In my years of nursing I have seen many things. Some of these things make me laugh, some make me cry, some make me down right angry and some just leave me shaking my head.
Our governments are trying to feed us the line that our Canadian public health care system is no longer feasible,and that we must introduce private health care. I say phooey on them. The public system is sustainable what we need to do is look at how and where the monies are being spent and start to get some kahunas and make some real hard ethical decisions on how health care is delivered.
We are all going to die, that is inevitable. Some of us are going to die sooner than others. Heart breaking as that is, it's just the basic and simple truth. So why do we as a society insist on prolonging something that is inevitable?
I know this topic is going to get some folks backs up, but really, we have to look at some of the things we do in health care to prolong life.
Let's look at one area in particular. Dear beloved grandma or grandpa who is 80, 85 or maybe even 95 years old who have severe dementia have fallen and fractured their hip. They are rushed to the hospital and now put in a very strange environment, they become increasingly more confused and in some cases combative. The surgeon tells the family he can fix grandma's hip and of course the family go along with what ever the surgeon says. So grandma under go's surgery, oh did I mention that grandma also has severe cardiac issues and COPD? Yes well grandma goes and has her surgery and comes out on a ventilator, the doctors tell you oh that it will only be temporary, but grandma now has to go to the ICU. Do you really think this is what grandma wanted? Grandma makes it off the ventilator and out of the ICU, but she is by no means ready to go back home. She goes to a surgical ward and then a medical ward, where because she is now demonstrating that there is no way she can go back home she sits in a hospital bed waiting for placement.
Not long ago the health care system would have just given grandma medication to keep her comfortable. Yes she might have been bed ridden but she would be made comfortable. Think about this, grandma had to have surgery and so did the young 48 year old who fell off a ladder while working and got a head injury...he came into the hospital hours after grandma but grandma took the last ICU bed so now what?
WE as a society have to start making some tough decisions on where we will allow our health care practitioners to take us. Ethics enters this arena. When you become a doctor you take an oath to sustain life at any cost. Well I think it is this oath that has skewed how care is delivered. Again, please don't get me wrong but I look back 25 years ago when my sister went into premature labour at 5 and 6th months. Three times this happen to her. She endured labour like any other woman but the outcome was not the delivery of a healthy child. In those days it was unheard of for babies to live at 23 or 26 weeks. Now days they are saving babies some as young as 20 weeks gestation. Mom's and dad's are thrilled that the technology is there to save their precious bundle, but what about the long term effects? Research is now showing us that even though these babies are being saved the long term health effects are huge and hence a cost on the health care system.
So let's ask ourselves, where do we draw the line, when do you say enough is enough, when do we allow nature to just take it's course?
I have never spoken as blatantly about this as I have today. I have eluded to this topic when I posted about Living Wills and Code status. We as a society need to take a good hard look at where we draw the line. It's not an easy decision or topic to talk about but we have to. Death is part of living, we know at some point we are all going to die.
I think we all need to start talking about this, don't you?
8 comments:
There a lot we need to talk about or maybe we need to take some type of action. Even those who can afford private medical insurance here in United States it usual don't cover it 100% I believe 20 years ago when one my grand nephew was born here in Idaho it cost $10,000 for C- section.
I know they would be lot more.
What scares you most about private health care?
See down here in the states. They tell us that most socialize medical program one has to wait and wait to get any type of service.
Or they tell people here in the states that our taxes to cover medical will be outrages priced. I know there no free-ride in life.
So how is your medical really paid for?
It's been a while sense I look into buying private health insurance and I believe it would have been with 2,000 deductible it would run some where between $500 to $1,000 a month. This would only cover 80%. But like I said this was some years back.
I'm big fan of prevention of health troubles.
Coffee is on.
I remember when my Dad fell and broke his hip in the "home." He was rushed to hospital and had to wait 2 days for surgery to repair it and was on drugs to keep him pain-free and somewhat lucid. They didn't expect him to survive the surgery (and maybe were waiting to see if he died before) but he did and 10 days later went home to the "home" and died! So there was a lot of money tied up in his care, right? I would have preferred to see him die sooner than have to go through all that suffering.
Your correct, there are things to talk about but we should not be afraid of the word private. Germany for example has a mix of private and public that works incredibly well. When you start your working life you choose whic system you want to buy into and you stay with that system for life. Neither system is free, you must pay monthly premiums. There is also a quarterly co pay of 10 Euros per service, ie GP, specialists, ER, drugs, dentist etc. You can choose your own specialist and the wait is never more than two weeks max for non urgent cases. Faster if it's urgent. The only difference is that private insurance patients have fancier hospitals with private rooms, more like hotels. When I was in Germany in August my friend fell and tore a tendon. We went to ER and were in and out in two hours. She had a cast, she had a follow up with private ortho three days later, she ha physio arranged for the following week, it was downright eyeopening how a system should function. Oh yes, my friend is in the public system. Here in Toronto I finally had an appointment with a foot surgeon after waiting three years. Yes he said, he will operate and fixy foot but I'd have at least a one yea wait minimum. I waited 2 years for each of my hips and there was a 2 month wait for physio. I went blind in one eye waiting 3 months for retinal surgery that should have been done on days. And that's just me. I have many more horror stories.
We don't have to decide which old people are worthy of being saved, we should not have to. Our tax money needs to be better spent and yes if private can be incorporated we need to have that conversation...ciao
Rositta....private health care is already incorporated into our system. Case in point for anyone who wants an MRI quicker they can pay for it at private clinics. Insurance companies already send claimants to these clinics. There are private clinics that do orthpedic surgeries, plastic surgeries and the list goes on. If you don't want to wait in the public system you do have an option to pay for it privately. If you don't work for a company that has a health benefits you are paying the health premiums on your own and if you want extended you pay for that as well.
What I am saying is that at least in the system as it stands NO one has to mortgage their home to have a surgery, NO one has to go bankrupt to have a baby.
No system is perfect, but I would far rather have what we have here in Canada now than see people not being able to afford health Care. There are over 44 million American's that don't have health care that is the whole population of Canada, I don't want to ever see that happen in Canada! Health car should NOT be a privilege but a right!
Even those elderly that I reference in my post have a right to care, what I am saying is we need to look at how and where we are spending our health care dollars. Working in the system I see an enormous amount of waste of manpower, and mismanagement of resources.
Wow, maam, you have covered a great deal and provided much food for though with this post. We do need to work on our system, it seems broken in so many places. And the frustrations we all feel working in the medical field are so evident.
Hope this finds you well.
My best,
Jim
Sorry, the things that you can pay for in BC are not available in Ontario. There are private clinics but only avaiable to insurance companies and workers comp patients. The rest of us are out of luck unless we want to travel to Quebec, Alberta,BC or the US. Regarding the elderly, my late father fell and broke his hip at age 70. He lay on a hospital bed in the corridor for two days before they replaced his hip. Even though he had CLL and Prostate cancer I'm glad that they didn't leave him bedridden to probably die of pneumonia because you see, he lived another 10 years with his new hip. Sounds like BC gives more choices. No I don't want what they have in the US but I sure wouldn't mind having what they have in Germany...ciao
You are so right that this topic is one that very few, very rarely, want to address but it is true too in that death is a normal part of living -the ending part, that is. Healthcare, insurance, medicare/medicaid in the US is something that needs fixed too! If you are still working but your company doesn't offer health insurance, the costs to purchase it yourself are virtually prohibitive! But to qualify for state medical assistance, your income has to be below the poverty level which is so low that who in blazes can exist on it? And if you do qualify for the medicare/medicaid programs but are fortunate enough to get a job -even a part time job -which will boost your income just slightly above that very low poverty line, you then lose the health assistance program which often people have medical issues that they need that bit of assistance to buy necessary meds -like insulin, for one thing! Things that enable them to do things like get a job and lead a productive life! So they then have to choose between a little bit more money in their pocket or medicine! Hmmm. Which to pick, ya know! My daughter recently got a part-time job which bumped her above that poverty line and also knocked her out of the medical assistance, took away her food stamps and fuel assistance as well! All that lost for a job where she will earn roughly $500 a month -before taxes take a 25 to 33 percent cut and that leaves her then with about $330 to $375 added income! Not enough to cover insurance costs, not enough to cover the high cost of fuel during the winter months and barely enough to cover food costs -but definitely not enough to cover all three of those all-important items needed to survive. It's insane at times and totally lacking common sense too! Oh and my own income -social security -is going to take a hit too because now my check is just a teensy bit above that poverty level which means the state will no longer pay my medicare payment and I will lose almost $100 a month off my check plus in January, social security recipients will get a 3.6% increase but that will mean a loss of income to many of us because it will also bring with it an increase in medicare payments as well as supplemental insurance increases too. Last time I got a $75 a month raise in my social security, I ended up clearing $38 a month less than I had been receiving due to these issues. A raise is supposed to move you forward, not backwards isn't it? Not so here! So as a result of these issues, a lot of young people, especially single mothers, opt to stay home and live below the poverty line to receive the medical card, food stamps and fuel assistance which they can't get if they are working, even part-time, and then too they have to shell out extra for child care too. Just lots and lots of can't win situations for sure which aren't part of the life or death things you were addressing but anyway -the whole system needs to be looked and and dealt with in a common sensical approach!
Good post!
I would agree with you that I would rather have what we have here than what they have in the USA.
Storyteller Doc works at the hospital I used to work in at - one time in the past. :) Only I did L&D!
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