Health Care

I have finally experienced the congestive heart failure that is occurring in our health care system. At one point I used to think that waiting for 3 or 4 hours was a long time to sit in a waiting room, but my significant other manage to spend close to 15 hours waiting to simply be seen by a doctor. Mind you it appears it was only a moderate allergic reaction, not life threatening, but also not something that could be treated without cortical steroids.

My significant other was relatively luck, but beside us was a teenager in a wheelchair. He was wearing his work uniform, the local grocery store, and was in that wheelchair because he had managed to hurt his foot rather badly and could not walk on it. His toe had been cut deeply and was wrapped in gauze, but after the first 7 hours it apparently started to soak through. This made me begin to wonder, "what, in our area, is considered an emergency serious enough to see a doctor in a reasonable amount of time?" The only answers I came up with were heart attack, stroke, car accident (sever one), severed limb (i hope), or trouble breathing. Basically if you are not dying you do not want to wait to see a doctor, unfortunately there are many reasons why you may need to see a doctor.

I guess as Canadians we need to consider creating incentives for doctors to stay in Canada. Rural areas are in special demand and will need to find a way to create extra incentives to attract and keep doctors. The problem with all these suggestions is that there is a large monetary cost that goes along with them. As a Canadian I am concerned, but I do not have the answer. I welcome any suggestions others may have.