The weight of the wait I am a U.S. citizen married to a Canadian. We have recently relocated to Nova Scotia, where I had the privilege of a virtual medical ...
Bruce MacKinnon's cartoon for Jan. 13, 2022.I am a U.S. citizen married to a Canadian. We have recently relocated to Nova Scotia, where I had the privilege of a virtual medical consultation with Dr. Jabu Abraham. Upon entering his name in Google, I was immediately led to Paul Schneidereit’sI am so puzzled and troubled by the situation my family are in, that I was compelled to write.
Among our friends who identify as liberal, the consensus was that we were fools not to move to Canada and that, given the opportunity, they would, too. The conservatives laughed at us and said: “You’ll be back.” They aren’t wrong in the short term; we will have to fly to the U.S. for basic medical care. My biology won’t stand on principles, however deeply I believe in them.
Why isn’t it going to change when some aspects are so obviously fixable? Because it would require flexibility, creativity and pragmatism, all qualities entities like governments generally not only lack, but detest. I’m thinking it takes a Franklin D. Roosevelt, if that means anything in Canada. In November of this year, our Mom, in her 95th year, was taken by ambulance to the Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre in Amherst, where she was diagnosed with pneumonia.
Our family was extended privacy, empathy and concern by all those who cared for our Mom, which made our final days with her as comfortable and bearable as they could be under the circumstances. At long last, 5 o’clock arrived and everyone struggled to their feet. I finally reached the door, only to be told: “Sorry, we’ve got all we can handle.” So I took my cough and went home.
I had to wait one full week while in pain to meet the specialist. Upon examination, she informed me that I might need a surgical intervention, but an MRI/CT is required. They can’t make any decisions before the imaging is completed, which might take weeks or months. Also, I have been on a family doctor waiting list for over eight years now. I requested an MRI for lower back pain over two years now and still have no idea what's happening!Re: “I was meant to be a healer, not a micro-manager.” Thank you to Dr. George Burden for his informativeThis should be obligatory reading for all Nova Scotia MLAs, particularly the minister of Health and Wellness, and Premier Tim Houston.
Sadly, each political party promises to make fixing health care the top priority pre-election, but, of course, this promise, if not forgotten, is modified once in power and our wait lists and wait times keep getting longer. B.C. is currently in the process of overhauling their family medicine situation by taking a different approach. I hope the Nova Scotian government is studying their approach closely and looking at adopting some of these changes right here.
Specifically, he outlines the silos of Doctors Nova Scotia, the medical school, the Health Department and Nova Scotia Health. This comprehensive report, not surprisingly, was relegated to the already overcapacity shelf and with the attached cynicism created. Health care is Nova Scotia’s and Canada’s largest industry, yet it operates without guardrails. No business can operate this way and be successful.
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