Health care delayed is health care denied

Health care delayedis health care denied

When I moved to Miramichi in 1976, I was fortunate to get Dr. Luc Blanchard as my personal physician. When I needed attention, I’d visit his office a few doors down the street. I’d sit down and tell him my issue. He’d ask a few questions. Sometimes he’d reach back, pull a book off the wall behind him and skim a page or two. He’d give me a diagnosis and prescription. Once he sent me to the hospital for treatment.

In recent years, I’ve been fortunate to have good doctors with one exception. It does, however, take far longer to get diagnosis and treatment. There’s far more being referred to specialists, waiting for tests and waiting for treatments. CT scans, MRIs, biopsies and specialist references provide more detailed information but take a lot of time. Often delay aggravates the patient’s condindition – sometimes fatally. I think physicians are in a difficult position. Ordering a series of tests leads to delay. Not ordering a series of tests or not referring patients to specialists could lead to misdiagnosis, fatality and guilt. It’s a classic Catch 22. No clear winning choice.

I don’t know who could weigh the pros and cons most successfully but statistical models could surely establish useful patterns. I think it is a necessary step. Pouring more money into staff and equipment obviously leads to more tests, examinations and treatments. Highways don’t solve traffic, they create and increase it. Better roads lead to clogged city streets.

To avoid that happening to our hospitals, we need to streamline every step in the process. That could include private services billed to Medicare as is proposed in Ontario. We can see what private MRIs cost. I think most of us are startled they’re so high. It makes me wonder what an MRI costs in our local hospital. Might it be even more?

I’m always surprised by the amount of equipment and material is one-time use in hospitals. I go for a lung test every six months. I blow into a plastic mouth piece about the size of a grapefruit. I inhale a Ventolin puffer from a cylinder with a pincer on my nose. All that is thrown away when I’m done with it. Who needs a disposable tool to hold their nose? Could I bring the mouthpiece and cylinder I used last time?

Efficient medical delivery also has to take into account patient travel and time. Miramichiers needing enhanced vaccinations for trips to third world regions used to get them here. After Elaine Jimmo retired, that service was provided in Bathurst. That’s not saving money. That’s offloading greater expense to patients.

A cancer patient I know needed a bone density test regarding a treatment modification. Her specialist ordered the test done in Moncton. She had to kick through a wall of resistance to make him realize that test is available here. Most patients wouldn’t know and just go to Moncton.

Years ago, Region 7 began to digitize its records. After a few years, it stopped. Unless all the records are available from the data base, it isn’t much use. If some are digital and some are paper, that’s more, not less work to find. The province is currently considering expanding remote medical appointments. How will that work if a patient is in Miramichi, a specialist is in Saint John and some patient records files are paper in Miramichi and some are digital somewhere?

As with most challenges, delivery of medical care has produced many suggestions to make it more efficient. Specialized theatres for routine surgeries is one.

Longevity has increased in Canada over my lifetime. (https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/CAN/canada/life-expectancy#:~:text=The current life expectancy for,a 0.18% increase from 2020). To avoid sagging back, we need to to do it best quickest. More of the same isn’t going to work. We have to get seriously smarter. DAC