Wait-time debate continues

Pamela Cowan
Leader-Post

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Joyce Manz’s blood boils when she sees government health-care ads depicting shorter waits for surgery in Saskatchewan.

“When the commercials come on TV, anything to do with health care, I could take my chair and throw it at the television …,” Manz said Monday. “I feel very helpless and now I’m very frightened because I’m on morphine.”

Manz was put on a wait list for back surgery in August 2006. When she called the Saskatchewan Surgical Care Network last week she was told her surgery won’t happen until February but she wasn’t given a reason for the delay.

“Honestly, I don’t know how I’ll wait until February,” she tearfully told reporters on Monday morning. “As far as I’m concerned, anybody who is believing the ads they’re seeing on television are being misled. I would like to know, what is being done about the hospital wait times?”

To control pain that shoots down her right leg, the 61-year-old Holdfast woman got a prescription for morphine from her family doctor last week. Although the drug controls the pain, Manz is terrified she’ll be addicted to the narcotic by the time she has surgery. Despite her deteriorating condition, she hasn’t contacted her specialist since she saw him last year.

Saskatchewan Party health critic Don McMorris said his party’s MLAs have received an increase in calls about surgical wait concerns over the last month.

“People seeing these government ads saying that waiting lists are shortened, people aren’t waiting nearly as long and that’s not what people are experiencing throughout the province,” McMorris said.

Health Minister Len Taylor acknowledged that surgical waits are long in some areas, but said since 2004, when Saskatchewan and other provincial governments committed money to reduce wait times and improve access, the Saskatchewan Surgical Care Network’s figures show the number of people waiting for surgery has declined by more than 1,000.

When Regina’s day surgery centre opens, the wait for day surgeries will drop further, which will free up operating rooms for orthopedic procedures, he said.

He said the Saskatchewan Party misrepresents the status of health care “to erode confidence in the health-care system and therefore the government.”

When conflicts occur between patients and the system, Taylor said patients should contact their health region’s Quality of Care co-ordinator — positions the government created for that purpose.

“The Sask. Party understands and I think choose to ignore the fact that people are on waiting lists as a result of assessments done by surgeons and that surgeons work to establish their waiting lists based on the blocks of time available to them,” Taylor said. “If a patient’s needs change, they should be constantly in touch with their surgeons for re-assessment and replacement within that surgeon’s waiting list block of time.”

The Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region has a long wait for some orthopedic procedures, which tend to be time intensive, said Trent Truscott, the region’s executive director of surgical care services.

“It also was one of the areas that was fairly hard hit in the summer because of cancellations due to the humidity concerns,” he said.

High temperatures and mechanical problems with one of the Pasqua Hospital’s chillers forced the region to postpone more than 200 surgeries because of the risk that the humidity could increase post-operative infections. Job action by the Health Sciences Association of Saskatchewan earlier in the summer also resulted in more than 50 surgeries cancelled in the region.

Truscott suggests that those who are concerned about surgical waits call the surgical care co-ordinators, follow up with their family physician and specialist or call the region’s client representative.

Question posted courtesy of: Caffeinated Content

This is a simple analogy for those who don’t understand the difference
Health Care : Health Insurance
Car: Car Insurance
Basically, health care is the hospital and the doctors and nurses and pharmacists and drugs in the hospital which help to cure your illnesses. Health Insurance is from a third party which pays for some or all of the cost of the health care while trying to make a profit. H.I. companies have the power of the purse which gives them the power to deny medication or treatments if they cost more than the patient pays.
For the purpose of this question it must be accepted that the health care system in the United States must be changed. So, is it better to have hospitals that are run by the government and paid for out of everyone’s taxes to provide adequate care for all patients or health insurance where hospitals are businesses and must still make some profit using an insurance fund which must be shared by everyone?

Question posted courtesy of: Caffeinated Content

What are the four categories in which medicines are classified?

Question posted courtesy of: Caffeinated Content – Members-Only Content for WordPress