Is ther a Cure for Health Care?

I some-times think that way to many of us take our "free" health care system for granted. I am fortunate enough that my children have a Pediatrician. As for Dw and myself...we've been through 3 doctors in 8 years and have currently been without one since 2007. We get by....

Carter got sick this week, and really sick Thursday night. He was complaining of an ear ache...no big deal, he could wait until morning. WRONG...it was like having a toddler in the house with an ear ache all over again. We were up every two hours and he was miserable. I don't think any of us got much sleep. I had to work a full shift in the morning and Dw only had half a day to put in, so we doped Mr.C up and hoped it would work until Dw could get him to a clinic. Dw was able to have Carter in and out of the walk-in and the prescription picked up with in an hour. The doc that looked at Carter said that his ear was really swollen and that we should watch for a rupture. Sure enough by the time I got home from work the ear drum had ruptured, and it wasn't pussy fluid it was all blood. Carter continued to complain of pain, usually after a rupture the pain subsides, not in our case.

I called the clinic that he had gone to earlier, told them what had happened and they said for me to take him to the hospital. Fine, no big deal. But Friday, at four o'clock in the middle of snow squalls, there was no way I was taking him to CHEO. At 4:10 in the afternoon we land in the emerge department of the Queensway Carleton Hospital. The triage nurse was very nice and she got our info and his vitals rather quickly. But that's as fast as things moved for the remainder of the night.

At eight, Carter was begging to go home, he was tired of waiting, tired of seeing other people who had been there shorter time being treated, he was frustrated and he was in pain.

I as frustrated. I was up set for my child and I made the decision to leave. I understand he was not a priority, but my goodness it was horrible, four and a half hours. I wouldn't have gone to the hospital but the clinic told me to take him there and not back to them. How bad is our health care system, that a nine year old begs to go home. Home we went. I gave him tylenol a dose of his antibiotic, made sure he drank some fluids and sent him off to bed. Of course, shortly after we left, they called his name. The reality...we would have sat and waited another hour or two in the cubical for the doctor to see him.

Carter is feeling better today, I will make an appointment for early in the week to take him to his doctor, just to make sure everything is okay. Dw and I had agreed that if things got any worse he would take Carter to the hospital in Almonte, where he would have been seen in about 20 min. Sad, that I would have to take him to a rural community hospital to get better service. Who says bigger is better.

I am sure we can all tell a similar story that tells the state of Ontario health care today. I hope that a cure for it will soon be found.