I am excited to have the opportunity to explore my thoughts to the public on health care issues via columns in the local paper. As a long time rural resident and health care worker I have many experiences on both sides of health care I have come to feel passionate about. Please recognize that the opinions expressed are mine alone, not my family's or co-workers or my employers. The public are free to read my column, to agree or disagree and perhaps to respond. Canadians are fortunate to live in a democratic country where freedom of speech is a right where as in other countries not so much.
One of my heroes is John Gormely because of his frank no-nonsense attitude and supporter of use common sense at his radio show. I have found myself calling his talk show many times when discussion surrounds health care. After working in the health field as a LPN for 35 years I have developed a passion for its many issues. There have been many advancements made to the care of our health, for example: MRIs, CT scans, improvements in cancer treatments and surgery. Seems the problems often surround the availability of accessing the treatment instead of the success of the treatment. This maybe where we have lost ground especially in rural settings.
Whether we accept the fact that money availability makes many decisions around our personal health care, it is a factor. Government must make decisions on how many doctors, nurses, technicians, and support staff have jobs and on how many patients get MRIs, surgeries, or number of long term beds in a community because it all equals money.
Difficult decisions must be made in order to balance the amount of dollars available and where it is spent. Of course we all want our needs met. If you are a patient waiting for surgery, you want more O.R. time, if you are waiting for placement in long term care you want more beds in your community. Perhaps you are an employee so would prefer to have wages and benefits increased in your contracts. Since we live in Canada we don't directly pay for the service we want. I think this is both a blessing and a curse. We may have the funds to afford buying a service but we are not allowed to because Canada has a universal system to make access fair to all.
I hope to stimulate discussion around how we feel about our system and perhaps how to have the decision makers hear our opinions. At one time local people sat on health care boards so we had a direct impact on how to spend our allotment of tax money. Now appointed board members don't necessarily, live in our communities and may not hear what our needs are. They may not have the desire to make the majority of a community happy but instead are trying to stay within the governments directive. We all must abide by our employers policy to maintain our jobs. Are decisions made in order to retain jobs or gain votes to stay "in power'?
One recent issue is the number of long term beds. How is the number of beds made? On demand? On the number of people on the list? On the amount of taxes collected form a community? Does it make sense to close beds in a community where the building and staff are established and then build new facilities down the road? What are tax payers willing to sacrifice in order to gain or to meet the budget?
I don't know the right answer or the popular answer but I think we can all learn more about how our Canadian system works and I am hoping we all have a opportunity to make changes to whatever doesn't work.
Other topics I would like to address are: What does CPR mean to you? What is a Living will?, unions and their affect on health care, Provincial policy regarding lock down of public buildings and our access to family.
My goal is to cause some public debate on issues to concern you. I think we all can make a difference.
