July 27, 2022 – One of the biggest things the Covid-19 Pandemic has done is show how truly weak and messed up our healthcare system is.
This isn’t something that can easily be fixed. Money alone will not solve the issues which impact different provinces differently depending on their systems.
In Cornwall, the city just lost its largest walk in clinic putting more pressure on its only hospital which was already under pressure. Add in less doctors working in Cornwall from Quebec and you have the potential for crisis, if not the reality of it.
This is an issue across the board. We’re short of staff from Doctors & nurses, to simple support staff and paramedics. We’re redlining. Millions of Canadians will get sicker and die because they simply don’t have a GP, don’t get tests and preventative health measures, and many can’t even get their prescriptions filled.
It’s beyond partisan politics. Frankly this writer is mystified when I hear more people complaining about Airport and passport delays than hours on end and no beds at emergancy wards.
We have an accountability issue in this country. If we pay a bureaucrat nearly $400K per year we should expect results. If they fail we need a new person. We also need to realize that if healthcare truly is important then we have to voice that and make sure the political party’s understand how important it is to voters.
Right now in Ontario we have dollar pinching on healthcare when it comes to nurses with an actual bill to hold their wages down. We have doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers quitting. I can’t imagine how hard it is to work in some healthcare enviornments for these workers.
They don’t need platitudes. They need their voices to be part of the solution. We need a taskforce with seats at the table for patients, healthcare workers, and government. We need immediate action.
Right now you have workers leaving the system and working for spot agencies. You have workers leaving the system period.
And while many workers in the system burn overtime hours they pay a huge tax burden. They don’t get to truly benefit from those hours as they get taxed heavily for overtime. That’s a disincentive when you’re burned out.
How about implementing a Crisis policy for three years giving the system time to breathe and catch up and hopefully attract more workers to the field?
Create Crisis shifts. For example when we hear about hospitals putting out a call for “volunteers” or having to close up an emerg?
Those designated shifts for workers who normally would be on overtime would be tax free. The workers would not only have a larger incentive to perform them, but there’d be an incentive for some to leave agencies and return to staff which we appear desperate for.
We need to make it easier and less stressful for healthcare workers now. And that includes support staff, especially PSW’s.
We need better Tele Health, and we need to ramp up Pharmacists being able to do more. There is more to our Healthcare crisis than Covid-19. We have an aging population without a place to go. We have mental health issues with no real supports unless in the most dire of situations.
This isn’t rocket science. Most of it is simply common sense. You have a major problem. You triage it and take immediate action.
It’s what doctors and nurses do every single minute of the day in our hospitals.
Isn’t it time for politicians and bureaucrats to do the same, because people dying should be criminal neglect, and that’s really what’s been happening, our healthcare systems have been neglected.
It’s time to change that.
jamie@cornwallfreenews.com
Prevention is important for cost savings But it must be cost effective. Seaway Valley HC has a senior fitness program The program uses volunteers but there are serious administration costs. It would be very interesting to have a story about the actual dollar per hour cost per participant. I think it will be eye opening.
It’s not just a local issue with reduced medical services…it’s all across Canada and beyond. There is a bigger agenda at play.