ten, 15 years ago, if he walked into emergency and the wait was four hours people would get angry. “they’d tell me: ‘what the heck is wrong here? i expect better care as a taxpayer in a first-world country.’
“now, i come into the room, and the wait is double that, eight hours, and i say, ‘i’m so sorry, mr. jones, for the long wait.’ and they’ll say, ‘you know what? i’m just grateful someone is seeing me.’”
there’s a sense of resignation, as if we’re in elisabeth kubler-ross’s acceptance stage of grief. “we shouldn’t be coming to terms with this,” chochinov said. we shouldn’t be shrugging our shoulders and saying, “i guess it’s the best we can get.”
what people do get when they can access it is often expert care, atkinson said. “we really do have world class care.” on twitter, people have described being “beyond grateful” for the people who saved their life after suffering a subarachnoid hemorrhage shovelling their driveway last winter, or that a sister, hospitalized with pneumonia and sepsis, is
“receiving excellent care and not going bankrupt in the process.”
“the quality of care is amazing. our access to it is poor,” atkinson said.
respiratory therapist alex parent: “you’re just trying to get in, see them quickly, and go on to the next one…. it’s very demoralizing.”
william orsua
cuts to beds and staffing since the late ’80s “has created a situation of scarcity,” howlett said. there’s no redundancy, he said. “everything has been held together by this very thin wire.” stories of sick patients languishing in waiting rooms and packed in noisy corridors has again renewed debate over state-monopolized medicare, with growing voices asking, why not allow people with the means to pay for it, quicker access to care? ontario plans to increase surgeries performed at private clinics, but covered by ohip. for-profit care would be a solution for some people, said health policy analyst dr. michael rachlis. “but overall, it would make things worse by making medicare — physicians, hospital care — less available to the people who most need it, which, of course, is skewed to people who are poor and have less money.”