Our hospital system is an absolute mess. I say this as a person who has be hospitalized for six heart attacks over the past 25 years and has spent a fairly considerable time as a part time resident in the hospital.
First, highly trained staff are underused. Nurses should be with patients, but if you go to any acute care ward, you will see them handwriting patient charts in the nursing stations which look more like offices than a nursing delivery centre. A computerized system is needed that takes advantage of technology most frequently used by teenagers so that nurses can actually spend time nursing instead of being clerks.
Second, the doctors are all specialists and seldom see past the professional blinders imposed on them by their specialty. None of them seem able to see past the borders of their specialty. Common sense is often missing. I had a roommate who spent his first night in agonizing pain. When the doctors made their round and he complained of the pain he suffered from the doctors asked him a few questions and concluded that in addition to his heart problems, he was suffering from gout. They sent for a rheumatologist. The man’s problem was that he had fainted before he came into the hospital and fell on a sidewalk. He landed on his knee and broke his kneecap. They were not particularly happy with my suggestion that they should X-ray his knee and treat the break. But that solved the man’s problem. If there had been a few GPs on staff, a more common sense approach to treating patient’s problems might prevail because GPs are used to treating the whole patient.
Third, our hospitals are filthy. This leads to outbreaks of infections. If you are admitted to one of our hospitals today, you will have to submit swabs from your mouth and your groin area to be cultured to see if you are bringing in an infection. A more common sense approach would be to have enough cleaning staff to actually scrub our wards within an inch of their lives. Lister proved that clean wards led to better patient outcomes. Some penny pinching bureaucrat has decided to outsource cleaning and to pay so little that you cannot afford to place your bare feet on the floor because they will acquire a coat of dirt on your feet.
Fourth, the food services are run by dieticians. There may be a dietician somewhere who knows how to cook, but the quality of food in the hospitals are bad enough that patients don’t eat much of it. In my last 10 day stay I lost 15 pounds. Why not hire real chefs who know how to cater to large numbers of people? A dietician can tell you about the chemical values of the food they dispense, but if it tastes like s__t, it won’t get eaten.
Fifth, the entire process is set up to run from 9:00 to 5:00 – five days per week. If it’s a long weekend, then the hapless patient is doomed to spend three extra days without any active treatment of his condition. Only extreme emergencies get treated. All those expensive machines sit idle because there is no staff to operate anything but a skeleton operation.
Sixth, our hospitals are basically a make-work project. There more clerks than are needed. The next time you go to a hospital I invite you to just look around and see how many idle people you can see. It would be better to reclassify the clerks and make them into cleaners – at least they would be doing something useful.
Seventh, the doctors have forgotten basic rules of hygiene. The last time I was in the QE-II, I noticed that the room next to mine was an isolation ward. The cardiologist assigned to me would leave this room and enter mine. I had to remind him to wash his hands before he examined me. Again, Mr. Lister would have rapped him on his knuckles if he were still alive.
Eight, we have scores of administrators earning more than $100,000 per year. Why? What possible administrative function in a hospital is worth more than $100,000? We also have scores of lawyers on retainer in the Capital Health District.
Ninth, we have waiting lists because we don’t have enough facilities to clear them up. We need specialty hospitals – why not one hospital in the Capital District which does nothing but orthopedic work until the years long backlog is eliminated. If the hospitals can’t do this, allow someone in the private sector to open a clinic and bill the Health Department?
Finally, we have 10 district health authorities with their attendant high priced help. Why do we need this top-heavy level of administration? We are a province of 850,000 people. We are organized as if we had a population of 8-million people. Why? Probably because Medicare is a sacred cow which we simply throw money at. What we need is a thorough housecleaning with the intent of putting medicine and the patients first. But, since both levels of government have squandered funding on this system for years, the system has become self-perpetuating. It is like a drug addict with no greater concern than to grow its demand for more funding. Given this sort of organization, is it any wonder that an unfortunate woman was misdiagnosed and had her healthy breasts removed?
Our hospital system is an absolute mess. I say this as a person who has be hospitalized for six heart attacks over the past 25 years and has spent a fairly considerable time as a part time resident in the hospital.
First, highly trained staff are underused. Nurses should be with patients, but if you go to any acute care ward, you will see them handwriting patient charts in the nursing stations which look more like offices than a nursing delivery centre. A computerized system is needed that takes advantage of technology most frequently used by teenagers so that nurses can actually spend time nursing instead of being clerks.
Second, the doctors are all specialists and seldom see past the professional blinders imposed on them by their specialty. None of them seem able to see past the borders of their specialty. Common sense is often missing. I had a roommate who spent his first night in agonizing pain. When the doctors made their round and he complained of the pain he suffered from the doctors asked him a few questions and concluded that in addition to his heart problems, he was suffering from gout. They sent for a rheumatologist. The man’s problem was that he had fainted before he came into the hospital and fell on a sidewalk. He landed on his knee and broke his kneecap. They were not particularly happy with my suggestion that they should X-ray his knee and treat the break. But that solved the man’s problem. If there had been a few GPs on staff, a more common sense approach to treating patient’s problems might prevail because GPs are used to treating the whole patient.
Third, our hospitals are filthy. This leads to outbreaks of infections. If you are admitted to one of our hospitals today, you will have to submit swabs from your mouth and your groin area to be cultured to see if you are bringing in an infection. A more common sense approach would be to have enough cleaning staff to actually scrub our wards within an inch of their lives. Lister proved that clean wards led to better patient outcomes. Some penny pinching bureaucrat has decided to outsource cleaning and to pay so little that you cannot afford to place your bare feet on the floor because they will acquire a coat of dirt on your feet.
Fourth, the food services are run by dieticians. There may be a dietician somewhere who knows how to cook, but the quality of food in the hospitals are bad enough that patients don’t eat much of it. In my last 10 day stay I lost 15 pounds. Why not hire real chefs who know how to cater to large numbers of people? A dietician can tell you about the chemical values of the food they dispense, but if it tastes like s__t, it won’t get eaten.
Fifth, the entire process is set up to run from 9:00 to 5:00 – five days per week. If it’s a long weekend, then the hapless patient is doomed to spend three extra days without any active treatment of his condition. Only extreme emergencies get treated. All those expensive machines sit idle because there is no staff to operate anything but a skeleton operation.
Sixth, our hospitals are basically a make-work project. There more clerks than are needed. The next time you go to a hospital I invite you to just look around and see how many idle people you can see. It would be better to reclassify the clerks and make them into cleaners – at least they would be doing something useful.
Seventh, the doctors have forgotten basic rules of hygiene. The last time I was in the QE-II, I noticed that the room next to mine was an isolation ward. The cardiologist assigned to me would leave this room and enter mine. I had to remind him to wash his hands before he examined me. Again, Mr. Lister would have rapped him on his knuckles if he were still alive.
Eight, we have scores of administrators earning more than $100,000 per year. Why? What possible administrative function in a hospital is worth more than $100,000? We also have scores of lawyers on retainer in the Capital Health District.
Ninth, we have waiting lists because we don’t have enough facilities to clear them up. We need specialty hospitals – why not one hospital in the Capital District which does nothing but orthopedic work until the years long backlog is eliminated. If the hospitals can’t do this, allow someone in the private sector to open a clinic and bill the Health Department?
Finally, we have 10 district health authorities with their attendant high priced help. Why do we need this top-heavy level of administration? We are a province of 850,000 people. We are organized as if we had a population of 8-million people. Why? Probably because Medicare is a sacred cow which we simply throw money at. What we need is a thorough housecleaning with the intent of putting medicine and the patients first. But, since both levels of government have squandered funding on this system for years, the system has become self-perpetuating. It is like a drug addict with no greater concern than to grow its demand for more funding. Given this sort of organization, is it any wonder that an unfortunate woman was misdiagnosed and had her healthy breasts removed?
Jon Coates | August 31, 2013 |
Jon thank you for your extensive comment
Bill B
Bill | August 31, 2013 |