‘Does this mean I should start planning my funeral?’
PQ GOVERNMENT POLICY means Lachute woman might not get care at St. Mary’s
LACHUTE WOMAN
with cancer distraught because she expects to be denied care at St. Mary’s
PATIENTS WHO INSIST on going to hospital of their choice will have to sign waiver accepting risk
GOVERNMENT CUTS to radiotherapy budget will decimate program, Jewish General says
Nina Wozniak has been in a state of shock, and it’s not from her diagnosis of breast cancer 10 days ago but from what happened after, when she went to see an oncologist at St. Mary’s Hospital this week.
A resident of Lachute, Wozniak has been totally distraught since she was told by the doctor that he might not be able to take her case because of where she lives, and he would refer her to a clinic closer to her home.
She has worried about her language rights and, more recently, the religious rights of Quebecers in light of the proposed charter of values, but Wozniak had never considered the possibility that her right to health care might be taken from her — on the basis of where she lives.
“It never occurred to me that I could be penalized in this way because of where I live,” said Wozniak, a mother of four who learned she had cancer on the eve of her 40th birthday. “This is such a stressful time for me as it is, but this is only adding to the stress. It’s completely unfair.”
She said she was in “utter disbelief ” that the Parti Québécois government’s policies and budgeting could be having such an effect on her.
The Jewish General and other Montreal hospitals have been ordered to stop treating off-island cancer patients beginning April 1, although Health Minister Réjean Hébert said on Wednesday that it was just a budget adjustment to reflect decreased numbers at the Jewish, and that patients are free to go where they please.
By law, the doctor told Wozniak, he couldn’t refuse her treatment. “But he wouldn’t get paid for it, so he would have no choice but to refer me to another hospital or clinic, closer to my home,” she said. “Why is Pauline Marois trying to kill me?”
She will begin to have her tests there, she said, but the doctor couldn’t promise that she could complete her treatment at St. Mary’s. And she’s not sure that insisting she be treated there is the answer.
“Of course it bothers me if a doctor is not going to be paid for treating me. That could affect his ‘dedication’ to helping me get better,” she said.
Compounding the problem is that she lives “in cow coun- try. The only good doctors out here are veterinarians.”
Wozniak said she has always gone to St. Mary’s. “I can’t believe now that I’ve been diagnosed with something that could kill me, I can’t go there,” she said. “But I understand that if he’s not going to get paid for me, he won’t treat me.”
She has been a bundle of nerves, unable to sleep, worried she will be denied the care and expertise she needs.
“Everyone knows the Jewish and St. Mary’s are excellent centres for cancer,” Wozniak said. “You don’t just want to go anywhere.”
As if facing breast cancer when she has four children (age 16, 8, 7 and 5) isn’t tough enough, the worry about where her treatment will be has intensified her anxiety.
“I was anxious to meet the doctor who would see me through this already frightening journey,” she said. “Now I find out the care I want may be denied to me. Does that mean I should start planning my funeral?”