Enough back patting, get down to work on health care

Dear Editor:
The exalted status granted to our ministers and decision-makers is an indictment of local investigative journalism, encouraging a merry-go-round of inept and corrupt leaders who face no scrutiny and enjoy golden-handshake appointments after their political careers. We need the fourth estate to act as our representatives, not treat elected officials with kid gloves. This is crucial now, as we embark upon yet another era sure to bring its own problems and scandals.
Years ago, diagnosed with clinical depression and panic disorder, I was assigned an MD who had been relocated here despite professional conduct allegations stemming from a patient’s death. He provided unsuitable medication that could cause seizures, and then vanished, leaving patients adrift. His replacement quickly defaulted to failed virtual care, leaving me cut loose for a second time. This raises a critical question: is Newfoundland so desperate for doctors that due diligence is ignored, accepting staff with far less accountability than the average teenager mixing up a double/double order?
My repeated requests for professional therapy to complement medication were denied due to overwhelming demand; the mere fact so many of us are in such need ought to be all the impetus needed to fuel change. The healthcare labyrinth of confusing services, contradictory assessments, and general lack of empathy exacerbated my condition. Pitted against the Healthline and my pharmacist for refills, I was generally regarded as no better than a junkie needing a fix — a perception sadly widespread within Newfoundland healthcare. I suffered tremendously without a proper MD to oversee my pharmacological needs.
The system has devolved into one where corruption and incompetence seem fatally ingrained. The question is: how many Newfoundlanders must needlessly suffer or die before those in power face accountability? Our politicians acted as if the recent election was about anything other than healthcare, denying the harsh reality that we all face daily.
When confronted directly, the very echelons of power in Newfoundland recoil at scrutiny. I was sent form letters in response to impassioned pleas: in the case of Minister John Haggie, by the grace of God our now ‘former’ Health Minister, it was a response akin to a Dickensian miser wondering if the workhouses still are operable.
Every year I suffer is a year I am denied a quality of life and a year Newfoundland is denied an able-bodied contributor to the economy. I plead with my fellow Newfoundlanders to direct your anger and frustration to those who caused this crisis, not at each other on social media. Our lives are worth more than their feigned concern while they scheme in back rooms. Mental health is health, and their inactions will continue to cost lives.
Our new majority in office are better served saving the energy it takes to backpat one another and instead knuckle down; there’s much work to be done, and I hope the journalists are equally gripping their pens tightly.
Shannon Lush
St. John’s