Canada and US to swap healthcare policies?

Waiting hours in ER are atrocious, but will Canadians support privatizing healthcare – even a little bit?

By Andrew Furneaux

Emergency room waiting times are a problem everywhere. In Canada and the US, waiting to see a doctor in an emergency room can result in a wait that can last several hours.

The situation is especially bad in parts of the US, as patients are limited in terms of what medical facility they can visit by their medical insurance. However, this is expected to improve, as President Obama’s Health Care Bill was passed in the Senate and signed into law on Tuesday, March 23, 2010.

Our own healthcare system in Newfoundland has just as many problems. Last Sunday, I visited the emergency room because of an infected finger. I arrived at St. Clare’s around 5:30 pm and left around 10:30 pm.

I did the standard check in. The nurses at the desk took down my contact information and symptoms, gave me an armband, and told me to wait. After a while, they took my blood-pressure and my temperature, and had me wait again. They said it would be another hour and a half.

I waited for five hours. I returned on Monday, when I waited another seven hours.

Our emergency rooms are overcrowded and there are not enough rooms for everyone for consultations. Patients are forced to lie on stretchers in the hall because there weren’t enough beds in the ER.

Being watched by strangers, with no privacy, equates to less than ideal conditions when you’re sick and in pain. After waiting for hours, many people relinquish their spot in line and go home, opting to wait to see their family doctor instead.

It really makes me wonder about the benefits of private hospitals in our healthcare. There is already some talk about how public healthcare in Canada is unsustainable as the population ages and the cost of healthcare continues to increase.

The question now is, will Canada and the US swap policies? Will more Canadians cross the border to the US to seek medical attention?

And more importantly, will they have shorter waiting times?

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