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Author
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Topic: mammogram
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margrace
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 6191
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posted 01 February 2006 08:32 PM
Not sure if this is the right place but here goes.My friend's doctor is in Toronto, we live over 300ks north. Her doctor told her to get a mammogram. She called the usual hospital and was told there was a six month wait, after phoning several more and getting the same answer she inquired why there was a wait. She was told that there are four private clinics waiting to open but because the public does not want private health they can't. My local doctor told me the same thing,get a Mammogram. I called my local hospital and had an appointment within a week. My friend came home and called another hospital to the north of us and got her appointment in several days. What the blazes is going on here?????
From: Canada | Registered: Jun 2004
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Sineed
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 11260
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posted 02 February 2006 11:41 AM
I think I have an idea what is going on. Today I was put on a waiting list for an MRI. The medical clerk who was faxing the request commented, "I wish they had one form, and I could fax it off, and you would then get the next available space at whatever hospital. But each hospital is separate." He then suggested one of the local hospitals, and I agreed. But I just have a sore hip and back; I'm not incapacitated or in excruciating, constant pain, and I don't mind waiting.If each of the hospitals that does MRIs submitted their wait times to an online database for a certain catchement area, then patients could be put into a queue for the whole catchement area (the areas served by several hospitals in downtown Toronto, for instance), rather than for each hospital separately. But the medical clerk said that hospitals don't like to share their data. And I don't see how privatisation would solve things. I heard someone from the Fraser Institute on the CBC the other day who said that ORs are only open a certain number of hours per day, so why not get private clinics to operate during the off-hours to shorten wait times? I say, why not fund the public system sufficiently to run ORs 24/7 instead of putting a certain amount of public health care funds into the pockets of private investors, as would happen in a private, for-profit system?
From: # 668 - neighbour of the beast | Registered: Dec 2005
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skdadl
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 478
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posted 02 February 2006 11:45 AM
quote:
Originally posted by margrace:
It is my experience that doctors recomment that one have a mammogram but that it is up to the patient to make the appointment where and when they want.
Well, that's not how it works for me. Yes, I have to make the call; but my doctor has given me a form for a particular clinic - I don't have to search about for the clinic. And I have on one occasion gone back to her and told her that I would prefer another referral - so she gave it to me. Are doctors really just sending people out into the wilderness? That has not happened to me, not with tests like this. (That can happen with other things, mind.)
From: gone | Registered: May 2001
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