Is it time that our multi-system healthcare systems transform?

BY STEVEN KASZAB

North American’s are aging, while the number of births within the tri-nation continent is continually falling. Birth rates in the Caribbean have stagnated since 2023 now showing a 7.5% decline. If national governments could dream this would be a nightmare.

National unions pension plans are at risk, as the number of workers decline but the number of pensioners continue to grow. No corporation can run properly in this fashion.

By 2046, 4.6 million Ontarians will be aged 85 and older. The province has fewer than 500 hospice beds and 4,000 hospital palliative care beds available. Ontario’s healthcare ministry and the many hospitals it controls are not prepared for the massive growth rate and demands of the aged. Ontario does not have enough nonprofit hospices, old age homes, long term care facilities now, and with the upswing of conservatism within Canada, USA and the Caribbean there will be a movement towards restraint at a time, when necessary, investments in these aged services and institutions present themselves. This seems to be typical for our present-day government administrations who lack an interest in long term planning, with the needed revenue investments to be made for near future population demands.

What is needed? With the present-day migration of nurses, medical professionals and doctors moving from the Caribbean to the USA and Britain, there is a demand for trained professionals specializing in aged medicine, bereavement and grief training, hospice, and palliative care. Volunteers are being trained and relied upon to carry out the needed services that missing professionals should be doing.

The management within many facilities have allowed friends and family to fill these positions. While community involvement is commendable, what are our taxes paying for here? Medical, hospital and hospice centers are under the management and direction of the healthcare ministry, and these ministries are simply not doing the job they were assigned.

Lack of funds, certainly lack of personnel, lack of future financial gain has drained our healthcare ministries of their potential. Lives are at stake, and our politicians seem to be willing to fight the nurse’s, healthcare professional union rather than carry out the needed governmental process. Governments invest in the: police, military, and economic growth of the state while their fellow citizens suffer and sometimes perish.

The healthcare systems respond by training people and sending them into areas within the system that will reduce emergency room visits, hoping to reduce hospital stays and make it possible for aging clients to stay in their homes. Such protocols are being carried out in: Oxford (UK), British Columbia and Scandinavia. Hospice technicians have been successful within their practicing regions, utilizing various professions in a team atmosphere. Many traditional medical professionals within the hospital setting view these hospice professionals with prejudice and suspicion, creating further tensions within the healthcare system.

The pandemic has shown us that our healthcare system was not prepared in any way to respond effectively, and the systems managers concentrated upon revenue expenditures. No plans on how to respond, no excess staff to rely upon. This health event has happened before, yet those we rely upon claimed innocence in their often-failed reactions.

The aged within our area’s will also suffer this similar fate when our healthcare system, and its managers fail to: prepare, plan for, train and hire needed staff. It is all about the money after all. Problem is that it is our taxes paying for these: services, the managers and politicians to prepare and function for us, with us effectively. What do you do when you do not get the customer service you expect and are paying for?