Many of these issues plague provincial governments across Canada and have plagued public systems in Britain and Europe as well as the very expensive private system in the United States. I agree that in a society with a publicly funded, socialized medical system, the government ultimately must accept responsibility for endemic failures.Īnd these failures seem to be widespread across the health care system in B.C., from a dearth of family doctors to overwhelmed clinics and emergency wards to dangerously delayed surgeries or specialist follow-ups to overcrowded and understaffed care homes.īut I can’t help but feel these are all symptoms of a much greater and widespread problem that is greater than the ability of any particular government to address. Re: “B.C.’s health-care crisis in two examples,” Sept. I urge the letter-writer and others to exercise empathy and understanding in this regard. Unfortunately, a primary care physician has to work seven days per week, no matter how many days they are in the clinic. This is starting to sound like eight days a week! Not to mention picking up a shift in a walk-in or urgent care clinic, or the local ER. This time does not include inpatient care, palliative care, long-term care, home visits, medical administration, teaching, leadership endeavours, committees and continuing medical education. Those two extra days of work are unpaid, which is part of what has created the current crisis. Working in a clinic three days per week means five days’ worth of work, spread out over seven days, as a physician cannot ignore the EMR results over the weekend. There is a vast difference between time spent on direct patient care, and on indirect patient care. doctors only want to work 2½ or three days a week.” I would, however, like to correct what might be a common misconception, in the notion that “numerous B.C. I feel for the plight of the writer regarding their woes to access primary care.
Re: “Access to health care in Victoria is at a third-world level,” commentary, Aug.
Victoria No, those doctors are not working part-time hours
If the people think COVID is receding into a bad memory, they will not be as careful as they were before. The numbers available show cases going down, when it is highly probable that case counts are going up. Centre for Disease Control website, the explanations are all there, but with such holes in the data collection as there are, the only figure that counts is the mortality rate, which counts the number of people who died with COVID in their bodies, not because of it. They are a figment of a statistician’s imagination. So how reliable are these numbers? Not a bit. Yet I see that the Ministry of Health still publishes the COVID numbers as though everyone who gets it, reports it. There is no requirement to notify the government if you have COVID, so I didn’t. I contracted it in Alberta, then drove home, isolating myself along the way. I will continue to wear a mask in public places, as a matter of course.įunny, no one but my friends knew that I had COVID. In two days, I fully expect my second negative test, so I can consider myself cured. I sit here happily coughing, knowing that I have just had my first negative COVID‑19 test in two weeks.
Saanich Curious virus accounting makes it meaningless One of the many highlights was the sight of Victoria Police Chief Del Manak, running from one intersection to the next to direct traffic. I participated in the march from George Jay school to honour the brave Chinese children who refused to be segregated 100 years ago. Praise for Del Manak’s help during school march