“Pedo Daddy told me to hate Canada so now I hate Canada.”
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
As an US American living in Germany: socialized healthcare or death. Fuck the US system. It’s designed to torture you to add money to a billionaire’s pocket.
Canadian. Recently injured, reasonably severely.
Ambulance on scene, admitted immediately, consult, imaging, initial treatment and out in 3 hours. Multiple regular follow ups and imaging - none of which took more than an hour.
If you’re sick or injured you get seen pretty quickly.
As someone else put it - the system is really good at solving acute problems and saving your life.
Keeping you healthy - that’s more up to you (than it should be). It’s not close to perfect but I’d pick it any day over whatever it is in Lake Americaland.
For real, that’s what triage is for. A lot of people go to the hospital for something they think is serious but is actually minor. My ex started getting panic attacks at one point, and after taking him to the ER for like the third time and waiting like 2 hours he calmed down and we went home instead. People who are actually bleeding out or whatever will be seen first.
yeah you basically never wanna do psych stuff in an ER unless the behavior is unsafe enough that they’re likely to end up there anyway. The only psych interventions ED staff know how to do is emergently drugging a person unconscious which is rarely necessary. You more likely want some kind of specific psychiatric crisis services but you still need to be able to communicate effectively enough to let them work out a basic safety plan because if you go in with “I wanna die nothing will ever get better and you can’t talk me out of that” they’re gonna get you sent to an ER, which as stated, is less than ideal.
What in the commie sense is this?
what, you think it should be first come first served?
Just a poorly landed joke/pun on common sense
oh, lol
UK here.
If you’re waiting 12 hours in a&e, your condition almost certainly is not life threatening. Sprained arm, or a bad cold? You’re potentially waiting a while. Head injury, or heart issues? You’re not touching a waiting room seat.
The NHS can be slow as sin for non-acute issues. It took almost a year to get a benign, but disruptive lump removed. Major complications while giving birth? Instant, full blown, treatment.
We still have some private medicine. The existence of the NHS keeps their prices and practices in check. It’s no longer “pay or die” instead its “pay for convenience”.
in a&e
I’ve never understood why Brits feel the need to add “accident” to emergency. Are there people who are waiting there because they’ve had an accident but there’s no emergency?
We still have some private medicine. The existence of the NHS keeps their prices and practices in check. It’s no longer “pay or die” instead its “pay for convenience”.
This is how it may start. But, be careful because as more people start using the private option, the public option starts getting starved for funds, and then bit by bit there is no public option.
They have been trying to starve the NHS for a while. Thankfully the staff that make the NHS what it is are pushing back as best they can.
As for the “accident” in A&E. It caters for situations that aren’t to the level of emergencies, but need dealing with. E.g. I had an accident during a martial arts spar. I injured my wrist, and needed to know if it was broken or just bruised. A&E gave it an x-ray, it wasn’t broken. I successfully competed in a competition a day later. It definitely wasn’t an emergency, but I needed the results of an accident taken care of.
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 never understood the argument about waiting for ED/ER care in socialized medicine vs the US’s.
Everyone is triaged, everyone waits in the ER. The sprained ankle or sniffle goes last, the stroke is seen immediately. Every country’s medical system has medical mistakes.
Like the meme says, the US will bankrupt you for care - and in no small part because people will put off care until a condition is potentially serious because they can’t afford to take time off for it or the cost of the care itself.
If Canadians waits in an ER, that means that what they had wasn’t life threatening and people with worse conditions took the priority over them.
If an American waits in an ER, it could be that their insurance company is delaying everything and hopes that they die so they don’t have to pay for treatment.
They are educated in triage, which is the only sensible way to handle emergency responses. A man with a sore throat should never take priority over a kid with a broken arm.
People think they are paying for medical attention, but what they are really paying for is their minor problems being taken more seriously than major problems that poorer people have.
Private for-profit healthcare, even in conjunction with public healthcare, is a blight upon humanity contradicting everything modern medicine stands for.
I saw an analysis about this a few years ago where they showed that the wait time for care in Canada was generally less than the wait time in America for most stuff.
Certain things like non-emergency (but important) surgeries could take longer to schedule in Canada.
But that was years ago. Probably both sides have had changes since then.
The most important takeaway is that if you think wait times would definitely be worse with socialized medicine, you have fallen for conservative propaganda, you idiot.
Certain things like non-emergency (but important) surgeries could take longer to schedule in Canada.
Yeah, hip replacements and that sort of thing have a months-long or even years-long waiting list. But, most people waiting for those things can still live pretty much normal lives. IMO the wait is too long. But, people can get by walking with a limp until their turn comes up.
If the trade-off to get treated more quickly for that sort of thing is to accept the for-profit medical system of the USA, there are virtually no Canadians who would accept that deal.
As a Canadian, that’s about right. If you don’t have an immediate problem but go to the ER, it can be brutal. I’ve waited multiple hours in the ER before and my mom was there once with my uncle for I think longer than 12 hours.
However, if you do have an actual emergency then things are completely different. You get in instantly, you are treated extremely well and the medical practitioners you see will stop at nothing to help you. When there is no threat of cost, they do everything in their power to save you.
They all “know a Canadian” who comes to the US because healthcare is better.
Uh okay. Sure buddy.
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.
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.
deleted by creator
Definitely not Canadian
People go to ER or get a prescription here sometimes. Then complain about the wait 😭😭😭
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.
Went for heart problems. Waited 12 hours in an empty waiting room.
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.
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.
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).
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
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.
The only reason that American ERs may get you in faster is because it is so fucking cost prohibitive that the only people there are either at serious risk of life or limb, or have chronic conditions and they are going to his their out of pocket max anyway. The people that should be going to the ER but don’t feel like they absolutely have to, aren’t.
And every ER in the US and Canada both prioritize people by need. You triage life threatening issues first. Then serious injuries. Then things that may have deeper issues. Then things you can treat now. Then things that you are just wanting to get checked out. Then things that you should have just gone to your primary care for. If you are waiting for 12 hours in either case, you definitely didn’t come for life saving care or serious injury. You might have to wait a while for an x-ray, cat scan or mri because those are always a bottleneck in every hospital.
If people were dying in Canadian ERs waiting for care, or getting chronic conditions due to delayed treatment, I would be concerned, but that is never the claim. It is always just about your precious time away from work. But how many hours is too many hours when you are recieving FREE care compared to a bill high enough to buy a new fucking car every year? Perspective, people.
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.
