Wellander gets date with life-saving surgery
Dean Baker remains concerned about system, after facing uncertainty
A weight will soon be lifted from Dean Baker’s shoulders, literally.
“I have gotten some really good news,” Baker said.
After raising concerns about delays in scheduling a life-saving surgery to remove a golf ballsized brain tumour, contacting his local provincial representative and sharing his story in this newspaper, the 59-year-old Welland resident received a call from his neurosurgeon telling him surgery has been scheduled for Aug. 27.
Baker said he was shocked to learn the life-saving operation could be done that quickly, after previously being told there were more than 50 patients awaiting ahead of him and that his neurosurgeon was only given a few operating room dates per month at Hamilton General Hospital.
He said learning that the operation had been scheduled is not only a weight off his shoulders, but also for his wife Anna, their two children and three grandchildren.
But despite his relief, Baker remains concerned about the process — and the other 50 patients who may still have to wait months before their surgery is scheduled.
While he’s pleased his surgeon has been allotted additional time in the operating room to accommodate his operation, Baker called “it unfortunate that you get into this situation” in the first place.
“Personally, I think it has a lot to do with budget cuts,” he said. “This whole system has got to be fixed, because once you get into a situation you want to know that your health-care system is going to be behind you.”
Niagara Centre MPP MPP Jeff Burch agreed.
“It’s a shame that it has to come to public complaints when people feel that they have to make their private health issues public to get some action,” said Burch, who sent a letter to the Ministry of Health and Hamilton General Hospital asking them to expedite Baker’s surgery.
Burch said his constituency has heard from numerous people with similar concerns about operations they’re waiting for.
“There’s clearly a backup,” he said.
After years of underfunding by the previous provincial government, Burch said the current administration continues to fall short of providing adequate health-care resources.
“People clearly want the provincial government to give us better health care, but the fact of the matter is we were spending the least out of every province under the Liberals,” he said.
And despite commitments from the Progressive Conservatives to end hallway medicine, Burch said the funding being provided still falls short when inflation is factored in.
“They’re forcing our system into crisis, and at some point it has to give,” he said. “When we’re talking about people’s health, people are going to suffer.”