Health Care

First, I would like to thank Crunchycarpet for getting this site up and running. It is truly amazing and I think she has done an incredible job, I am in awe! I feel proud to belong to this community of bloggers.

When I first started my blog it was my intent to write about being an RN from the big city and moving to a small town. I have never really done that. I write about everything and anything on my blog. But I thought I would try and write about Healthcare here.

In the big city we have access to everything we could possibly imagine. Where I lived in Burnaby I had 3 hospitals all within 15 mins of me and VGH only 40 mins. Here on the Island my closet hospital is the one I work at which is a 45 min. drive on the highway driving at 120km/hr. It is approx 55 km away. So proximity is everything. If you are having a heart attack where I live now you better know CPR! It takes up 20 mins for EHS to arrive or someone from the volunteer fire department. Once they arrive you have to make the trip to the hospital. In healthcare we have a saying “time is muscle” meaning the sooner we can treat a person who is having a heart attack the better their chances for recovery are.

You arrive at the hospital you are assed, and treated. It is determined you have indeed had a heart attack and require an angiogram. Guess what, you have to take a 3 hour ambulance drive to Victoria, which is the only place on the Island that does angio’s. We have stabalized you, and because we have done so you are no longer considered an emergency. So you wait in the hospital for a bed to become available down in Victoria. We get the call, they have a bed, but guess what, you have to pay the $360 dollar ambulance ride down to Victoria. You better have extended medical. So you make it down to Victoria have your procedure, but they want you to stay in town and see them in the morning. Oh no they don’t keep you in hospital overnight, you have to pay for a hotel room if you don’t have family in town. Then the next day you go back to the hospital for them to give you the ok to go home. Oh did I tell you, you have to find your own way home. Oh life in the Smalltown the pros and cons.

There is lots I would love to share with you about the inadequacies of our health system. Do get me wrong I think we have top notch medical experts in our Country and province, it is the delivering of the healthcare that I have problems with. If this topic interests you or there is something in the health field you would like to chat about let me know.

If you or a loved one has health issue make sure you consider this before moving to a smalltown. I’ll give you my thoughts on that in my next post.

Cheers