It’s called triage. If you go in with a splinter you’re going to have to wait behind the guy that came in after you with a piece of rebar through his skull.
Lots of people don’t understand that it isnt a deli counter where you take a number and are called in order.
Many of these conservative “studies” compare wait times between Canadian booboos and American traumas without explicitly calling it out, and that’s not a fair comparison.
Lots of people don’t understand that it isnt a deli counter where you take a number and are called in order.
Conservatives tend to be stupid and ignorant, yes.
In the US, if the wait time is ever quicker it’s because a lot of people who SHOULD be there just died at home or at least tried to tough it out and will live with those consequences for the rest of their lives.
And yea, conservatives(lowercase, to not exuse anyone not in the Conservative party) are constantly fucking over our public instiutions. That includes healthcare, and frankly those politicians doing the damage are just murderers for hire. We have to do better, but at least we aren’t the US.
I remember when they sent me to an hospital from the clinic because it was possible I had something really concerning. I passed in front of everyone. It took 1 minute the second I talked to the reception. When they figured out it wasn’t lethal, it took some time… you know… to take care of the dying people.
Yep, there’s also priority insurance in EU, so they inflate the waiting time to make you pay more for insurance. They are definately trying to go the US way.
And they wouldn’t even give you anything for the pain because the sacklers pushed opiates relentlessly got no consequences and now everyone is screwed
You can tell these people have never visited an ER in the US when they post shit you could tell was a lie just by accidentally glancing into any hospital window.
They don’t care. They just believe they have enough money to get priority in a for-profit system, at the expense of those who have less money but actually need urgent care.
Last time I went to the ER with an actual emergency and they took me right in… no wait. So yeah, I’ll take it.
Yeah but like… Where do you live I guess
Edit (clarification):
It’s just, unless you include that information, how do we know which one you’re saying is fine?
“Pedo Daddy told me to hate Canada so now I hate Canada.”
In America, I pay for health insurance that I can’t use because I can’t find a fucking doctor! Seriously, I’ve been trying to get a PCP for years but everyone I call is not taking patients. I’m on several different waiting lists.
But we’re FREE, praise Supply Side Jesus!
Ah yes, this classic lie.
I fondly remember back in the olden days of news-papers reading an article that very fairly and balancedly compared ER wait times in the US to specialist referral times in Canada to show how badly socialized medicine was failing. More than zero people read that article and thought “USA! USA!” then went on to vote and share their ideas with people.
Then there was a big splash with a “”“study”“” that actually compared ER times to ER times and the US freaking dominated!!! Of course, if you read past the headline you’d find cherry picked cases of “bleeding to death” in the USA versus “sniffles” in Canada.
Point being, there are many ways to lie and these bastards will try all of them.
Lies, damned lies, and statistics.
You can use statics to prove anything. 39% of people know that
if you are waiting 12 hours in the ER then you are probably there for a runny nose or something equally silly.
Triage is a thing that exists, and ensures that people get attention in the order they need it. . and when an ER is full of a mass causality event, your skinned knee or runny nose is not a priority.
I went to the ER in the US for an infected gallbladder full of stones, it was so bad I had to be hospitalized for almost a week. I was in the ER waiting room in the fetal position for literally hours after a nurse took my vitals before a doctor saw me, there were a couple other people in the waiting room. I nearly died. Over $20k bill after insurance.
I’ve also gone to the same ER with relatively mild UTI, I peed blood and fainted from the sight but otherwise didn’t really need the ER. They saw me immediately, and it was very busy.
Triage is a thing, whether they do it properly is another thing.
Also, you don’t know what happened an hour before you showed up. Triage doesn’t mean a serious case doesn’t have to wait or a minor one does.
Canadian here its not silly, you can wait 12+ hours for very serious conditions (as I have once, I realize this is anecdotal).
This doesn’t mean its worse than in the states. I understand on average we are doing better healthcare wise than the states (interms of cost and mortality). However for the well insured in the states I believe the care is better.
Yet another issue with being so close to the states our health care suffers because our corrupt politicians see your system and drag us closer to it. You all also attract doctors away from us.
you are probably there for a runny nose or something equally silly.
It’s silly to go to the ER for a runny nose if you have better options, like a family doctor with whom you can get appointments within a few days. Sadly, a lot of Americans don’t have health care coverage and have to go to the ER for “silly” things because they don’t have other options.
Very much this.
I’ve had seven heart attacks.
When I go in with heart attack symptoms, which I’ve had to do a handful of times (that it turned out not to be a heart attack, I mean) - I don’t like going in there and them getting me back quickly. It means things are potentially bad. heh.
I understand that nobody likes waiting, and i’ve waited before and it sucks. But it sucks less than needing to be taken back quickly, really.
Seven heart attacks? Youch.
Anyhow, IMO, the worst experience in the ER is when you have a bone or muscle injury. You’re triaged pretty low because it’s not getting worse so there’s no urgency to treat you quickly. OTOH you’re in a lot of discomfort, you often can’t find a way to sit so you’re not in pain. And yet, you really do have to stay in the ER. It’s not like if you have a bad cold or flu or something that will probably get better on its own, or where you might be able to leave and come back the next day if it’s really busy.
Been there, done that. Sitting for six hours in the ER with a shattered ankle was probably the worst pain I ever had to deal with.
I understand that it wouldn’t have changed anything if they treated me sooner, but for gods sake, at least give me an ice pack next time. Not cooling a fracture is probably the worst thing you can do apart from not correcting in.
Yeah, my experiences weren’t that bad. But, I remember recently sitting there for hours awkwardly trying to support my shoulder with my other arm so whatever was broken didn’t have to bear the weight of everything else. Of course, one of the first things they did after assessing me was to give me a sling… that would have helped hours earlier.
I dunno, maybe they need a “first pass treatment” triage where they hand out slings, ice packs, compression bandages, etc. The sort of things that a nurse can “prescribe” that might make things feel better, can’t really make it worse, and will tide you over until the doctor can take a better look.
Went for heart problems. Waited 12 hours in an empty waiting room.
Exactly my brother came in with a cut bleeding all over the ER, he needed like 12 stitches. They took him right away. All he remember from that day(he was pretty out of it) was some woman complaining that she been waiting for hour why his getting to go first.
While his blood spilling out on floor she had the gull to say that.
Same with chest pain. If you go to the ER complaining of chest pain most times they take you straight back. Happen to me was sick told my boss chest was hurting he suggested hospital cause you know heart attack. Er by house so went they wisk me straight back.
Funny not funny story about that visit. One thankfully no heart attack. But they did find a mass on my lungs ( lucky turn out to be acid reflux due to a cough I had) anyway when he sees this he says. "Might be cancer but I don’t know. " scare the shit out of me. I just replied "well if you don’t know don’t say that. "
They scheduled me a specialist but it was a 2 month wait, by time they saw me the mass was gone. That doctor figured it was the acid reflux got in there. Good news is got on meds for that and no more acid reflux for me.
I can never understand how people can be that entitled. When I’m in the ER I’m always annoyed when someone comes in who clearly needs to be seen faster, but I couldn’t imagine complaining about it or even pretending that I’m being treated unfairly.
Also that sounds scary as shit
Me neither, and when told the story got angry. But just shows that a lot people have main character syndrome even long before I heard the term.
I think wait times were better. And now they’re terrible, but what you say plays a big role. And as such, we’ve seen urgent care businesses (hate saying that) explode. There’s one every mile where I live, including pediatric urgent care. And I’m not complaining. I’ll complain maybe about costs, but the idea of this stepped-down, non-emergent care, is a great way to deal with the problem.
Now, make it free* (except I pay taxes already so just use those).
People go to ER or get a prescription here sometimes. Then complain about the wait 😭😭😭
I wish I could agree with you, but one time I sat in an emergency room for 12 hours bleeding from my throat into a bowl that was overfilling with my own blood before I got properly triaged and scheduled for emergency surgery.
Definitely not Canadian
Canada needs to stop taking these comments seriously and learn to stop punching down on the USA. Our healthcare system still has a lot of room for improvement.
And the reason for that is the aggressive privatization efforts done over decades by conservatives and many liberals.
I.e. Americanization
If it’s so bad in Canada, and so great here, why is nobody in Canada demanding to switch to that great American last place healthcare?
Some people are, but universal Healthcare is almost universally accepted in Canada.
So they debate goes around whether there should be a two tiered system with private hospitals/clinics so rich people can skip the queue for surgeries, etc.
That’s a trap.
There are unfortunately a bunch of right wing idiots in canada who absolutely are :(
They’ll have our system soon enough, rural areas tend to be conservative and anti government because they care about themselves and family and don’t want to get taxed to pay for others
Others ultimately being those like themselves given rural costs a shitload more per person to offer any service to.
