Health Care???

First let me say that I DO NOT fault Emergency Room staff for waits that to each of us seem to be exceedingly long … doctors and nurses for long waits to have surgery … custodial staff for facilities that are not as clean as they once were … and workers that serve unappetizing meals shipped in from elsewhere and simply re-heated.  We seem to be able to pump an awful lot of money into the health care system but to the general public, it does not seem like we get the value we once did.  Why is that?

I am not one of those people that say the private sector should be doing more and more in the way of delivering public sector services, but with that happening, why does it appear we are we getting less instead of more?  Why does it appear our health care system is failing us? 

Last October the Canadian Institute for Health Research released some interesting figures that bear looking into.  It showed that in 2001 our public sector spending on health care was in the top third of Canada’s provinces – by last year we had slipped to ninth place ahead of only Quebec.  Ten years ago we spent ahead of the average – now we spend substantially lower than the average.

The investment in health care spending however is increasing, so are we getting more bang for our dollar; I believe most if not all of us would say “NO”. 

AND … despite increases to the health care budget, many smaller rural communities have few if any doctors available … and hospitals that once served their communities have been closed and mothballed.  In this day and age there is NO excuse to have hundreds and hundreds of people living in communities the size of Kamloops – or Chase and Logan Lake for that matter -- on wait lists to have a family doctor. 

Meantime, we end up with a bigger drain on emergency room services because people requiring medical care for minor things have no where else to go. I am sure you have your own ideas on what would help, a few of which would likely include:

• Doing whatever is required to eliminate the shortage of doctors and nurses in our smaller communities  

·         Opening more long term care facilities where our seniors can enjoy a comfortable home style environment.  These facilities need to be "reasonably priced"  (http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/article/20110103/KAMLOOPS0101/301039993/care-costs-crippling-says-couple) 

·         Increasing the availability of home care support and reinstate housekeeping and other services so that more senior citizens can live in dignity in their own homes

·         Encouraging the establishment of walk-in clinics, including those providing 24 hour service, to take the pressure off hospital emergency rooms that are seeing patients who do not require emergency services

·         Seeking the most cost-effective way of dealing with patients so that we can provide more rather than fewer services, reduce waiting lists for surgeries, and make more hospital beds available

Right now there are far more questions than there are answers to what will fix our health care system.  There is one thing I am certain of however, and that is the system will not be fixed by simply throwing more money at it.