Our public health care system is failing us.

[blackbird]

The sad reality is Socialism or a welfare state is like that. The government brings a system in for universal care and fails to deliver because they just don't have enough money, doctors, and resources to go around. B.C. has 900,000 people without a family doctor. So how many Canadians do not have a family doctor? Must be millions. The local walk-in clinic is only open for a few hours a day and people are lined up outside around the building to get in.  Totally inadequate for a town of 20,000.  They must wait an hour or more. I went to a walk-in clinic in Winnipeg a number of years ago and it was so crowded and I caught the Noravirus there. I was as sick as a dog that night. So much for walk-in clinics. Thousands of Canadians in need of urgent surgeries and treatments have been put on waiting lists and many died waiting. I would think if politicians and their supporters are going to bring in Socialist or public services, they should be prepared to fund them properly and run them efficiently and not be denying people necessary treatments and services. This is worse than no public system because they outlaw private services so there is no other option for people.

"I think when we hear about Canadians going overseas to seek medical treatment, it again is a reminder that our universal health-care system is no longer functioning adequately to meet the needs of Canadians," said Dr. Katharine Smart, president of the Canadian Medical Association.

"The fact that people feel they need to go to the United States or Mexico or Southeast Asia or somewhere else in the world to have their surgery or other medical conditions dealt with, I think reminds us that our system is failing."

‘Living in pain’: Canadians travel across the world to avoid surgery backlog (msn.com)

It should be mentioned that our interventionist governments, including all three or four levels,  federal, provincial, municipal, and regional, I believe also are a major cause of our massive housing shortage in Canada.  Governments control everything including what land is available to build on, and all the red tape regulations to obtain land and build homes on it.  This has created a situation where Canada has a huge geographic land mass and a small population but still there is a massive shortage of housing.  Look no further than our political leaders for the cause.

Edited April 22, 2022 by blackbird

[Michael Hardner]

We need to demand better, I agree.

[West]

The feds used to chip in about 50% of health funding. Now it's at like 20%. But yet they'll blow money on useless nonsense like vaccine identification rather than improving Healthcare.

[Nexii]

In NS it's about 10% of our population on the waitlist. Which is just the waitlist, that's not counting those who haven't bothered to sign up. And it doesn't count all those with family doctors who are too busy to realistically see you. Probably closer to 25% are not receiving basic care.

A lot of it is senseless gatekeeping. I'd argue that inefficiency is a much bigger problem than funding. Most medicines don't need to go through a doctor. Create a system that can self-regulate, costs need to be lower.

Wait times are like 2 years to get hormones for trans healthcare. But you can circumvent this with a private paid referral. How does this make any sense? The answer is the majority of our healthcare system just doesn't make any sense, because it doesn't have to as a monopoly.

[Army Guy]

It use to be almost every election platform had mentioned health care, today it barely gets a mention...the media is full of stories on how bad our healthcare needs a major boost, but for some reason Canadians do not care to talk about it any more, or force our government to talk about it...In fact i have seen on this forum people defending out health care system and promoting it as one of the best in the world...so perhaps we need a education, along with being more vocal to our MP's on just what condition our health care system really is...and what we expect of our health care...

When i got released form the military, i was on the waiting list for over 2 1/2 years, to get a family doctor, a friend of mine suggested writing to the premier of NB, I sent him a letter, within a couple of weeks someone from the health department phoned me and told me to go to this address for an interview, a new doctor had moved into town and i was now one of his new patients. Not saying it is going to work all the time, but i got tired of waiting 8 to 10 hours at emergency to see a doctor to get refills for my medications. 

Other countries have provided free education for all their medical people that they are short on. , and in return they are expected to serve the nation for the same amount of time, in a place that the nation chooses within the nation ..after they are finished they are free to work where ever they want...Same goes for their military service, they pay for the education, of their doctors /nurses, and they serve the same amount of years. 

[ExFlyer]

I think there is a severe doctor shortage in Canada.

Yes, that detrimentally impacts the health care system but, I cannot see how governments can correct that situation short of forcing doctors to be family physicians.

During this COVID crisis I came to be surprised how many doctors are or claim to be epidemiologist or similar. Every day there was a new specialist doctors giving their opinions. I came to the conclusion (maybe wrongly) that there are a lot of doctors not doing "doctor" work. Specialization seems to be the way doctors go for the higher pay and for more regular hours.

Almost every rural area has a shortage or no doctor. I guess the money is in being a specialist.

[Nationalist]

I've had the same doctor for 30 some-odd years. He and I are the same age and we both like to golf. His office is generally not busy (2 or 3 patients waiting) and he's a good doctor. My boys see him too.

However our socialized medical system is full of holes. As I understand it, in Ontario the hospitals are given increasingly smaller budgets to operate from. Nurses are now part-time workers and general staffing has been cut all over to save capital. Yet we spent how much on The Rona? We spend money foolishly. Bike lanes comes to mind. We also did damage to our small business base. Dumb.

Hospitals, Police and Ambulatory services need to have their budgets vastly increased. Nurses should be FULL-TIME and there should be more of them, there needs to be more doctors on staff at all times, A cop should be on very beat and visible, when an ambulance and/or fire fighter is needed, they should be there.

We sacrifice so much of the budgets on dumb-ass crap, that increasing these vital services should be easy. All it takes...someone who isn't interested in corporate or lobbyist desires.

Edited April 26, 2022 by Nationalist

[RedDog]

Health Care in Canada is essentially rationed, as a dear late friend said 30 years ago.

I was in ER a week ago with a mini stroke since confirmed and now live with the damage. I didn’t see a doctor for 5.5 hours. The ward was essentially a drug and alcohol detox sleeping centre. It was not health care.

[Nexii]

On 4/26/2022 at 3:50 PM, Nationalist said:

Hospitals, Police and Ambulatory services need to have their budgets vastly increased. Nurses should be FULL-TIME and there should be more of them, there needs to be more doctors on staff at all times, A cop should be on very beat and visible, when an ambulance and/or fire fighter is needed, they should be there.

From what I understand in NS it's the opposite problem. Our nurses are full time but since we don't hire enough, we end up paying out premium overtime rates excessively. So we get worse care and spend more money for it

[Nationalist]

32 minutes ago, Nexii said:

From what I understand in NS it's the opposite problem. Our nurses are full time but since we don't hire enough, we end up paying out premium overtime rates excessively. So we get worse care and spend more money for it

You have to wonder how basic math skills disappear once people come to political power. 

Edited April 30, 2022 by Nationalist