Love our health care system!! NOT

[welcometowitsend]

So last week I took difficult child to the paediatrician and the he wants difficult child to be seen by the psychiatrist again because of the continued behaviour issues. difficult child was on a rant in the docs office which is good because he got to see that the current medications have not helped his behaviour at all - so he may have been depressed but that's not why he's so angry because that hasn't got any better at all.

The referral was faxed over to the psychiatrist before we left the office but I didn't get a call. I finally got hold of them today - drumroll please........ April 15, 2013 at 9:30am!!! 5 months we have to wait! That's just peachy.

Gotta love our health care system that limits how much our doctors can make so they just don't work as much and/or leave the country for the USA. Ugh.

 

[trinityroyal]

WTWE, I hear you.

I just had an appointment with a specialist over a problem with my feet. 18 months after I received the referral from my family doctor. And that was with a cancellation to bump up the appointment date.

 

[SuZir]

WTWE, I hear you.

I just had an appointment with a specialist over a problem with my feet. 18 months after I received the referral from my family doctor. And that was with a cancellation to bump up the appointment date.

Wow! Maybe I will stop whining about having to wait for public health care. We had a new law few years back that gives the maximum waiting times for non-urgent care. If public health care can not give you treatment under those times, they have to buy treatment for you from private sector with no extra expenses for you. Maximum waiting time is six months and that or close to that you often do have to wait for things like varicose veins surgery or cataract operation, same with routine dental check up if you are not having any problems. Psychiatry tends to be one of the worst in waiting times (some reason young doctors are not wanting to specialised to that, so there are simply too few of them. And they can't really bring psychiatrists from other countries like they do with some other specialists, language barrier is just too much) and it's not uncommon they go little over the maximum time for non-urgent adult's first visit (which is 3 months, I think at least 10 % have to wait little longer.) In fact even our private sector can not guarantee quick first psychiatrist appointment. Month or two to wait is common. My difficult child has lucked out in being part of a pro sport team. It seems that they can get him treatment very quickly.

 

[welcometowitsend]

Trinity - That is so frustrating. My husband needs shoulder surgery. 12-18 month wait for the specialist appointment then 3-6 months for the MRI test then another 6 months for the surgery. So that could take 2.5 years!! He has decided to wait until he is retired because the surgery is not urgent - necessary but not urgent and he will be recovering for a minimum of 6 months afterwards.

daughter has waited 2 months for a follow up appointment with a dermatologist which isn't horrible but I've had to cancel the appointment because we are overbooked and now we are bumped until January 7th.

difficult child and easy child's paediatrician is the only one in our area that treats behavioural and psychological issues in children. So we have a long wait because no one else wants these kids. He's a great doctor and gives you his undivided attention when your appointment arrives. He has even worked Saturdays to try and deal with his backlog.

The problem is that our doctors salaries are capped and why would they work all these extra hours if they are not going to get paid? Who wants to work for free? My husband who is a tradesman can make more money in a year than some of these doctors and that includes specialists. It's wrong. These are highly educated men and women with a lot of responsibility on their plates. I read an article last summer that stated how much some of these dr.'s make and I can't remember exact $$ amounts but it's a lot lower than I ever thought it would be.

 

[welcometowitsend]

SuZir - I like that law that you have in your country. In Canada they will send you to the USA if it is urgent and you can't get the service here fast enough or it isn't available but that does not happen very often.

My Aunt's stepdaughter was sent to a facility in Arizona for 6 months to deal with her eating disorder and my son's friend went to Chicago for brain scans last summer. That kind of thing. But, like I said, it doesn't happen very often. They should take the money they'd spend on those kind of patients and get something implemented in Canada so we don't have to send our patients elsewhere for emergency services.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Ontario caps physician salaries? Really? UGH!
There's better ways of dealing with system abuse and fraud than penalizing all the good ones.
AFAIK they don't do that in our province.

 

[DammitJanet]

That is starting to happen down here with our new health care. Not getting political but because of what insurance, especially medicare and medicaid, will pay doctors they cannot afford to be in private practice at all. They have to join large corporations that are associated with hospitals so that the malpractice insurance is divided up between all the physicians working for the hospital. The whole "the more the merrier" adage because it is far cheaper that way. My long standing psychiatrist used to be a one man office and we all loved it that way but he simply couldnt afford to do it anymore. He was paying for a billing clerk, a receptionist, rent, himself and doing that all while taking medicare and medicaid patients along with those with regular insurance and self pay. Medicare and Medicaid are now only paying 10 bucks a visit if that.

 

[BusynMember]

Well, I'm grateful we're getting healthcare...finally. It's ridiculous to have to pay because insurance isn't a right. Who asks to be sick? What good is it to be able to get in fast if you can't afford to go at all or if you lose the roof over your head because you needed surgery?

Of course, a certain unamed govenor we have (and I hope we boot next time) refuses to expand Medicaid, but, if necessary, we can always move across t he border to Illinois. But I do have to admit it hoovers big time to wait all that time to get services.

 

[Kathy813]

I agree with MWM. People that do have insurance here get fast appointments because people that don't have insurance do without because they can't afford to go to a regular doctor nevermind expensive specialists.

It looks like we are finally going to get my difficult child covered thanks to the affordable healthcare act. She will qualify for the government program for people with pre-existing conditions. No insurance company will touch her. Sad, though, that she already owes thousands of dollars in hospital bills for two recent stays. Her only choice is to go bankrupt and start over. Hopefully, the Affordable Healthcare Act will keep this from happening to others in the future. I don't mind waiting longer for appointments if people like my daughter will finally get coverage.

Just my perspective as a mom whose daughter desperately needs access to healthcare and will finally have the means to get the help she needs.