Some problems you can’t just wash away. The hot topic in Cornwall if not in all of Ontario is health care. Chiefly slashes to health care budgets which of course lead to job cuts.
While there are plenty of fingers to point ultimately the bottom line is that we as Canadians, at all levels of government really need to educate ourselves on how these vast sums of money are being spent to fully appreciate and understand the current crisis our Medicare system is in.
I find it a bit hypocritical of organized labour to be screaming to the rafters as jobs are threatened to be cut. Not that I blame them, but their rationale is to save jobs. It’s not about patients.
The problem in my opinion with our health care system is that it never seems to be about patients.
It’s about Doctors territory. It’s about nurses being over worked. It’s about artificial budgets. It’s about jobs. When is it about patients?
Our current medicare system is a grossly bloated sponge that sucks billions of dollars out of our government. For years governments have either added more money to budgets to keep various interests at peace and keep themselves elected or politically slashed budgets to get more votes at the expense again of what little services we get.
I have said it repeatedly we don’t get 25 cents on the dollar in actual medical services.
When you have Flora MacDonald doing commercials for us to donate so that Cataracts surgery can be done in India for $35 I shake my head. If you need cataract surgery here in Ontario the cost is probably 10-20 times that with waiting periods of up to half a year or longer!
It almost pays us to go to India and have Flora fix up our eyes!
We as Canadians need to tell our governments across the board what we want for healthcare. We need to stand up and make decisions and not let others do so especially when they are lobbied by drug and insurance companies.
The Unions need to communicate issues to the public not only at contract time or election time. Doctors need to do a better job rather than just dehumanizing the process.
We need better preventative care. We need to make choices and let politicians know that if they don’t respond to the will of voters that they and their party may lose our support.
We need to take the partisanship and corporate influence out of Medicare if we’re ever truly going to save it, and have it be more accountable and productive.
We know that people in Cornwall care about health care. Their contributions to the local hospital were incredible. Now it’s time for the people of Cornwall to have a bit more say about what happens inside the building.
Feel free to post your comments below. What do you think Canada? Are you willing to help save Medicare?
(Comments and opinions of Editorials, Letters to the Editor, and comments from readers are purely their own and don’t necessarily reflect those of the owners of the Cornwall Free News, their staff, or sponsors.)
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Well said Jamie.
Jamie
Your article is an excellent overview of the main problems facing our health system not just in Ontario but across the country. The bloated bureaucracy is a big part of the problem. When we see many vice-presidents in a hospital like Cornwall’s making 6 figure incomes, it’s time to take a closer look. It is simply ridiculous.
The Ontario government is in a bind. With the rapid decline in revenues because of the lost manufacturing sector, they are coming up short. Hence the HST to boost their reveunues.
We have to remember that Ontario is a ‘have not’ province now after years of being the economic engine of the country. The people in Newfoundland must be looking at us now and saying: “Now you know what it feels like to have high unemployment and a declining economy.”
I agree that the entire health care system needs PREVENTION as much as anything. We have to keep people out of hospitals as much as possible by keeping them healthier. Easier said than done.
Hi Kevin,
They say that awareness is half the cure. I think the goal for people that care about Medicare is to try and make as many people as possible aware of the crisis we all are facing.
I’ve seen it first hand and it’s scary. The government seems to be “culling” the herd and it’s just plain wrong.
RE:
Long-term Patients Causing Bed-shortage Crisis at Hospital (according to a Cornwall Community Hospital Press Release)
What kind of political brown-nosing administrator would blame cancelled surgery on patients? That’s what a hospital is for, to take in people needing medical care …patients.
Emergency, long term, or chronic care, that’s what a hospital is for. It’s for everyone in need, Quit with the specializing, classifying and comparmentalizing services and patients. Get on with serving the entire public need.
And enough of the “bullshirt” about beds. You’d think they were running a hotel. It is reported that actual beds and rooms are available but sitting unused! Apparently the term “beds not available” is bafflegab and obfuscation; beds are simply not being made available.
And just what other resources are these “alternate level of care” patients taking up? Because if it’s just a bed, what the “Sam Hill” are the doctors, nurses, and surgeons that would be handling the cancelled surgeries doing. Not many are wiping erses …that’s for sure.
A new hospital, a community being tapped for millions …and for what? An overpaid administration, waste, mismanagement, excuses and blame …and blaming the ill of all people.
For crying out loud. Maybe our administrator should focus this incompetence …go all the way …buy every bell and whistle, and offer every service possible; drive the hospital absolutely bankrupt if that’s what it takes to provide the services our community needs and deserves.
“Then what?” you may ask. Simple enough …ask Dalton’s corporate buddies, GM and Chrysler, how it works.
Ok, am slowly making my way through your editorials, which are impressive.
The topic of health care is one I am very passionate about and want to do some work on. I could do a series of articles on how people use alternative care to stay well when they have chronic conditions as there is quite a number of services in this town. Also, Mehran Faradani has alot to say about the subject of why he no longer will work for hospitals as they are so corrupt.
People talk to me about their health, it falls naturally into the kind of person I am, so perhaps this is an avenue to pursue.