Cornwall Ontario – With the province rationing health care times a big question that’s starting to loom is whether this City is paying a price for electing Conservative Jim McDonell not once, but twice during this near 15 year run of Liberal governments in the province.
Not only that, but the last McGuinty election win was a minority because they missed by one seat. That seat was SD&G which was lost after former Liberal MPP Jim Brownell bailed on his team allowing a weak offering against a strong Blue machine led by Eric Duncan.
Brownell had been able to leverage a bit of extra love for the riding, but since that it seems that things have been very miserly.
The community built and renovated new health facilities at CCH, but forgot to find a solution to the amount of hours and services available to those that pay the way.
You can’t blame our Chief of Staff who can only work with what he has to work with. As it is, CCH cheaps out by only having a part time COS. Meanwhile administrators like Jeanette Despatie, and some of her team are raping the public purse. Does it make sense for EOHU poobah Dr. Paul to pull in over $300K to do bad radio ads on Corus radio and hire Quebers at the EOHU?
Some of those admin dollars could surely be used to up the amount of Doctor hours that CCH has available, especially during flu season.
Yes, the hospital could do a HUGELY better job educating the public. Why it boycotts the largest newspaper in this city makes no sense as we have the largest audience and don’t charge as much as our competition.
But that aside people are going to the emerg because the province simply isn’t funding enough GP’s and specialists in the area. An ounce of cure is worth thousands if not millions in tax monies.
And of course most people never really care until they’ve spent over eight hours in the emerg waiting for treatment while wondering if they’ll catch C Diff in the process?
I was there because I could not swallow and I starting coughing up blood while I was in the waiting room. I thought I had strep throat but when I missed work the next day because I had to go to the clinic I found out I had a severe lung infection that had to be treated as soon as possible. Something needs to change because someone is going to die in the waiting room one of these days and then what.
I was there on Tuesday May 23rd. I showed up at 5:02 pm and left at 12:30 am without seeing anyone. One doctor for the whole hospital is absolutely unacceptable. One mother brought her son who was hacking and coughing to CHEO at 11:45 because they couldn`t take it anymore. The city needs to do something about this.
I`ll tell you what makes things worse, a severely injured young girl who`s ankle / leg was completely shattered and everyone could see it. 1.5 hours after they had arrived
a man in his early to mid 20`s comes in with a swollen ankle. He got in to see a doctor pretty much right away. Why…. His girlfriend is a nurse at the hospital
2 minutes prior to that a little boy was vomiting everywhere. It only took the janitorial staff about an 1.5 hours to come and properly clean it. People were losing their minds seeing this stuff happen.
People were leaving and driving to Alexandria to go to the hospital. Some left and went to Hawkesbury and some even drove all the way to CHEO
These of course are anecdotal comments and don’t represent every person’s experience. Go on social media and facebook is filled with horrendous stories of woe at CCH. Clearly management is failing the staff and patients which of course also puts the staff under that much more pressure which can lead to errors.
What can the average person do? Not much. You can write the minister of health. Our MPP is all but useless.
OR people can pull together. We’re going to add a petition below. If 1,000 people signed it I can assure you it’d be read in Queen’s Park. If 1,000 people sign it I bet we can get 250 to rally in front of CCH asking for more health hours for doctors.
If 1,000 people sign it I bet we can rent a bus or two and send 100 to Queen’s Park and demand more hours of doctor service for CCH.
The government only responds when enough people demand something.
It’s up to you. We’re a community newspaper and lord knows I’ve had a few visits to the hospital myself. I’ve been pretty lucky, but I know some people who haven’t including one woman that just lost her Mom to C Diff on MOTHER’S DAY!
What do you think dear CFN viewers? Are you willing to take action to help make some change? Please sign the petition and you can post your comments below.
Please note that signatures don’t show up right away.
[emailpetition id=”17″]
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Belt tightening in the wrong places hurts us all.
My daughter had to wait 10 hours and counting at the Ottawa General Hospital on Smythe Road and we were there all night and part of the morning and she had viral pneumonia. We didn’t know what it was and she was very sick back in 08. I gave hell to the head nurse of the ER to no avail – first come first serve and others ahead were not sick and left. No water in the machines either only pop.
I read the article about the girl who went on the trampoline or whatever they call it and got hurt – a broken foot – that would have hurt tremendously and had to wait long hours to see a doctor. The govt. is cutting on doctors and the health care system is in the toilet. No matter who gets in as PM it isn’t going to solve the tremendous debt that was put on the people of Canada and Ontario.
I hope that the young girl who got hurt on the trampoline received help for her broken foot. If she were in Ottawa she would have waited even longer and gangs going ahead of her. I know that feeling we have been through it all. My daughter fought with me tooth and nail not wanting to be in the hospital at all. The hospitals are a broken system and it would take a miracle to change.
As long as there are big debts in the health care system along with everything else nothing will be done. Some years ago PM Harper went in the Ottawa General ER for something very minor and he was taken in right away and everyone else had to wait for hours and hours. I know what all of this is about and it is a broken system and all the good doctors are retired since the government forced them.
Both Liberal and Conservative Ontario governments for over 50 years have failed to address health care realities. Firstly the foreseeable impact on the system the baby boomers would have and secondly the unsustainable union demands which have lead to thousands of hospital beds being removed over the last 30 years. Thirdly people “thinking” health care was free. Completely predictable situation.
Hugger it is going to get even worse because of the baby boom population that we are and the pension system as well will take quite a squeeze as well with higher taxes, etc. I remember when working in the govt. and having to pay so much for health insurance and then after nothing only if I wanted semi private or private. The carbon taxes are for the rich elites and not for global warming.