{"id":19530,"date":"2018-02-22T14:41:24","date_gmt":"2018-02-22T19:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/?p=19530"},"modified":"2018-02-22T15:21:51","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T20:21:51","slug":"socialized-medicine-is-free-but-leads-to-really-really-long-wait-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2018\/02\/22\/socialized-medicine-is-free-but-leads-to-really-really-long-wait-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Socialized Medicine Is “Free” But Leads To Really, Really Long Wait Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Last November, CTV News in Canada ran this incredible story about growing wait times for medical care in Canada due to its socialized medical system: \u201c\u2018It\u2019s insane\u2019: Ont. patient told she\u2019d have to wait 4.5 years to see a neurologist.<\/a>\u201d Here\u2019s a slice:<\/p>\n

An Ontario doctor says health-care wait times have reached \u201cinsane\u201d lengths in the province, as one of her patients faces a 4.5-year wait to see a neurologist. When Dr. Joy Hataley, a family practice anesthetist in Kingston, Ontario, recently tried to send a patient to a neurologist at the Kingston General Hospital, she received a letter from the specialist\u2019s office telling her that the\u00a0current wait time for new patient referrals is 4.5 years. The letter said that, if the delay is \u201cunacceptable\u201d to Dr. Hataley, she should instead refer the patient to a neurologist in Ottawa or Toronto.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Dr. Joy Hataley said she was shocked when she received this letter from a neurologist\u2019s office. Dr. Hataley, who has been outspoken about wait times and other issues plaguing Ontario\u2019s health care system, said the wait time \u201cshocked\u201d her. She wanted to shock others as well, so she tweeted a photo of the letter above and tagged Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins and Kingston-area MPP Sophie Kiwala. Dr. Hataley said she\u2019s used to hearing back from specialists who are unable to see her patients for months, and even up to 2.5 years.\u00a0 But a 4.5-year wait is \u201cinsane,\u201d she told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview. \u201cThis is an alarm bell,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat it is to me is a red flag to the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Dr. Hataley first pulled up the response from the referral, both of us were just seeing the wait time first hand, I was just in disbelief and shocked,\u201d Wooldridge, a 40-year-old developmental service worker, told CTVNews.ca in an email. \u201cThe more I thought about it after leaving her office I was just annoyed and felt that this is ridiculous and not in any way okay.\u201d\u00a0Wooldridge said she will continue to live with chronic pain and be cared for by Dr. Hataley until she can see a neurologist. She said she shouldn\u2019t have to travel outside of Kingston to see a specialist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t honestly feel that I should have to go to another city when we have a neurologist 4.5 minutes up the road and I\u2019m a resident of the city in which my taxes help go towards,\u201d she wrote. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s right or fair to drive to another city\u2026it\u2019s financially not easy for me to just pick up and go, as much as I would like to.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(h\/t Peter Krieger)<\/p>\n

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Related<\/strong>: This is from the\u00a0executive summary<\/a>\u00a0of Canada\u2019s Fraser Institute\u2019s most recent annual report\u00a0\u201cWaiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada, 2017 Report<\/a>\u201d (emphasis added):<\/p>\n

Waiting for treatment has become a defining characteristic of Canadian health care. In order to document the lengthy queues for visits to specialists and for diagnostic and surgical procedures in the country, the Fraser Institute has\u2014for over two decades\u2014surveyed specialist physicians across 12 specialties and 10 provinces. This edition of\u00a0Waiting Your Turn<\/em>\u00a0indicates that, overall, waiting times for medically necessary treatment have increased since last year.\u00a0Specialist physicians surveyed report a median waiting time of 21.2 weeks between referral from a general practitioner and receipt of treatment\u2014longer than the wait of 20.0 weeks reported in 2016. This year\u2019s wait time\u2014the longest ever recorded in this survey\u2019s history\u2014is 128% longer than in 1993, when it was just 9.3 weeks<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>(see graphic above).<\/blockquote>\n

In the video below, Ronald Reagan tells the joke about waiting ten years to get a new car in the Soviet Union. Here\u2019s my variation of that joke for the Canadian medical system.<\/p>\n

A patient in Canada is told by a hospital administrator that there will be a five-year wait for an appointment with a neurologist. The patient asks, \u201cWill that be in the morning or the afternoon.\u201d The hospital administrator asks, \u201cWhat difference does that make, it\u2019s not until five years from today.\u201d The patient says, \u201cWell, I have my next dental appointment on that day in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n