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Canadian Health Care?

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Mike

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Parking lot not close enough for B.C. hospital staff
Last Updated Thu, 02 Jun 2005 18:32:08 EDT
CBC News

A Kelowna man who drove an unconscious man to the parking lot of his local hospital couldn't believe his ears when medical staff told him to call 911 and wait for an ambulance.

Ralph Vogel and his wife had been letting a homeless man sleep in their motor home, but became alarmed when they couldn't wake him Wednesday morning.

So Vogel powered up the motor home and drove the man to the Kelowna General Hospital.

He ran inside and told medical staff that a man was either dying or dead in his motor home.

When staff told him to call 911 and wait for an ambulance, he told them that the man was just outside in the parking lot. He was still told to call 911.

By the time the ambulance arrived, it was much too late. The man had already been dead for several hours.

The hospital now admits that staff made a mistake by refusing to treat the man in the parking lot, just in case there was a chance he could still be saved.

This isn't the first time Kelowna General Hospital staff have refused to treat someone just outside their doors. Three years ago, a woman who collapsed just metres away from the emergency room doors also had to wait for an ambulance.

Alison Paine of the Interior Health Authority says policy changes have been made since that embarrassing incident. But she said the policy's conditions for helping someone in need of emergency care were not fulfilled in this case.

"It is not only [hospital] policy, but Interior Health policy, that if somebody is in need of emergency care in the parking lot, that we go out and help them," Paine said.

"But obviously something has gone wrong here."
 
Northern Rancher said:
Aren't you glad youlive in the U'S Mike where the healtrh care system is a model of perfection. What was your point with this post.

I should have written just "Health Care?" as a title. It was an incredible story to me that could have happened anywhere and I was amazed that it happened in Canada. Was not putting your health care system down because it looks more like something that would happen here in Alabama.
 
Mike.....You may not "put Canadian health care down",but listen to this.
A good friend of mine was into the second year of a job in the US when he was diagnosed with throat cancer.He was treated immediatly and was cured.
He told me he was so glad he was in the States because if he had been home it would have been to late by the time he got treatment.He said " I know for sure because it happend to my Father"
 
One of the new things in the world are clinics that are opening to deal exclusively with Canadians that are pissed at the long waiting times for surgery. Watched a 15 minute blip on the TV a while back about a guy in British Columbia that was waiting for hip surgery. Specialist would be a 6 month wait and surgery another 12 on top of that. Guy paid $12,000 (medical costs/flights/accomodations), and went to India where many of these 'Canadian Surgery Centers' are opening up. Guy got his surgery within a couple days of arriving in India, spent about 2 months relaxing/healing on the sandy beaches and was healed up and hiking again in Canada when the specialist phoned to schedule an appointment. :lol:
 
Aaron said:
One of the new things in the world are clinics that are opening to deal exclusively with Canadians that are p****d at the long waiting times for surgery. Watched a 15 minute blip on the TV a while back about a guy in British Columbia that was waiting for hip surgery. Specialist would be a 6 month wait and surgery another 12 on top of that. Guy paid $12,000 (medical costs/flights/accomodations), and went to India where many of these 'Canadian Surgery Centers' are opening up. Guy got his surgery within a couple days of arriving in India, spent about 2 months relaxing/healing on the sandy beaches and was healed up and hiking again in Canada when the specialist phoned to schedule an appointment. :lol:
Now that's probably a damn good idea, as long as you could be assured of getting a reputable doctor. Wouldn't be surprised to see something like that even happening in the US, thanks to the insurance mess and law-suit risk.
 
The other side of the issue comes out clearly here: we just rec'd this email from friends whose daughter is a resident doctor in ICU. They wrote:

Please keep our daughter in prayer for the month of June. She just started ICU and did her first call - which she described last night at 11:30 p.m. when she called us - as the worst day of her life. Considering what she had been through she sounded okay, just worn out and in need of encouragement. She told me that at one point she had to go ask a charge nurse she knew for something for a second patient and the nurse jokingly said something like " I should shoot you for coming back here again asking for another thing" and daughter quipped back, "Hey that would be great - just shoot
> me and then I can lie down on one of these guerneys in the corner and just be left alone."
> She has done 30+ hour shifts before, but this was the ultimate in endurance.
> She finally got to sit down at 5:00 a.m. for maybe 15 minutes. When you start at 7:00 a.m. the day before you can imagine how that might feel - and then you still have a minimum of 7 more hours to go where they actually expect and demand that you continue to function at full speed. Peoples' lives depend on your quick decisions. Please pray for...
 

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