January 19, 2023 – It’s been a scary few years in Ontario when it comes to health care. The system was already strained and corrupted BEFORE Covid. When the virus hit it truly exposed our greatest weaknesses.
The lack of care for elders and those that needed Long Term Care.
Psychological and mental health support.
The leakage of care to the private market and rising costs to patients from CPAP care to parking in hospitals. For example, a friend of mine needs cataracts. They are in their 80’s. Their option was to wait nearly two years or kick up cash to their Cornwall area specialist.
A drastic loss of GP’s and options for healthcare other than going to the Emergency ward.
Better electronic systems so that a doctor can get a better snapshot of a patient when they see them.
More video support of patients to streamline direction of services.
These factors are now redlining.
A person sick with either covid/RSV, or flu had to wait over two hours at a clinic, probably infecting other patients, on a cold Winter morning to wait to get an appointment for later in the day. This is third world.
Many with GPs have had delays to their doctors request for tests while the patient suffered. In this case the patient ended up in emerg and still hasn’t had their condition resolved.
Loading ...By choosing to not listen to the basic science of the situation we’re in we no longer have masking in situations where we clearly should have them like health care settings. Another example, my now ex Dentist in Cornwall, Dr. Sylvain Bosse allowed his patients to not wear masks. Sitting together in the waiting room, walking by open work areas with people coughing is insane. I had one appointment rescheduled because he caught Covid. I never went back.
The impact alone of not having sane preventative protocols during the worst season for flus, colds, and viruses have seen staffs in healthcare hit hard while struggling with surging patient loads. There are really no staff to replace them when they’re sick which is why we see so many hospital closures.
The solutions are so basic and simple it’s bewildering how those running healthcare in Ontario make their decisions.
In this crisis situation drastic measures needed and still need to be taken to pump up staffing levels and retain those truly amazing workers that have stayed through this mess. And it’s not all about just giving people raises, although if you don’t stay competitive you will lose your best workers.
The biggest problem is that we the public just don’t hold our system accountable enough. People making nearly $500,000.00 per year on our dime make horrible decisions based on politics without any accountability. Frankly it’s beyond belief if you ever start to look at the real numbers our system sucks up.
We need drastic action as people lives are at stake. The economy is at stake. It just makes no sense as the status quo is not working.
We need solutions for LTC to free up staffing at hospitals.
We need more health solutions for people before the end up in emergency wards.
We need solutions created within province to province to try and resolve crisis staffing.
We need investment in making the jobs easier to help retain our doctors and nurses. IE reduce paperwork for doctors so that they spend as much time treating patients.
We need on a longer scope a complete review of our healthcare spending and a task force that includes all of the stakeholders, and is independent of the government so that healthcare based recommendations can be acted on or not by a sitting government.
We need a Federal government that will enforce the Healthcare act and end this expansion of private healthcare as it doesn’t produce a better result for us overall; just those that can afford it, and the mistakes of the private system are still left on the hook by the public system.
You can’t stop Ontario from Private services and say nothing about Quebec and other provinces having them. The Feds need to step up and draw some lines and then fund what needs to be funded without letting some government’s pocket cash.
There are solutions. But people need to step up and become more active.
They need to email and call their MPPs and MP’s. They need to write letters to the editor. They need to do whatever it takes to get the political system to take action even if it means standing up and rallying.
Otherwise it just might be you at the mercy of Medical Roulette.
jamie@cornwallfreenews.com