yeah it is important to note that health care is a provincial matter in Canada; I have no experience at all with the systems he is talking about. I think he and I hashed this out once and concluded that Ontario was a special case because of what the Conservatives did to the budget when they were in power there.
It also seems to me that in past googling I came to the conclusion that access to care was primarily an issue outside Toronto, so it's probably not fair either to compare Sault Ste Marie to Montreal. On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 10:37 AM, Larry Lyons <larrycly...@gmail.com> wrote: > > >> > >> When people talk about waiting lists for MRIs, they are talking about > >> Ontario; > > > > > >How many years ago was this? > > Here is some interesting information about this. Health Canada, a federal > department, regularly publishes a series of surveys of the health care > system in Canada based on Canadians first hand experience of the health care > system, see http://www.healthcoalition.ca/index-eng.pdf > > In general, although life threatening cases are dealt with immediately, > some services needed are non urgent and patients are seen at the next > available appointment in their local chosen facility. > > The median wait time in Canada to see a special physician is a little over > four weeks with 89.5% waiting less than 3 months. My mother was able to see > a specialist in a week. > > The median wait time for diagnostic services such as MRI and CAT scans [34] > is two weeks with 86.4% waiting less than 3 months. Again, my mother was > able to get her first MRI in less than a week, and her second in about 10 > days. > > The median wait time for surgery is four weeks with 82.2% waiting less than > 3 months. My mother did not have surgery so I cannot compare that > experience. > > So in other words the wait time for Canada is only a bit longer than in the > US in some special cases. > > That said my own recent experience with the Canadian system comes from my > time in BC last October during the last couple of months of my mother's > life. During that time, she was seen almost immediately by specialists and > had all the appropriate tests without any real waiting time (1 week for her > 2nd MRI). Our family had no complaints about the care she had, it was quite > excellent. My friends and relations in western Canada generally have > experienced the same, little or no waiting time. There may be some waiting > time on occasion, but only for non-emergency or elective procedures. > > At this point the propaganda I've seen in the media that have attacked the > Canadian system are outright lies. I thought there were laws about truth in > advertising. > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:302767 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
