Hospital Wait Times... Still Suck

The Ontario Ministry of Health has announced that it plans to reduce Emergency Room wait times.

On it's face, this sounds like good news, until you read the fine print, and realize that these wait times will be "improved" to between 4 and 8 hours! This bitter little pill is conveniently omitted from the Ministry's PR page on the plan.

This news is actually a staggering admission of just how broken our health care system is. Can you imagine how long the wait times are today, if 4-8 hours is seen as an improvement??

The Ministry says that it has taken examples of best practices from Hospitals such as St. Mikes which has some of the lowest wait times in the province and plans to adopt those same practices in other Ontario hospitals. Better watch out though... Looks like St. Mikes has been employing some dubious methodology to keep their ER waiting rooms uncluttered.

I would love to see a class action suit against the government by people who's loved ones died due to lack of treatment because they didn't want to be abused like cattle in the ER, or worse yet, died in the ER while waiting for treatment.

It is unconscionable that the government attempts to prevent you from legally obtaining private health care, while at the same time they fail to provide an adequate level of care themselves. Of course that doesn't apply to everyone. We have a thriving 2 tier health-care system in Canada. Do you think this nation's politicians would allow themselves to be trapped in the system they've designed for the underclass? No way! There are elite private health clinics sprouting up all over the place for those who have the means not to have to mingle with those of us in steerage class. So if you're worried about 2-tier health care you can stop worrying and start panicking... It's already here.

Of course it doesn't have to be this way. Canada is one of the only OECD countries with a public health-care system that refuses to incorporate some form of private delivery due to an ideological predisposition to believe that everything private is evil and everything public is safe. The result of this stance is two disparate systems evolving side-by side. One for Members of The Party and other elite, and one that's sub-standard for everyone else. That should scare you a lot more than an entrepreneur buying an MRI machine and running tests for a reasonable fee.