Re: OT...Democrats Care About The Health Of Americans!

stan.birch@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
The Canadian system may not be absolutely perfect; but IMO, at least in
urban centres, it is about as good as it gets!

Oh bull***. I've met enough Canadians with gripes about their health care that I know better.

If I were a Canadian citizen living in Canada, I couldn't get the tests in 12 months that I got here within a few days.
I was scheduled for my annual checkup on June 25th and my personal physician (that I've had over 25 years) recommended an MRI before the appointment.
Got that on June 19th. My doctor reviewed it on June 25th and suggested I see a neurosurgeon about a tumor on a vertebrae.
Got an appointment on July 10th and after seeing the neurosurgeon an appointment for a total body bone scan on the 13th. Got the results today.

In a day or two I expect to have an early appointment for surgery.
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"Despite government promises and the billions of dollars funneled into the Canadian health-care system, the average patient waited more than 18 weeks in 2007 between seeing their family doctor and receiving the surgery or treatment they required," said Nadeem Esmail, director of Health System Performance Studies at the Fraser Institute and co-author of the 17th annual edition of Waiting Your Turn: Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada.

"It's becoming clearer that Canada's current health-care system cannot meet the needs of Canadians in a timely and efficient manner, unless you consider access to a waiting list timely and efficient," Esmail added.

Ontario recorded the shortest waiting time overall (the wait between visiting a general practitioner and receiving treatment) at 15.0 weeks, followed by British Columbia (19.0 weeks) and Quebec (19.4 weeks). Saskatchewan (27.2 weeks), New Brunswick (25.2 weeks) and Nova Scotia (24.8 weeks) recorded the longest waits in Canada.
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British Columbians wait average of 84 days for MRI: report
Last Updated: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 | 6:21 AM PT
CBC News

B.C. patients wait an average of 84 days after seeing a specialist for an MRI scan under the public health care system — twice as long as Ontarians — a national study says.
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As a footnote on Canada, the average wait for a simple MRI is three months. In Manitoba, the median wait for neurosurgery is 15.2 months. For chemotherapy in Saskatchewan, patients can expect to be in line for 10 weeks. At last report, 10,000 breast cancer patients who waited an average of two months for post-operation radiation treatments have filed a class action lawsuit against Quebec’s hospitals.
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Efforts to reduce wait times for MRI have focused on increasing the number of diagnostic imaging devices, as Canada lags far behind other countries in this regard. For instance, Japan and the United States have 35.3 and 19.5 MRI units per million population, respectively, whereas Canada has only 4.6.
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That is right down the list for Google finds when "Canada wait for an mri" is entered in the search box.

I suggest you have Canadians stop publishing their findings if you want to keep your miserable wait statistics a secret.
LZ
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