I am starting to feel the same as @Dcc001 on our health care. Up until covid it was fucking great. No wait times. Now it is just fucking brutal. 2 weeks ago(17/18th) my wife injured her calf muscle. She had to go to emergency cause it was late at night. They gave her some pain meds a note for 3 days off work and had to go get an ultra sound. The ultra sound wasn't scheduled until the 25th. She called the doctor today and kept calling, they say they open at 9, didn't get anyone until closer to 10. Then they tell her she has a phone appointment on the Dec 8th. So almost 3 weeks for the doctors to tell her she has a torn muscle and needs time off. All this time she has been going to work because the original note was only for 3 days.
I fully blame the anti-vax retards for this. The overwhelming majority of hospital resources are now being consumed and stressed by unvaccinated COVID patients. I'm fully in line with Singapore's current stance on the subject... if you're unvax'd, and you get COVID, stay the fuck at home because the hospitals won't help you.
Totally. Hospitals are for obese people, smokers, and folks with bacon-clogged arteries. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Car-accident victims that don't wear seatbelts or get hit by drunk drivers are there, too.
I don't blame Covid. It's been absolutely horrendous for YEARS. I lost any ideals I might have had about our healthcare in 2007/08. In 2007, my 19-year-old cousin died directly due to medical malpractice. Completely treatable condition that the ER missed three different times (later admitted to under oath during depositions), and sent home to die. Six months later, I was by a horrible coincidence visiting her family in Dubai when I took ill with malaria. I was taken to the American Hospital of Dubai and got to see what healthcare can actually look like. Night and day different. I have zero doubt that, had I been in Canada, I would have died because it turns out I am allergic to most malaria meds. In the last three years both parents have taken ill for various reasons. I will say this: if you get sick and are standing in front of the University Hospital of London, you're golden. Excellent care and well-run. If you're in Sarnia? Man, I hope you have an advocate with you who can fight tooth and nail on your behalf. The horror stories just within my family alone would give you nightmares. Uncle had a stroke and the hospital Skyped a stroke specialist in from Toronto, then didn't even note the name of the doctor who prescribed his care. Mother had a doctor who released her saying, "you're cured!" when, in fact, her diverticulitis had ruptured her intestines and her symptoms had been unchanged for a week. I had to take her directly from Sarnia to London, where they immediately admitted her for a week. And on. Winnipeg was no better - I hope you enjoy waiting 2-4 hours to even be triaged. And if you ask to see a specialist right away, I hope you enjoy the doctor laughing at you. Oh, and you'd like to PICK your family GP? Nope. Not gonna happen. Our health system will let you know what doctors, if any, are accepting new patients and that's the person you'll go to. If you don't like them, well, too bad because you can't get another family doctor if you're rostered with one currently. And 15 minutes away, in Port Huron, you can have your pick of doctors and it costs you between $80-$200 a visit, which is on par with our dental costs here. It's absolutely broken and shameful.
Well, I do blame COVID for the current hospital issues. It was already at the brink, then COVID put it over the top. And yeah, I did get to pick my new GP... I have no clue what you're talking about. I called 2 of them, one in Lambeth (closer to home), and then another one recommended to me by a friend. I called the latter, and was in seeing him 2 weeks later for an indoc.
It has only been like that since covid hit here in BC. Before covid my wife's situation would of been taken care of the next day. ER visit in the evening, appointment for the ultrasound the next day and doctors in the afternoon to talk about treatment.
When it comes to health care, it's pretty fucking shades of grey. I'd much rather be in Canada with health coverage than the US without. Full stop. There are some places in the US I'd rather be if I had full health coverage and cash. Where I am right now in life? I'm quite happy with what's available to me here in Canada. I'd rather be near a big city with solid medical facilities, because it's only natural that they are going to get better doctors and caregivers in general. There's no way in hell that Fort Mac, or Sarnia, is going to attract the quality of health care that London, Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, etc will. That's just a fact. It's not surprising that if you live in a shitty town you're going to get shitty healthcare, relatively speaking. So as much as @Dcc001 has had some shit experiences with our health system, I have not had those same problems. My dad got open heart surgery within minutes of needing it... my sister got full-on covered experimental treatment for her MS... I had a knee and nerve damage worked on... and on and on. Sure, some waits in the waiting room, before COVID, but that's more because of idiots going to the ER with a cold than anything else. In the end, if you needed help right then and there, you got it... if you have to wait 10 hours to get it, but aren't going to die? Meh, I'm OK with that, considering nobody wants to properly pay for the shit we want.
To be fair, you live in the radius served by University Hospital. It is, in my experience, the finest hospital we have in Canada and I can foster no complaint about it. Probably the majority of doctors in the area have admitting privileges there. Try living in Calgary. Or Winnipeg. Or Sarnia. Or the myriad of other locations that have terrible coverage. A good friend in Calgary waited almost two years for knee surgery. My favourite story about Calgary involves the Glenmore hospital; the driveway to that hospital exits off a major highway and is quite long and winding. Years ago, there was a car accident right at the hospital's driveway turnoff. Staff in the hospital refused to leave it to tend to the wounded; they insisted on waiting for the paramedics to bring them up the hill. Civilians were loading people into their cars and driving them up the driveway so that the were under the ambulance carport and could therefore be seen by staff. I'll say this as well: we currently have a two-tiered system. There's the public system, then there's the "If you know someone" system. If your GP is super connected and has been seeing your family for generations? You're probably fine. If your mom is a nurse, or if you play on a college or professional sports team...very different. My cousin needed a liver transplant, and the level/quality of care she received before she was on the transplant list (and arguably just as sick) vs after she was "owned" by the transplant specialists was night and day. Sure, quality care is possible here. If you're lucky enough to know someone.
not to derail a drunk thread, but this is spot on with the difference between urban vs rural health care. With my brain tumor, I went from them seeing it on MRI, directly to the hospital in San Antonio which has AMAZING hospitals. Two days later I was I underwent surgery which was successful only due to the quality of surgeons and care, and less than a week after that I signed a release form to go home. Contrast that with my leg injury. We were out in the sticks, a few hours away from a major hospital, and the "hospital" which saw me took one x-ray then told me it was just a sprain and I didn't need to follow up with my doctor at home (I asked them). So I took a bunch of delta 8 to ride out the pain for the next few days until we got home, then went immediately to a doctor who basically said "they're fucking idiots." It was a clean break through the fibula, and everything below my ankle was torn. It would have been surgery, but all the hospital beds were taken up due to fucking COVID so I took the alternative approach of physical therapy. Basically surgery was quicker healing put potentially some issues down the road if screws or plates caused an issue, PT was longer process but at least I don't have to worry about hardware. COVIDiots removed one of the options, and thank god there's some amazing PTs around here. tl;dr: Nett is right, if you want good healthcare regardless of country, be in the city.
glad he's doing a longer one. For a bit it was really short videos. Normally I don't have the time or brainwidth for long youtubes, but I do for his
My experience in Calgary has been very different. We've been here for almost 20 years. I've had two ACL reconstructions (elective surgery because you don't need an ACL to walk, certainly not life threatening) and waited less than 6 mos after diagnosis. My sister (also in Calgary) just tore her ACL and it's less than 4 mos from injury until her surgery (with her choice of surgeon) in the middle of COVID. My partner had an admittedly shit doctor but that was his own fault for trying to get a family doctor through a walk in clinic. He's since found a new one with no issue. You can certainly choose your own GP. I just recently had an excruciating back pain issue and was into the doctor an hour after I called. And guess what? I'm not bankrupt either, which I appreciate immensely.
Getting stuck in the cycle of treatable (but expensive in our system.) Health conditions affecting ability to work in right to work locations is a problem. People are treated as disposable labor and if you can't work, you are let go, and then can't afford to treat your health issue. When I worked for SS disability, a huge chunk of people were in that boat. I felt terrible for them, trying to survive in our fucked up system, because they didn't ever qualify.