Weird Sickness??

[cheamclimber]

Just cuz Im in canada doesnt mean i can just walk into the fucking doctors office whenever I want to..

 

ya it does

 

the office in chilliwack couldnt get me in for some reason... the

 

 

hmmm

 

but I just got better and all my fevers have stopped! Im totally helthy and happent to be going climbing now..

 

Maybe they have seen you before huh..

 

Climbing was fun.. I survived... no deaths occurred...

 

I rarely get sick so Im not very experienced with it... Ive never broken a bone either so Ive only been to the doctors a few times... Im totally fine now.

 

But JMace, I think your from Vancouver where there are lots of clinics but in Agassiz the only doctor refuses to see any more patients for some stupid reason and I wasnt feeling terrible enough to make my Mom get out of bed and drive me out to chilliwack at 11:00, and it wouldnt matter anyways because the doctors there all have 2 week waiting lists to get in. This is tye downside of free health care, lots of dumb people book time to see the doctor cuz of a runnt nose or bruise on their toe and the people that are actually in need of a doctor cant get in. Its not as serious in a big city where there are many doctor offices but in small towns with only a couple offices it doesnt work

Edited April 2, 2008 by cheamclimber

[JayB]

Doesn't sound like CC is entirely alone on this one:

 

Fixing a doctor crisis

 

FROM THE EDITORS | March 6, 2008 |

 

The term crisis is often over-used. But when five million Canadians do not have a family doctor, one-quarter of Canadians can't get same-day access to a physician, and wait lists are held responsible for $14 billion in lost annual economic activity, it qualifies as a crisis par excellence. Our Jan. 14 cover story "The Doctor Crisis" examined in detail the surprising reasons behind the critical doctor shortage in this country, including a greater prevalence of female doctors and the crushing workloads that simply burn out many practitioners. Now Canada's doctors have put their shoulders to this issue as well.

 

The CMA's current ad campaign "More Doctors More Care" (www.moredoctors.ca) argues, among other things, that Canadian schools should be allowed to accept more qualified candidates into medical programs. Solving the doctor shortage by adding more doctors is certainly a start, and the CMA deserves credit for making the suggestion. But the story of how doctors came to be in such short supply in the first place is worth a closer look.

 

In 1991 a report by health care academics Greg Stoddart and Morris Barer, commissioned by federal and provincial governments and later serialized in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, examined ways to control the country's rapidly growing health care budget. The report provided 53 recommendations, among them a 10 per cent cut in medical school enrolments and limits on foreign-educated doctors. Provincial governments quickly latched onto the now-ridiculous idea that fewer doctors would mean lower costs, and ignored the rest of the report.

 

So to solve a non-existent doctor surplus, enrolments were promptly reduced at medical schools across the country. This reduction, plus unforeseen demographic and economic factors, led to the genuine doctor deficit of today. Now, with six years required to produce new doctors, even immediate acceptance of the CMA's proposal will leave many under-serviced Canadians unsatisfied for years. For a quicker response, CMA president Brian Day cogently argues we should accredit some foreign medical schools currently teaching large numbers of Canadian-born students in countries such as Ireland or Australia, in the same manner that certain U.S. schools are accredited.

 

The bigger lesson here, however, is that any centralized plan for controlling our complex health care system will inevitably flounder on unintended consequences and bureaucratic hubris. Fine-tuning the number of medical school graduates up or down is not a permanent solution. Changing the focus of the system to put patients first, is. As it currently stands, the only effective means Canadians have to influence the quality or quantity of their health care is to lobby politicians. Patients need to be permitted a far larger role in their own medical decision-making. There needs to be a greater emphasis on choice, a bigger role for competing private sector delivery, less restrictive public funding models, greater use of technology and, oh yes, more doctors. "

 

http://www.macleans.ca/canada/opinions/article.jsp?content=20080306_34621_34621

 

Broader Overview Here:

 

http://www.macleans.ca/science/health/article.jsp?content=20080102_122329_6200

 

What kind of madness has taken hold at MaClean's? Questioning the perfection of the health-care model? Refusing to allow ministers in the CHRC to define what it can publish and generally refusing to be cowed by folks accusing it of printing "hate speech?" This is like watching the cast from "The Golden Girls" ditch the walker, mix it up in a bar-fight, and hold her own...startling stuff.

 

 

[Dechristo]

Yeah, well, Hillary's got this all figured out.

[Matt Kidd]

Misleading article. We are getting more and more of this sort of writing up here. All intended to undermine public healthcare. I am one of the 5 million - when I want to see a doctor I go to a walk in clinic. It works very well for me. With my current broken finger I walked in to a clinic, went for an ex-ray immediately, went back to the doctor immediately, and got into a specialist at the hand clinic at Vancouver General the following Monday (thursday when I first went to the doc). All of this was covered by BC MSP.

[Matt Kidd]

I would argue that the problem of getting physicians into small towns does not have to do with our system being public.

[Hugh Conway]

I would argue that the problem of getting physicians into small towns does not have to do with our system being public.

 

Oregon would argue the same. More to do with small towns being increasingly unviable economically.

[ken4ord]

Is it possible that you may have been exposed to Malaria? Even years ago?

 

That what I was thinking except I don't know if I would include the years ago part. Malaria usually gets bad in the evening and your joints tend to ache when the fever is present.

[cheamclimber]

Is it possible that you may have been exposed to Malaria? Even years ago?

 

That what I was thinking except I don't know if I would include the years ago part. Malaria usually gets bad in the evening and your joints tend to ache when the fever is present.

 

Thats weird but I don't think I was ever exposed to that.. but when I got up feverish at night and walked around my ankles really hurt

[archenemy]

I was thinking of the years ago part b/c I thought I remembered that it can resurface and is never really gone from your system.

 

But if not, then there are other common bacterial and viral infections that can cause these symptoms.

 

 

cc -- did your lymph nodes get involved at all? Did you notice any sensitivity or swelling in the sentinal nodes in your armpits?

When your ankles were hurting, were they swollen?

 

[rbw1966]

. . . I wasnt feeling terrible enough to make my Mom get out of bed and drive me out to chilliwack at 11:00. . .

 

Do all Canadian males still live with their parents, eh?

[G-spotter]

. . . I wasnt feeling terrible enough to make my Mom get out of bed and drive me out to chilliwack at 11:00. . .

 

Do all Canadian males still live with their parents, eh?

 

you do know that cc is 15 years old don't you?

[rbw1966]

Nope. Whats your excuse?

[archenemy]

ouch

[G-spotter]

Yo mama so dumb she tried to take your temperature with a ruler.

[JayB]

Misleading article. We are getting more and more of this sort of writing up here. All intended to undermine public healthcare. I am one of the 5 million - when I want to see a doctor I go to a walk in clinic. It works very well for me. With my current broken finger I walked in to a clinic, went for an ex-ray immediately, went back to the doctor immediately, and got into a specialist at the hand clinic at Vancouver General the following Monday (thursday when I first went to the doc). All of this was covered by BC MSP.

 

Are you sure they're all out to undermine public healthcare?

 

If there's a problem or a shortcoming with the system, I'm not sure how treating that information like a state secret will enhance the system's capacity to look after the Canadian public's well being.

 

If the public is satisfied with the status quo and think that there's no need for any improvement, then any critical article - no matter whether the author's intention - will fail to resonate with the public and you've got nothing to worry about. If there are people who are dissatisfied, I don't think that an infinity of articles that uncritically praise it will do much to change how they feel.

[Matt Kidd]

JayB:

"Are you sure they're all out to undermine public healthcare?"

 

No, I'm not sure of that. Generally, though, it seems to be true.

 

"If there's a problem or a shortcoming with the system, I'm not sure how treating that information like a state secret will enhance the system's capacity to look after the Canadian public's well being."

 

This I totally agree with, and I wouldn't have written anything regarding the article if I thought that the criticism was not ideologically founded.

 

"If the public is satisfied with the status quo and think that there's no need for any improvement, then any critical article - no matter whether the author's intention - will fail to resonate with the public and you've got nothing to worry about. "

 

This I agree with as well. We are not talking about one article, however. We are talking about a systematic propaganda campaign against public health care. Also, there will never be a system that will not need improvement. There are many parties in Canada who would benefit financially through the expansion of privatization, and they are doggedly pursuing it.

The article above is talking about the lack of GPs. It suggests that expanded consumer choice would solve this. How? Who are the people with no GP? There are many in the north, I'm sure. Private healthcare won't put doctors there. There are many in more populas areas as well, surely, but with a user-pays system would only ensure timely access to the adequately insured or wealthy. When people up here are asked about that framed in that way most think that access should not be class-based. To criticize the system and then offer an alternative with rose-colo(u)red (the "u" because that's how we spell it up here ) does undermine the system and does so unfairly.

 

"If there are people who are dissatisfied, I don't think that an infinity of articles that uncritically praise it will do much to change how they feel."

 

I also agree with this. It's too bad that negativity is so much more compelling.

 

I was listening to talk radio about a month ago and there was an "unbiased" discussion about public healthcare going on. Very critical. When they broke for commercial the first ad was for "False Creek Urgent Care", a private clinic "where the doctors wait for you". How exactly is there going to be a fair discussion when the actual station is being paid by one side?

 

There are problems, but it's getting hard to sift through the propaganda to the facts. Just my opinion...

[murraysovereign]

There have been articles decrying the state of the public health care system and proposing various ways to fix it for as long as we've had a public health care system. Before that the articles were decrying the state of the private health care system and proposing various ways to fix it. And before there was a private health care system there were probably articles decrying the complete absence of a health care system.

[JayB]

JayB:

"Are you sure they're all out to undermine public healthcare?"

 

No, I'm not sure of that. Generally, though, it seems to be true.

 

"If there's a problem or a shortcoming with the system, I'm not sure how treating that information like a state secret will enhance the system's capacity to look after the Canadian public's well being."

 

This I totally agree with, and I wouldn't have written anything regarding the article if I thought that the criticism was not ideologically founded.

 

"If the public is satisfied with the status quo and think that there's no need for any improvement, then any critical article - no matter whether the author's intention - will fail to resonate with the public and you've got nothing to worry about. "

 

This I agree with as well. We are not talking about one article, however. We are talking about a systematic propaganda campaign against public health care. Also, there will never be a system that will not need improvement. There are many parties in Canada who would benefit financially through the expansion of privatization, and they are doggedly pursuing it.

The article above is talking about the lack of GPs. It suggests that expanded consumer choice would solve this. How? Who are the people with no GP? There are many in the north, I'm sure. Private healthcare won't put doctors there. There are many in more populas areas as well, surely, but with a user-pays system would only ensure timely access to the adequately insured or wealthy. When people up here are asked about that framed in that way most think that access should not be class-based. To criticize the system and then offer an alternative with rose-colo(u)red (the "u" because that's how we spell it up here ) does undermine the system and does so unfairly.

 

"If there are people who are dissatisfied, I don't think that an infinity of articles that uncritically praise it will do much to change how they feel."

 

I also agree with this. It's too bad that negativity is so much more compelling.

 

I was listening to talk radio about a month ago and there was an "unbiased" discussion about public healthcare going on. Very critical. When they broke for commercial the first ad was for "False Creek Urgent Care", a private clinic "where the doctors wait for you". How exactly is there going to be a fair discussion when the actual station is being paid by one side?

 

There are problems, but it's getting hard to sift through the propaganda to the facts. Just my opinion...

 

Just a thought - but I think that providing the medical equivalent of "food stamps" - e.g. vouchers for the payment of medical expenses at licensed facilities would offer a bridge to cross the public-private divide.

 

I don't have time to drone on about the incentive structure for too long - but essentially it would combine a debit card (redeemable only at licensed facilities) for direct payment (no bureaucracy, public or private standing between physicians providing routine care and payment for services rendered), with a gap of variable "width" between the total annual payout from the card and a public catastrophic plan. I'd also add in an incentive to save by transferring a percentage of the un-redeemed balance into health savings accounts that could be used to fund the gap between the point where the payouts from the card end and the coverage from the catastrophic policy begins.

 

The evidence so far suggests that physicians are quite willing to cut their billing rate considerable for timely, up-front payment, since when it's all said and done - they come out ahead after eliminating the expenses associated with submitting claims for reimbursement from insurance companies.

 

I'd only advocate policies like this for a subset of the US population, but I think it would also work in a medical economy like Canada's.

 

 

[Matt Kidd]

I only know a bit about the different payment options, but I am aware that doctor billing systems up here are rather problematic. I plan to read more about these sorts of things when I have more time...

take care

[rbw1966]

I had a canadian doctor chase me down in a parking lot to pay his bill. I am sure that was an efficient use of his time.

[archenemy]

Exercise is good for your health.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Exercise is good for your health.

 

Especially push-ups, squats and lunges.

[Dechristo]

when you have a sore throat, the cherry lunges work well and taste best.

[KaskadskyjKozak]

when you have a sore throat, the cherry lunges work well and taste best.

 

Oh mercy, mon mercy, mon mont, mercy. Merci!

[Joe Friday]

If I chpped my arm off or something serious like that there wouldnt be any problem getting into a hospital

 

This seems like a perfectly reasonable health care system to me - just chop your arm off next time and quit complaining.