Canadian health-care system is Fucked ?
 

SASKATOON ? The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association says this country's health-care system is sick and doctors need to develop a plan to cure it.

Dr. Anne Doig says patients are getting less than optimal care and she adds that physicians from across the country - who will gather in Saskatoon on Sunday for their annual meeting - recognize that changes must be made.

"We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize," Doing said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

"We know that there must be change," she said. "We're all running flat out, we're all just trying to stay ahead of the immediate day-to-day demands."

The pitch for change at the conference is to start with a presentation from Dr. Robert Ouellet, the current president of the CMA, who has said there's a critical need to make Canada's health-care system patient-centred. He will present details from his fact-finding trip to Europe in January, where he met with health groups in England, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands and France.

His thoughts on the issue are already clear. Ouellet has been saying since his return that "a health-care revolution has passed us by," that it's possible to make wait lists disappear while maintaining universal coverage and "that competition should be welcomed, not feared."

In other words, Ouellet believes there could be a role for private health-care delivery within the public system.

He has also said the Canadian system could be restructured to focus on patients if hospitals and other health-care institutions received funding based on the patients they treat, instead of an annual, lump-sum budget. This "activity-based funding" would be an incentive to provide more efficient care, he has said.

Doig says she doesn't know what a proposed "blueprint" toward patient-centred care might look like when the meeting wraps up Wednesday. She'd like to emerge with clear directions about where the association should focus efforts to direct change over the next few years. She also wants to see short-term, medium-term and long-term goals laid out.

"A short-term achievable goal would be to accelerate the process of getting electronic medical records into physicians' offices," she said. "That's one I think ought to be a priority and ought to be achievable."

A long-term goal would be getting health systems "talking to each other," so information can be quickly shared to help patients.

Doig, who has had a full-time family practice in Saskatoon for 30 years, acknowledges that when physicians have talked about changing the health-care system in the past, they've been accused of wanting an American-style structure. She insists that's not the case.

"It's not about choosing between an American system or a Canadian system," said Doig. "The whole thing is about looking at what other people do."

"That's called looking at the evidence, looking at how care is delivered and how care is paid for all around us (and) then saying 'Well, OK, that's good information. How do we make all of that work in the Canadian context? What do the Canadian people want?' "


http://www.google.com/hostednews/can...335rGu_Z3KXoQw

That's impossible. I was just reading on GFY this morning that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the Canadian health care system . . . . even though my Canadian friends say otherwise.

Well, perhaps you need a health care system that would provide you with glasses so you could read.

yep its working great here.
http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story...provider=gnews

I was recently told on GFY Canada had no waiting lines and treat cancer better than the USA. This has to come from some vast right wing non American Republican conspiracy in Canada. :1orglaugh

What does that have to do with the Canadian health care system?

:1orglaugh

My Canadian friends tell me the Canadian health care system SUCKS.

So both of them think the whole system sucks. Didn't say why but now you think it sucks. My German friends think Adof Hitler was a humanitarian. I guess I gotta believe them. Don't be so lame. Put up or shut up.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/04...ointsurvey.htm
seems from this survey by the nonpartisan cdc says different that our brothers in the great white north are pretty happy with their care.

yeah do it like America. If your poor and sick you deserve to die so doctors can treat people that actually matter. The less poor people the less welfare. win-win

Or an incentive for hospitals to provide unnecessary tests, treatments and stays so they can get more money. Like they do in America.

It did?.....

You are so right. When my father was dying. He was in for treatments weekly at this hospital.For chemo and radiation, they were taking tests and monitoring all the time. My fathers legs gave out of him they rushed him to the hospital. Immediately they wanted to do a battery of tests, that were performed 4 days earlier. My mother told them no go look in your fucking computer.They werent happy about that but they looked and had all the tests they would of put him thru again.

The system is indeed flawed, but it's not as prohibitive as the american system. I welcome an overhaul.

I've had a bleeding ulcer for 4 months, it took me 3 months to get into the specialist. It's another 2 months from now to get the endoscopy to find and treat the ulcer, then it's another 1-3 months to follow up with the specialist on my treatment.

In the meantime, my ulcer has caused me to develop an extremely painful hernia in my lower left abdomen where a fist sized chunk of my intestines are just hanging out, outside of my abdomen muscle wall. Will require surgery, but first I have to get an ultrasound. 10 day wait for that. Then I have to get into a specialist, 90 day wait for that. Then I have to book surgery, who knows how long of a wait for that.

Tell me that the Canadian health care system is working, please, I beg you.

Does Canada have some kind of system where some people get higher on the list ?

It seems some people get to the care ASAP but others have horror stories ?

I know someone who was on vacation in the UK and their daughter got ill and needed an operation or she would die. She couldn't fly until it was done and they waited there for about 6 weeks for a life threatening operation and then paid someone $20,000 and bam she got the operation within a few days and was back in the states a week later !

Republicans always have these friends who complain about the system. Oh, there is always something to complain about sure but where I live, I can be in and out of a clinic without any appointment within an hour most of the time. ER's arent so fast but thats why there are clinics. Too many idiots go to the ER for every little thing when they should be using clinics for non immediate/emergency care.

:1orglaugh how them looks usa?

yep, i've always said the heath care system for non-life threatening issues rocks here. it's so fast and easy to use, you don't even think about it. spending a month in a hospital back in 2004, well, that was another thing all together (not so good). atleast there wasn't a 100K bill at the end lol.

It needs to turn more into a preventative healthcare system, rather than crisis response which costs much more.

im guessing your not american:)

I think that most of the people complaining are in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, the Greater Toronto Area, which has 1/6th of Canada's total population crammed into the few townships surrounding Toronto.

Naturally its hard as fuck to get appointments or find quality care.

So if you live in the sticks it is an okay system? Naturally?

Should have the same system as Britain....rewards based on people actually being healthy, not more tests, or meds, but actually getting bonuses for people who are living better by not being on them.

You tell me, you seem to know more about our system then those of us who are happy with it and use it daily (monthly, whatever).

Think what you need to think.

Well I am glad that it is actually the doctors that are recognizing this and are willing to make some changes as we all know relying on our goverment is like relying on hamsters to power GFY.

i'm from brazil!

Some years back my large intestine was punctured. I almost died! I was rushed to the hospital and placed on the surgery bed IMMEDIATELY. They did not know who I was, they just knew they had to save me. The surgery was done by one of the best surgeons in Canada. I stayed in the hospital for about a week was told I was never going to walk again due to nerve damage. I walked about a week after I was released and have been about 95% ever since. I then had physio for 6 months. Guess how much I paid for everything? About $100 for the ambulance. I know you guys read and have friends that tell you this. But I live here and know MANY people with amazing hospital stories. The majority of the complaints (mostly from Americans who have heard from Canadians) I hear are wait times and it is usually from some person going to the hospital for something like a cold or sprained foot. Please tell me the American system is better, I beg you. :2 cents:

For every story like this, there are probably fifty successes. I have never known anyone with a critical condition to wait that long. Something is not right with this.

Or you get the best. I lived in Toronto and never had any complaints.

Dude i live in the same town as you we should meet up for a water some time, but that is your doctors issue not the health care system my sister had a similar problem was taken care of MUCH faster just an fyi. Mind you she is in BC so may be a west coast vs east coast issue. I have yet to really need anything in Ontario so not sure how fast the care is here.

doctors have in general always been opposed to heath care from the beginning as they could make more $ under a private system.

it's like asking a insurance company to give their opinion about the state of canadian health care.

No way, most of the small towns don't even have their own doctors, and the ones that do have to go on waiting lists to get a family doctor. They generally have to drive miles to the hospital if they need any kind of medical attention.

You see how bad the system is .... They can't even keep their promises .... How disapointing and unprofessional ..... :upsidedow

It's not all that uncommon. Unless you are like on your deathbed, things are very slow, and with the lack of medical isotopes, there's even BIGGER delays in getting testing etc. Fucking stupid govt shutting chalk river down.... dickwads.

just let us know we'd be happy to have ya :)

Yep it's all the people that don't have their own doctors they have to go to the ER and clog it up for everyone else. I had to have emergency surgery a month or so ago, and with all the waiting behind everyone else, I almost died. It was an ugly thing.. 18 hours in the er behind people with the sniffles, and when the surgeon removed my gallbladder finally, he said if the surgery hadn't been done within an hour or two, he was pretty sure it would have ruptured.. and considering I have a genetic bleeding disorder, there would have been very little they could have done at that point to stop the bleed. It was such a horrible experience, and I got such terrible treatment from the nurses, we will be following up with legal action. Even other patients were coming up to us saying "Wow you are in bad shape and they aren't doing squat, if you need to sue or need a witness, here's my number". It was a HORROR story.

i have seen the health care system from the inside over the last five ears due to family issues and the care has been impeccable.

sure some people fall through the cracks - but that is just the nature of any bureaucracy. most of the people you see complaining are professional whiners and nutjobs.

Health Care System is fine in Canada. It's not perfect, but if you get sick you WILL be taken care of..

lol. I always think back and they probably just said that to motivate me or something. I was walking with crutches after one week it took a couple months to get moving and build my muscles back up.

I could tell you just the opposite.....in Toronto as well. Not mine, but a relative that I took to Toronto East...not the fanciest facility...but as soon as they saw the condition she was triaged to the front of the line and looked after. It took hours of scopes and testing but it was done and the after care impeccable. I have seen medical care systems all over the world and have lived in England and seen the medical system in France first hand. They work. There is problems. Most of the problems are caused by those who don't pay attention to their medical needs in the first place. You know, regular check ups. Making sure you have a gp that will notice shit before you have a serious problem. Having additional private health care insurance (it has always been a two tiered system), and just understanding how the system works before you need it. I find most people totally ignorant of the medical system until they need it. Sometimes that is just too late.

BTW, forget the lawsuit. You can't afford to go up against the OMA and the settlement would not be worth it. I know about that as well.

:thumbsup yep that's been my experience too.

would have thought you were fully aware of the meaning of 'doom and gloom'

Who said "doom and gloom?"

Why does anybody CARE about the Canadian healthcare system? Germany's system is what we should be modeling.

http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi...nt/13/4/22.pdf

Never going to find a PERFECT system anywhere, but this one's better than what we got going on.

HHAHA hit my email up i live in Glen Abbey area

For as horrible as it is they seem to live longer than us.

I live in the USA and went to a GI specialists years ago, it took about two months or so just to get in there. It also took a long time for any other appointments with them. I guess GI specialists are busy no matter where you live.

I'm sorry to hear how bad Canada healthcare sucks. Why don't you all just move to the United States? :)