The Province is open for business, so long as you do not get ill and need a hospital

BY STEVEN KASZAB

Three to five years ago, I would go to the local hospital with one of my two mothers, both elderly with various health conditions. Back then our average waiting time was 6-8 hours during the week, and 8-15  hours during the weekend. After the front line nurses spoke to us, we were placed in a cubicle to wait for a doctor to see us. More time passed, sometimes 3-8 more hours. A nurse would make a short visit to see the condition of my mother and move on. I actually saw others who have waited a long time leave the hospital disgusted, angered and feeling hopeless.

Then the pandemic happened. One of my mothers was very ill, nearing the time where she would have to stay in the hospital. Over three days she waited on a gurney, being visited by nurses, doctors, and going for various tests. She developed blistering on her back due to her bedtime, being unable to walk to the bathroom. In the middle of this pandemic, this lovely lady lay terrified, in pain and lost to the world.

My wife, children and I took turns giving my mother our 24/7 attention. I eventually talked my doctor into allowing mom to return home, where she passed away in some form of peace, with her family at her side. A visiting nurse provided service and kindness to mom those weeks before her passing. Those ladies were marvellous, top notch.

Now the rant: where the HELL do we live? Canada, not some tin pot republic where the people are secondary to their leaders’ needs. Canada, where our ancestors provided for us a universal health care system. A place where we do not have bread lines, but a place where we have to wait for any form of healthcare. If the healthcare system in Ontario were a grocery store, and it provided the same services we would not shop there. We would look for better stores, with quicker premier customer service and quality of product. Yah, we would seek out an alternative!

There is no alternative to healthcare in Ontario, or Canada. If you’re wealthy you can arrange for private healthcare, or go to the USA, but the rest of us peons cannot. We pay into a health insurance plan that has not been working for decades, and is now falling apart due to the pandemic and a total lack of governmental foresight and investment into the system and its essential services. Our governments pay some people way too much, and those who are essential to our health and well-being NOT enough.

Premier Ford needs to end Bill 124, and make direct investments into the payroll structure of our nurses, medical professionals and doctors. Conservatives and their alternatives the Liberals bled the system dry by not investing in these essential pillars of our society. Of course they would be unprepared that the pandemic was upon us. They are seemingly still unprepared as an exodus of healthcare workers presents itself. The Premier says the Province is open for business, so long as you do not get ill and need a hospital.