Health-care concerns

Re: “Ombudsman highlights gaps in care for the most vulnerable” (Gazette, Sept. 19)

Overly long waiting periods for desperately needed homecare, deplorable living conditions in public seniors’ residences, a gross lack of properly trained health-care providers who are often rude to their patients, legalized euthanasia, not enough palliative care — is this what exists and what lies ahead for a good portion of Quebec’s elderly population?

It appears so, judging from Quebec ombudsman Raymonde Saint-Germain’s scathing report released last week.

As a health-care professional, it is shocking to see that Quebec’s health department has virtually ignored sevenyear-old recommendations from the ombudsman, and that they are not even aware that private residences serving people with mental health problems even exist, let alone that they must be certified with quality-control measures established and enforced.

If the best indicator of future behaviour is past behaviour, and the government continues to ignore its ombudsman, what is the solution? It would seem that once the elderly and or mentally ill enter the “system,” they will need a black-belt advocate present with them, fighting for them, when no one else seems to care. In our reasonably advanced society, is this just?

It is mind-boggling that Premier Philippe Couillard is not taking emergency measures to try and rectify this abysmal situation. Perhaps he should be reminded that during election time, the elderly population loves to vote.

Nathan Friedland, RN

Roxboro

Charlie Fidelman reported on the acute gaps in care for the disabled and elderly, citing the increase in complaints, up 10 per cent from last year. Quebec government ombudsman Raymonde Saint-Germain further noted that 19 recommendations in previous reports are still pending, dating back to 2007-08. Long wait lists for home assistance or placement are ever growing. There is a lack of proper training and staff competency in most nursing homes. They rely heavily on family or paid companions’ support with feeding and care. If not for them, these most vulnerable patients who cannot speak for themselves are left to slump in wheelchairs in hallways, day after day, calling out, their dignity ignored and their decline hastened.

These people were our teachers and providers.

I have my own story and experience in the “system.” I believe there are a multitude of others. I strongly suggest the government to invite those affected to relate these stories, not merely complain, and perhaps set up a website to collect them and, hopefully, influence the federal health minister, Rona Ambrose, to allot some of the $55.5 million targeted to find a cure for Alzheimer’s and other dementia diseases by 2025 to the families, the ground troops, who are struggling with it and need help now.

Rona Shefler Heft

Westmount

Re: “Homecare in Quebec is profound- ly inadequate” (Editorial, Sept. 24)

In these days, when the only concern of our Liberal government is to cut back on its annual deficits, or else face the wrath of those who determine the interest rates of Quebec-government bonds, it is only appropriate that if The Gazette is recommending additional spending on homecare services, that you should also correspondingly suggest where those additional funds can be found.

Are you recommending higher daycare fees, higher university tuition, higher electricity rates, higher income, sales or gasoline taxes? Are you advocating lower salary increases for all provincial employees or anything definite?

Your readers are reading every day about Premier Philippe Couillard’s objective to right government finances. Any specific appeal for additional governmental expenses will be treated as a non-starter unless it is accompanied by revenue sources that will at least match those expenses, if not exceed them.

Quebec, we have a problem.

Robert Marcogliese

Montreal

It’s 8:15 Wednesday evening. You develop yet another urinary-tract infection. You know there are antibiotics that will start killing the infection within the half-hour, but they must be prescribed by a doctor. What do you do? You have five choices: Call your family doctor — and find her office has closed. The message tells you to go to emergency.

Call a private clinic — and find they’ve all closed. The message tells you to go to emergency.

Call the health line — and have a nurse tell you what you know already. Or to go to emergency.

Call the CLSC/CSSS — and find there’s no doctor on duty, even if they’re open.

Go to the emergency room at a hospital — and wait for nine hours to get the prescription, which you can’t fill because all the pharmacies have closed. Of course, this is not really an emergency, and so your place in line in ER could be taken by someone with a real emergency.

Medical crises frequently happen after 6 p.m., or on weekends. This is very worrying for parents with feverish howling children, or older people with limited mobility and a simple medical problem.

I have a solution — and I hope Drs. Philippe Couillard and Gaétan Barrette, premier and health minister respectively, read Gazette letters to the editor.

The CLSC/CSSS clinics are situated all over Quebec. They have dedicated staff and equipment to cope with medical situations. They are easy to get to from almost anywhere. They are usually paired with a pharmacy.

Why not make these CSLC/CSSS clinics the entry point to the health network that they were supposed to be when they were instituted? Keep them open 24/7, and have at least one doctor on hand at all times. The need to go to hospital ERs will drop, leaving ERs with real emergencies; and the public will have a place to call at 8:15 on a Wednesday evening, a place where someone can write a prescription.

Drs. Couillard and Barrette, are you listening?

Nora Hague

St-Lazare