Paralyzed B.C. teen gets apology for long surgery wait

Hey kid,

Yeah we know you needed immediate surgery to fix your back, but for reasons that are ridiculous I'm sure we instead dinked around for 27 months until you were forced to seek treatment elsewhere.

Now you can't walk. Oops, our bad.

- B.C. Ministry of Health

How often is that person moved to the top of the list there because he was at the bottom too long?

How many more people have to suffer or die needlessly while we hold onto a public system?

About 1/1000th the number who'd needlessly suffer or die in a private system.

About 1/1000th the number who'd needlessly suffer or die in a private system.

I'd ask you to back that up but we all know where that'll end up....you offering your opinion as fact.

About 1/1000th the number who'd needlessly suffer or die in a private system.

I'd ask you to back that up but we all know where that'll end up....you offering your opinion as fact.

And you can back up your assertion that going to a private system would reduce suffering and dying needlessly? Certainly not true in the US.

How many more cases like this before we invest in our much more efficient public system (vs US)reduce the stranglehold of the CMA and use many more nurse practitioners for routine primary care, freeing up docs for the more complicated stuff. Invest in disease prevention and appropriate care for seniors and others that don't need to be in hospitals but have nowhere else to go. ETC.

About 1/1000th the number who'd needlessly suffer or die in a private system.

I'd ask you to back that up but we all know where that'll end up....you offering your opinion as fact.
You can read above to see that it was you, not I, making the initial unsupported claim. Give us some stats that indicate that fewer people miss out on healthcare services in a private system. Otherwise get back to the office and sell someone some Scotch-guard.

We already invest enough into healthcare.

We don't invest enough into education about healthcare, and education about health in general.

I don't know how many people I personally know that have over taxed our health system by refusing to see their family doctor regularly. So, something that could have been dealt with efficiently, quickly, and safely (for the patient) ends up in one of the single most expensive units in our health system...why?

Use the savings from that to get more family doctors and nurses to more Canadians.

I'm not advocating a private system. Never have, never will. Offer Canadians choice.

Do you need stats to know that allowing Canadians to seek care in another jurisdiction while still being covered by their provincial health care plan would be a benefit?

Picture this as your mother. Your mother has a condition that not acted upon quickly will result in her never walking again.

Would you not prefer the option to seek care elsewhere rather than be forced to wait an amount of time that will result in her being paralyzed or would you prefer to get a second mortgage to save her legs?

I find it cruel to make people that need urgent surgery to wait in order to save a few bucks. We're putting a price on the well being of people. We offer this to some people, but not all. That's not right.

The town that I live in has a fantastic family doctors office, with 4 doctors. The hospital close by, is fine-ish. But if you have something serious, you will be transferred to Vancouver. My neighbour had a prostate surgery in Vancouver (8 hours away). My other neighbour had her radiation therapy in Kelowna (3 hours away) and I thought chemo in Vancouver. I mean, seriously???

We have a mammogram machine in the hospital here, but not a digital one. Kelowna (my family doctor thinks) or otherwise Vancouver. REALLY???

My neighbour's knee surgery was done at the local hospital and she found the rooms plain dirty.

They built a brand new Heli pad 2 years ago. A week or so ago, a guy and his 4 year old step son got into an accident while quadding in the mountains (the little one died ) and the guy broke his back, legs and more. He was heli-lifted to the local AIRPORT instead of the hospital heli-pad. 16 million dollar heli pad and it is NOT being used. Why?

Nice fencing, Errol.

I don't believe the public system is to fault. It's the same public system I remember as a child where everyone got the medical treatments they needed. The problem as I see it is that governments are free to remove money from the system whenever they need to balance a budget or put money into something else. Less money in the budgets, less operating time.

I don't believe the public system is to fault. It's the same public system I remember as a child where everyone got the medical treatments they needed. The problem as I see it is that governments are free to remove money from the system whenever they need to balance a budget or put money into something else. Less money in the budgets, less operating time.

Add to that the aging medical care intensive population.