*RANT* Hospital wait times....

Okay...I have a MAJOR rant....I was feeling really strange yesturday....chest pain and shortness of breath...went to a walk in clinc, they told me to either go to the hospital stat or they would call an ambulance for me. As much as I love making a grand enterance, I opted to drive myself. I get to the hospital, wait 1 hour to even get to triage where they check you in...they to an ECG test and tell me to wait. I waited, and I waited.....for 12 hours before I was even taken into a seperate room...then another 2 hours before all the tests were done and I got to see a doctor!!!!!!!!!! 14 hours in the hospital ER...are you kidding me?!?!?!?!!?!? There were people there with the flu and who had the sniffles...YOU DONT BELONG AT THE HOSPITAL...GO SEE YOUR FAMILY DOCTOR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This may just be a Canadian thing as we don't have to pay to visit the hospital, but COME ON!!!!!! The woman sitting beside me in the waiting area had a seziure in her chair and they made her wait while they took those poor, deathly sick patients with the SNIFFLES ahead of her!!!!!!

Welcome to socalized medicine? I'm glad ours is not that way... Yet!!

My wife has a heart problem and we have made many a trip to the ER... She's in and hooked up within minutes bypassing registration... Usually end up taking hours to to convert her to a regular beat but we're out and on our way home in the time it took you to get in.. Of coarse the bill is $$$$$$$ of wich we have a copay of only $25.. Good to have good insurance..

Michael Moore - Sicko

They ended up diagnosing me with a condition where the muscles around your heart swell...i'm just so completely irritated...there was a man who had been there for maybe 20 mins, walked over to triage and 'fell' infront of the desk and was seen immideatly....i should mention that i heard his friends givin eachother 'props' for telling their buddy to fall becuase they knew it would speed up the process....right so while my heart is being swallowed by the muscles around it, I should get up and cause a fake 'tantrum'? aparently thats the way to fast track it

Yeah!! Good health care isn't cheap.... Cheap health care isn't good? In my humble opinion.

Now that sounds really serious!!

If you were playing hockey they would give you a penalty for taking a dive!! Hahaha

Personally I hate hospitals!! My wife when she's admitted, never seems to get better.. Never gets any rest.. And can't wait to get out and go home.. Lol

Originally Posted by Karren /img/forum/go_quote.gif Welcome to socalized medicine? I'm glad ours is not that way... Yet!! lol! No kidding...
I have a feeling it's only a matter of time, though!

I know what that's like coming from a country where the public medical services involve LOOOONG waiting periods. Never 14 hrs...That was rough... How much do private doctors cost tho?

Ugh that sucks you had to wait that long!

Our health service isn't much better. I fractured my shoulder a couple of years ago (one of my many injuries lol) and my arm had kinda popped out of the shoulder socket, I was in agony so my mum made me go to the hospital (cos I wouldn't have gone by choice, I hate the places) at about 11 on the morning and we were still in the waiting room come night time. I hadn't been seen by a doctor and I hadn't been given any pain relief but I had to wait because I 'wasn't a priority patient'.

Arses.

Then when we're in the waiting room I get sat next to this guy who was about my age and he'd slipped over and impaled himself on a spike coming off a fence. Yup, IMPALED. He had a bleeding hole in his side! And he's freaking sat in the waiting room with everyone else, waiting to be seen by a doctor and holding a towel to his bleeding wound!

I was like OMFG you're BLEEDING! And he had to wait for ages to be seen!

And then my local hospital spent over a million pounds on a giant stone that sits outside of the hospital with the hospital name engraved into it. It's basically a huge pebble. They could have spent that money on more doctors.

Morons

Originally Posted by reesesilverstar /img/forum/go_quote.gif I know what that's like coming from a country where the public medical services involve LOOOONG waiting periods. Never 14 hrs...That was rough... How much do private doctors cost tho? Private doctors? We dont have that option....????

Now see...Michael Moore made it look like you guys in other countries are just gettting the gold carpet treatment when you all need health care. We dont have to wait as long, chest pains=now!!, but the bill is sick

That's what I'm saying.... Cuz at home even tho there's free medical treatment, you still have the option of a private doctor...

I wonder how socialized medical care works in Cuba (CUBANS feel free to enlighten) cuz I know the rich ppl home go there for medical treatment...

Originally Posted by reesesilverstar /img/forum/go_quote.gif That's what I'm saying.... Cuz at home even tho there's free medical treatment, you still have the option of a private doctor...
I wonder how socialized medical care works in Cuba (CUBANS feel free to enlighten) cuz I know the rich ppl home go there for medical treatment...

Okay....I've had the unfortunate experience of having a loved one treated for an emergency in Cuba...I took my mom to Cuba for mothers day 3 years ago...while wheeling our luggage to the lobby to leave the hotel, someone had spilt a drink and my mother took a 10 feet drop into a rock garden and hit her head. The hotel staff insisted everything was okay, I however, insisted she be brought to the local hospital for examination (you dont play around with potential heaad injuries). Long story short, they said she was fine, gave her an injection of SOMETHING ....and i say 'something' becuase to this day we still dont know what it was that was given even tho I insisted they write it down so I could show our family dr back in Canada...and told us to be on our merry way. This 'trip' to the hospital cost me $1000.00 Canadian. We got back to Canada, took her straight to the ER and were told she had a major concussion, 3 broken ribs and a back injury....so much for everything being alright :s

Wow, that's incredible. Things like that take top priority where I am from, if you walk into a medical centre of any kind presenting with those sorts of symptoms, you get chucked to the front of the line and seen as soon as humanly possible. I am so sorry you had to wait so long to see a doctor, is everything ok now? Did you end up finding out what was causing the problem?

Originally Posted by Bec688 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Wow, that's incredible. Things like that take top priority where I am from, if you walk into a medical centre of any kind presenting with those sorts of symptoms, you get chucked to the front of the line and seen as soon as humanly possible. I am so sorry you had to wait so long to see a doctor, is everything ok now? Did you end up finding out what was causing the problem? I have a condition where the muscles around the heart swell ..... :s really scary actually. But i'm on some heavy duty anti-inflamitories to try and clear it up.

Just imagine that long wait with a very sick baby/child. That's so sad.

oh yuck that is horrible, Isn't there like triage type thing in place? We have that in place here in Oz I must admit we have pretty great healthcare here.

Even though a certain hospital let my appendix rupture when I was waiting in ER bed lol.. WHOOPS.

Your condition sounds scary hun, I hope themedication keeps it all under control for you.

You should always arrive in an ambulance if it's something serious or semi serious. You will get seen a lot sooner.

Originally Posted by S. Lisa Smith /img/forum/go_quote.gif You should always arrive in an ambulance if it's something serious or semi serious. You will get seen a lot sooner. Sadly, that isnt always true. There was a man beside me who has fallen on ice and had a concussion and was brought via ambulance, he had to wait just as long as i did!

Originally Posted by HairEgo /img/forum/go_quote.gif Okay....I've had the unfortunate experience of having a loved one treated for an emergency in Cuba...I took my mom to Cuba for mothers day 3 years ago...while wheeling our luggage to the lobby to leave the hotel, someone had spilt a drink and my mother took a 10 feet drop into a rock garden and hit her head. The hotel staff insisted everything was okay, I however, insisted she be brought to the local hospital for examination (you dont play around with potential heaad injuries). Long story short, they said she was fine, gave her an injection of SOMETHING ....and i say 'something' becuase to this day we still dont know what it was that was given even tho I insisted they write it down so I could show our family dr back in Canada...and told us to be on our merry way. This 'trip' to the hospital cost me $1000.00 Canadian. We got back to Canada, took her straight to the ER and were told she had a major concussion, 3 broken ribs and a back injury....so much for everything being alright :s Wow... That is crazy, but informative. Thanks alot for sharing that...