What happened to our health care system?

The recent crisis involving the new Urgent Care facility (Health Hub) on Stavanger Drive should prompt concern among citizens about the capability of the government to solve our health care challenges. Opened on January 12 and over capacity by January 14!
We recently moved back to Canada after being away for 20 years. As we have tried to access health care, I have been shocked at the inefficiencies. What happened to our national health care system? I have a medical background and in speaking with health care workers and fellow citizens, no one believes the Newfoundland system is adequate. And as I began to research it, I discovered some alarming stats.

• Family doctors: 163,000 people, 30 per cent of the people, do not have a family doctor and may not get one for up to two years. That’s well above the national level.
• Failing Urgent Care: Over 35,000 patients, that’s 10.7 per cent, left urgent care without treatment last year – over 10 per cent above the national average.
• Waiting Lists: For specialists and family doctors, up to 2 years. Some 8,500 people are on a waiting list for MRIs. The rate is much lower in other provinces.
• National studies have found that Canada is last when compared to nine other similar countries, and Newfoundland and Labrador is last among all Canadian provinces for delivery of health care to its population.
  Friends, we all deserve better.
  At this moment, there is hope. We have a new provincial administration seemingly motivated to improve the health care system, and Ottawa has agreed to add additional funding to all provinces. I believe both patients and health care workers here are motivated to make our system better. And I am interested in putting together a proposal for change for our province.
  It’s time to do something different. If you are a health care worker, a clinic manager or a patient with a serious complaint, I want to hear from you. No doubt, many powerful ideas have been suggested and ignored in past years. But we cannot keep making the same ineffective decisions over and over each year. Send me your stories of good ideas or examples of poor decisions that have led to inefficiencies in our system.
  I’ll report on the next steps we can take to finally get the health care system we deserve.

Dr Mardi Collins,
Email: Mardicollins7@gmail.com