When I was in Maryland for my aunt's birthday a few weeks ago I chatted with one of my cousins' husband. He does finish carpentry in high-end homes and he was taking a "so far, so good" approach to the fact that he was still employed as the U.S. economy was taking a nose-dive. Unfortunately he just got the lay-off news half a million other Americans received during the previous month. We can pray that Doug and so many others in the U.S. and Canada will find meaningful work in a restored economic climate.
Something we don't think about here is that when many of our neighbours to the south are out of work they are also out of health benefits because they are insured through their employers. American right-wingers such as Bill O'Reilly love to deride Canada as a "communist" country because of our social system, but unemployed Canucks do ot have to worry about a loss of health care in hard times.
What about our lousy system though? What about the shortages of doctors and long wait times? Well, this Fall a number of our members have needed prompt attention for medical tests and surgery, and they have received it. We all hear about the delays and the horror stories but my experience as a pastor is that the majority of our folk are the beneficiaries of good to excellent care, in large part because of dedicated physicians. One of our members was told she had cancer on a Wednesday and her surgery took place the following Monday.
I serve on the Pastoral Services Advisory Committee for the local hospital, which includes the site manager and a physician. At our last meeting the doctor described some of the challenges and upcoming changes to health-care delivery in Ontario. At the end he told us that he still believes that our system is superior to one in which millions are uninsured.
Our social medicine was the brainchild of a determined clergyperson, turned politician, who saw that the poor and marginalized were not getting adequate medical care. Tommy Douglas' conviction about social medicine came out of his commitment to the social gospel. I hope we are grateful.
4 comments:
There is a lot of talk of Tommy Douglas out here in south-eastern Saskatchewan. He was a native of this area, and people are proud of that.
Unfortunately, health care is rough out here, mostly because those in the medical system are overworked. The majority of people in Saskatchewan are seniors, and this province does not attract new doctors. Here in Stoughton, we have a doctor that comes in once a week. If you need a doctor, and it isn't Wednesday, than you travel a half hour to Weyburn or Estevan or drive the distance to Regina. There aren't many options, and I am still struggling to find a doctor that I like.
I see a lot of people complain about the delays in the health system here, and sometimes the quality of care. But, through it all, there is still a lot of expressed gratitude that our health care is not like that in the states.
Our experiences have been very good with the health care system in Ontario. When Joe had a problem with his eye he saw 3 specialist on a Friday afternoon and after the surgery the specialist gave him his home phone number. Even my mother who lives in a remote part of Ontario and badly broke her ankle last winter, saw a specialist and was having surgery, less than 10 hours after the accident. We have been very fortunate and blessed with the health care we have received. Seems the media pick up only the unfortunate stories not the good ones, "if it bleeds, it leads".
I saw someone today who will have major surgery tommorrow. The surgeon gave him his email address and promised to respond to enquiries promptly, and did.
Deb points out the problem of delivering good health care to rural areas. I saw that in Northern Ontario, but there is no doubt that your mother is rural Nancy!
My thoughts echo Nancy's...although our system is far from perfect, the first hand experience and stories I hear, are positive but that doesn't make news....I hear Deb's concern though with small communities and their shortages, and also the "like" factor. When we moved a few years ago, "liking" the doctor we found couldn't be a condition...just finding an open practice was for all we could hope.We were lucky though, as the doctor that took us on decided he didn't "like" family practice either, and moved to the O.R., selling his practice to a great young doctor who like so many these days, had been trained outside Canada.
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