Health care betrayal
Making our health care system function better in B.C. can seem complicated. There is our aging population, the rapid advances in technologies, and health care labour shortages in critical areas, just to name a few factors. Then there are the financial needs of acute care versus the resources required for preventative care. All of this can lead to a sense that making things better requires complex solutions.
However, sometimes an issue comes along that has a simple solution, and it can be frustrating to watch it become complicated – especially when the simple solution would have saved money, which we all know is an important priority when it comes to the sustainability of our health care system.
One of those situations arose recently when a constituent of Stikine found himself in hospital with a collapsed lung. A specialist said he needed to see a thoracic doctor as soon as possible in Vancouver. Seven days later he was still sitting in a hospital in Hazelton waiting not only for a bed to become available but an air ambulance as well.
With the possibility of his condition deteriorating rapidly, Bill Nannings took the opportunity to make an interesting, and asute, observation.
“This is a broken down system,” he said, and if the B.C. government is so worried about escalating health care costs, then how about the thousands of dollars it was costing to hold him in a hospital ward while he waited for a bed closer to a specialist to become available?
The government decided to remove specialists from many rural communities with the assurance that when we needed it, a bed would be available to see one and an air ambulance would be available to get us there. As northerners, we know we can’t expect every specialist to be available locally or, with some, even regionally. So we had to live with the assurance that, when necessary, a bed would be open and a flight ready.
Was that assurance just words? For more and more of us, the reality is turning out much differently.
It’s a simple fix. Open up more beds for rural patients waiting to see specialists and increase air ambulance service. It will save money and is the fair and decent thing to do.