Access to medical care in Nova Scotia

The other day my mother, 78, slipped and fell. She was helping a friend, who had fallen and broken her foot a week ago, get out of the car after taking her shopping. She turned and caught her foot on the curb and took a tumble landing hard on the right side of her head/face.

She received a lot of help. Some workmen helped her up and put her in a wheelchair. A woman living in the condo is a retired nurse and came to help. Mom was cut above her eye and blood was gushing out like a wildcat oil well. The condo superintendent called 911 and then called me. I got there after the EMT's arrived. They took great care of mom and said she should go to the hospital and get checked out. They were worried about a concussion more than anything else. Her face around the eye and cheek was already bruised and swollen. Since I was there, and an ambulance ride costs $500-600, I drove mom to the Dartmouth General Hospital.

We got there around 11:300 AM and the Emergency Room was packed. Some of the people ahead of mom at triage had injuries such as a bleeding nose that needed to be cauterized, a sprained ankle, a migraine, and other assorted injuries. Mom had a head injury with ;possible concussion. We left the hospital around 6:10 PM without having seen a doctor.

Everyone who was there before we arrived was in AND out of the ER. Lots of people who came in after us were in and out. Mom was still waiting.

I don't want to knock the staff that works at the hospital as I know they do their best with what they have. But if mom's injuries were so insignificant that she was on the bottom of the totem pole, someone with a bleeding nose that was packed and not bleeding got in hours before we left, then why didn't they tell her that and suggest she see her family doctor the next day, or the duty doctor that day? A few hours after no signs of concussion showed they could have suggested that. It boggles my mind that a nose bleed and a migraine were given priority over a 78 year old woman who fell and was possibly concussed.

Why was the wait so long at the hospital? Well, people go there to have things treated that could just as easily be seen by a family doctor or a duty doctor at a clinic. A migraine. A cold. A sprain. One woman came in to get IV antibiotics, at her family doctors request, for an infection. These are all things that should and could be dealt with at a clinic or doctor's office. Yet people go to the ER and clog it up.

One of the things I loved about Korea was the care you could get IN a doctor's office or clinic. Needed a blood test? They drew the blood AT the doctor's office. You didn't have to go to a special clinic that is only open a couple of days a week or the hospital. You needed minor stitches? Clinic. Needed an x-ray? Any doctor's office I was at in Korea had an x-ray machine. Need IV antibiotics? Doctor's office. You didn't have to go to the ER, let alone the hospital, for minor things. Add to that there are enough doctors in Korea that you can walk in without an appointment and reasonably expect to see the doctor in less than an hour. The access to health care in South Korea makes Canada's access seem ... third world.

Then you have another problem making things worse at the ER. No beds in the hospital. A lot of patients who SHOULD be admitted to the hospital have to wait in the ER for days for a bed to become available. The mother of a friend had a mini-stroke last December, at the time they thought it was a full stroke. She spent THREE days in a small room in the ER waiting for a bed to become available in the hospital. When my mother had congestive heart failure 3 years ago she spent over 12 hours in a bed in the ER waiting for a bed to become available in the hospital. That is an insane situation.

A lot of the hospital beds are being taken up by people waiting for beds to open in long term senior care facilities. Twice while we were waiting in the ER a "Code: Census" was announced. Another person waiting went up and asked a nurse what that meant and was told it meant there are NO beds left in the ER and they can't admit anyone else until one opens up. It was over an hour before they took another patient into the ER to see a doctor.

In Nova Scotia there is a shortage of long term care facilities for the elderly, hospital beds, doctors, and nurses. Which makes what the Provincial Government wants to do now obscene. They want to take $47 Million of Federal money slated for infrastructure and use it to put towards having a new convention center built in Halifax. THAT is pretty fucked up.

We currently have a convention centre in Halifax that is NOT being fully utilized, the World Trade and Convention Centre. Also there is the Summit Place, a convention centre that was built to host a G7 meetings in the 1995. Why in the blue hell do we need another centre? One built with government money? If a new centre was REALLY viable the private sector would be ready to build it without government money.

The $47 Million dollars that the Dexter government wants from the Federal government was slated for infrastructure investment, mainly repairing and upgrading the roads in Nova Scotia as well as recreation centers around the province. I could see them wanting to take it away from roads for another infrastructure area, let's say long term care facilities for the elderly or more hospital facilities and staff, but a convention centre that we DON'T need?

I thought things were supposed to be different under an NDP government? The Dippers are more worried about "the people" than business. I guess that was just a lot of bull shit used to get themselves elected. Like any other party. Based on the expense scandals, donation scandals, and bullshit like this convention centre and self congratulatory spending one would think it was the old Buchanan government in power and not the Dippers.

If you HAVE to take $47 Million in Federal infrastructure funds away from from roads you should be putting it in health care and not a white elephant Mr. Dexter.