BC’s Broken Medical

I spelt the evening yesterday in a BC emergency ward and I have to say that I am ashamed. I used to think we had this great medical system that provided medical care for everyone both rich and poor. Yesterday I found out that simply is not true.

My daughter had serious appendicitis symptoms, which needed to be looked at by a doctor. I shuddered at the thought of taking her to Surrey Memorial. The wait times at Surrey Memorial are horrendous. Her abdominal pains ended up easing and she then had flu symptoms so we stayed home and monitored it.

The next day the pains in her side returned so we went to a walk in clinic. They all were full and stopped taking patients. I told them of the seriousness of the situation and expressed concern about the bad reputation Surrey Memorial has. They suggested Peach Arch. We discovered the wait time there was four to five hours minimum.

I say an older lady who had fallen holding a compress to her head for hours. As her hand grew tired I saw her head was covered in blood and she was holding the compress on her head to stop the bleeding. All she needed was for the wound to be cleaned and dressed and she’d be on her way. I felt ashamed watching her wait. I wanted to clean the wound myself.

There was another woman who brought her young child in because he had swallowed some pills by accident. She was waiting a long time and grew tired. The boy’s older sister expressed the concern to the triage nurse that he was stating to go to sleep, something we are told not to let people who have swallowed pills to do. The nurse said that’s fine, let him sleep and the doctor will see him when he gets a chance.

The mother was noticeably worried and had her hand on her son’s neck feeling his pulse as he slept. I was ashamed. As a parent I felt we could do better.

The observations were many and the occlusion was shame. I’m ashamed that our emergency ward is scams. I was told by a doctor many years ago that it is politically hard for a doctor to be able to work in an emergency room. The doctors in have a monopoly on the privilege and like to let the room back up so they can see more patients per hour and make more money.

I don’t know if the crisis is a scam from the doctors or the Campbell government. Budget cuts to medical and big fast raises and pension for politicians. That is just plain satanic. Free medical is a good thing but horrific line ups makes the medical obsolete. Perhaps it’s a political scam to allow private or public private partnerships that can charge more money. The bottom line is that our medical system is broken and I am ashamed. We need to staff emergency wards better.