morgue.
The only people who think the Canadian healthcare system is OK are people who have not had use it for anything serious.
They won’t publish wait time statistics because the numbers would show that the system is absurdly broken. The sooner system totally fails the better.
Time for medical tourism. If you can’t get it at home, you get it elsewhere.
The Canadian health care system is failing both patients and providers. Most Canadians have not experienced medical care outside of Canada and therefore have nothing to serve as a comparison. It is only after a person seeks medical care outside of the country that they realize Canada’s universal health care means mediocre care for all.
Funny how government want all your information, like, instantly. And don’t make a error or you will be fined. But, when it comes to them? You know, we can control costs, improve quality with our super duper paper pusher…..they don’t have the records. Don’t keep it. It’s lost.
Master and servant.
I always like it when newspaper editors take care to assign the right story to the right reporter, and so I was especially pleased when the Globe and Mail had the medical wait-times story covered by Carly Weeks.