Thursday, January 3, 2008

Canadian Healthcare At Work...


Here's a story that you wouldn't hear from a certain American movie maker... Socialized medicine has its drawbacks. This story comes from the All News Radio 1130 from Vancouver.

"A Surrey woman's holiday in California has turned into a healthcare nightmare. The 68-year old needed emergency surgery after her appendix burst, but now she can't come home due to a lack of hospital beds.
Arlene Meeks has been in a California hospital since December 17th. Her family has been trying to get her transferred back to the Lower Mainland for 2 weeks now but they haven't had any luck.
Stephen Harris with the South Fraser Health Region says the issue is a shortage of ventilated intensive care unit beds, which are highly specialized. He says over the holidays, it's not surprising to see those beds filled up.
Harris says as soon as a bed becomes available, Meeks will be transferred to a local hospital. Arlene's daughter Kim says her mom is 'frustrated as hell', and she just wants to come home.
NDP Health Critic Adrian Dix says the issue is one that's continued to plague the Lower Mainland and he's blaming Liberal government cuts to acute care beds. "The number of acute care beds in British Columbia was reduced by 1,300 in the first mandate of the government, and some of the new facilities being opened won't be adding to that number."
Dix says the Vancouver Coastal and Fraser Health authorities issued reports last fall indicating they are 650 acute care beds short right now."


People in Ireland face this problem too (especially if you have cancer and you live in the Irish West). If you have some similar story, then let us know.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's in a way saying hello to privatization of healthcare here in Canada.

I was raised in the US, and moved to Canada in my teens. Eventhough there's a lack of beds for specialized ailments, our healthcare is still kick ass.

The All Seeing Eye said...

Thanks for your comment, Sharon. For the healthcare arguement in the US, I want to fully hear both sides of the issue. I do not like when facts are kept away from the public...

BAMBOO BLITZ said...

Yeah, there was a similar case about a year ago in which a young mother was forced to have a C-Section done south of the border due to a lack of hospital beds in the Lower Mainland (British Columbia). However, even though there may be some kinks in our healthcare system, I can rest assure that I'll never have to pay for any kind of surgery, an emergency room visit, or hospital stay with our universal healthcare system. Having said that, I'm sure that many Canadian politicians and corporate biz types hire their own private docs to fast track through the system.

The All Seeing Eye said...

Thanks for comment, Bamboo Blitz. I don't see American's being forced to wait in line for healthcare especially if they can pay for it.