We’re waiting, but it’s no game
Atlantic Canadians angry over delays in our medical system
Well, I asked for it. I tagged a request onto the end of a column on the prevalence of delays in our medical system, asking people to write me if they were experiencing delays of their own.
And I got emails, plenty of emails. The best way to describe them? Reasoned, resigned and palpably angry. The delays, for all over the Atlantic provinces, can be summed up in three major classes: delays in diagnostic services, delays in surgical procedures and, more often than not, an inability to find family doctors taking new patients.
From Cape Breton, the story of a man told in December 2014 that he would need a CT scan; by May 2015, he finally had a requisition for the scan, but the scan wouldn’t be for seven months, set for Oct. 23, 2015.
“OK,” he wrote, “Now I am waiting for results.”
From P.E.I., a story about a woman suffering months of gastrointestinal distress, only to be given a date with a gastroenterologist a further four months away – she opted for a private and expensive colonoscopy in Montreal instead, an option she candidly admits isn’t open to everyone.
Rural Nova Scotian patients unable to find family practitioners at all. A P.E.I. resident who waited three months for an eye exam, only to be told he had a cataract and should not drive. The cure? Well, a one-year wait to see an eye surgeon.
“I am now dealing with P.E.I. health care trying to get permission to go off-island – with not much luck. I have friends in Nova Scotia – three to four months from start to finish. Calgary? Two to three weeks, start to finish. P.E.I.? One to two years if you are lucky. It does not make sense for a 10 to 15 minute operation.”
The delays seem to be worse if the cure’s more involved. I heard from a family in rural Nova Scotia with a relative on a waiting list for seven months, only to be told that the date for major abdominal surgery was cancelled. The reason given? The surgeon’s waiting list had grown too long. The new date? Wait and see.
“Our family was reeling … our lives are on hold, unable to make any major plans until this problem is dealt with.”
Another family has been waiting seven months for something as simple as having a large kidney stone removed from a family member’s bladder. The stone causes blockages, pain and a host of other problems, but there’s no schedule for treatment: “I cannot get even a tentative timeline … the elective (surgeries) were for the most part cancelled during the summer.”
Then, “My American friends wait two weeks for knee replacement and one of them waited nine days to get a liver transplant after being told he might have to wait up to six months (not years). I told my doctor four months ago that I had two serious choking incidents while eating and have to be extremely careful and cautious every day while eating. I’m still waiting for my appointment date to see a specialists so he or she can shine a light down my throat. … You’ve opened up a hornets’ nest, but have a great day anyway, Russell.”
And all this is cast against research released this week that indicates one-third of seriously ill patients or patients in hospitals have inaccurate information on their charts, indicating that they want expensive and invasive emergency resuscitation if their heart stops. The short version? We’re spending money saving people who are ready to die, while not finding enough to help the living live.
It’s time for a big change.