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It’s a little hard to be pro-active about your health when the health care system is in chaos. And the most damnably frustrating thing is, no one seems to give a crap – no one with the power to do anything about it, that is. It doesn’t seem to matter a whit who you vote for, either; they all give great lip service, and then proceed to do absolutely nothing whatsoever.
We lost another family doctor today. The third in a series of family doctors who all quit their family practice to go work in the hospitals. I’ve been living in Peterborough for almost sixteen years now, and in that time my husband and I have had three family doctors – all hard won, I might add. For a total of seven years that we’ve actually been under a doctor’s care, there have been nine years where we weren’t. Each time it was a matter of waiting for several years, constantly being told no, so-and-so doesn’t have a waiting list; and each time, we just happened to squeeze in through sheer luck: a friend gave us a just-in-time tip that a doctor was temporarily accepting new patients, or there was a new doctor “in town” (actually in Lindsay, 45 minutes drive from where we live).
The last time, we arrived at the medical facility first thing in the morning, on the day they announced they would be taking applications, to find what looked like a community fair in progress. We wondered for a moment whether we’d even come to the right place. The front of the facility – entrance way, parking lot, lawn – was literally full of people, a throng worthy of a pop music festival just about to get underway – many of them seniors. Everyone would file in, pick up their application form, and, due to the lack of anywhere to sit, simply sit down on the curb or the grass and fill out their form. There must have been thousands of people, and we knew only a tiny percentage of those would get in. We went home in low spirits, certain it had been a waste of time. Luckily, we were one of the few accepted. Now, just two years later, and our doctor is following in the footsteps of our previous doctors, closing down his brand new family practice to go work full time in the emergency room at the local hospital. I think of how maddening this has been for us, and then try to imagine what it must be like for the elderly, or families with young children, or people with serious medical conditions. Much as we have felt abandoned each time, I can’t say that I really blame the doctors; there must be something wrong with the system, that they feel family practice to be so unfulfilling, so unsustainable.
I sometimes wonder if the system has ever been truly functional; perhaps I was just too young to know better. Then I think about how for the ten years that I lived in Nepean with my father and step-family, we had the same family doctor the entire time, a wonderful woman and excellent physician. And she was still going strong by the time I officially moved away from home for the last time. I remember all through university and for most of the twelve years since, chiropractic care was subsidized under OHIP. Now that, along with many other services, is no longer covered.
I remember when Canada’s health care system was an institution to be proud of; something we held up to other countries like a beacon, saying, see? If we can do it, so can you! Now it’s just a goddam disaster. It’s not just something they’re constantly bemoaning on national TV; it’s us, our friends, our relatives, our neighbours. People aren’t getting taken care of. This is supposed to be a country that takes care of people.  If anyone out there knows how to fix this, knows how to do something more than vote hopelessly and fruitlessly again and again, or fire off pointless angry letters, do please let me know. Because I really, really want our country to be healthy again.
