Victoria is facing a public-safety crisis

[OldSolduer]

Winnipeg is in a similar situation. Stabbings all over and the transit workers are alerting the city that crime is rampant.

And a sprained ankle demands an ER visit.

 

[Retired AF Guy]

The series is really good actually.

Will have to track it down.

 

[daftandbarmy]

People are using them for primary care reasons most likely - often means that if they've just lost a family doc, they have a shopping list of problems, or they might be there for driver/employment medicals, which take substantially longer if you don't know the person or have records on them, a lack of physicians/clincis, IIRC correctly, in BC there's a cap on people you can see in a given time frame in the walk ins, so no incentive to move faster since people would be working for free. Add to that the amount of documentation required for people you don't know that one has to do and send to the patient's family doc (if they have one) or consultant(s) if needed. In an ED, for a simple problem, I have about 5-10 minutes of documentation I have to do...ordering tests that weren't done on arrival, consultatnts to page/text and do a note for, referrals to other facilities, doing a procedure (and documenting that), etc takes up more time I'm not seeing people. In a walk-in, you're responsible for tests you order and have to follow up on them, dictate or hand bomb letters of referral or back to family doc saying "Hey, just saw you patient, they need this and that done please follow up, etc". Takes time...some of it non-billable. Take your pick.

It's mainly a lack of doctors, apparently.

We know a few doctors who can't make any money here and are pretty much treated like sheisse by the Vancouver Island Health Authority.

One doctor is working in Alberta and hugely enjoys it. She comes back to visit her familiy every couple of months or so. Good money, enough support, grateful customers, supportive administration.

‘Not entirely shocked’: Victoria's walk-in clinic wait times longest in Canada (REPORT)

As a doctor shortage plagues southern Vancouver Island, it may be no surprise that Victoria is seeing the longest walk-in clinic wait times in Canada.

www.victoriabuzz.com

 

[Jarnhamar]

It's mainly a lack of doctors, apparently.

We know a few doctors who can't make any money here and are pretty much treated like sheisse by the Vancouver Island Health Authority.

One doctor is working in High Level Alberta and hugely enjoys it. She comes back to visit her familiy every couple of months or so. Good money, enough support, grateful customers, supportive administration.

‘Not entirely shocked’: Victoria's walk-in clinic wait times longest in Canada (REPORT)

As a doctor shortage plagues southern Vancouver Island, it may be no surprise that Victoria is seeing the longest walk-in clinic wait times in Canada.

www.victoriabuzz.com

I'm not sure how accurate those wait times are. Or maybe I'm reading that study wrong.

I know of a walk-in clinic in a medium sized city. It opens at 9am and fills up to the point where they stop taking people at 10am. If you're not in line very early (i.e 830), you could be waiting until 2-230pm before seeing a doctor.

Mind you it's better than going to the ER which can be a 12+ hour wait to see a doctor.

 

[The Bread Guy]

One thing I can tell you:

If society doesn’t invest in a proper mental health care system including secure facilities you end up with a plethora of crazies on the street and in your jails.

Heard that from a jail superintendent +30 years ago as well - I guess nobody's listening

 

[GK .Dundas]

Heard that from a jail superintendent +30 years ago as well - I guess nobody's listening

I hear that from the various Corrections Officers who are assigned to our various units. I guess some things never change.

 

[mariomike]

If society doesn’t invest in a proper mental health care system including secure facilities you end up with a plethora of crazies on the street and in your jails.

Saw this from B.C. nine years ago,

A group of B.C. mayors are calling on the provincial government to re-open Coquitlam’s Riverview Hospital for mental health patients.

Mayors calling for re-opening of Riverview Hospital

A group of B.C. mayors are calling on the provincial government to re-open Coquitlam’s Riverview Hospital for mental health patients.

bc.ctvnews.ca

Nothing new about deinstitutionalization.

Toronto experienced similar problems after the partial deinstitutionalization of 999 Queen St., and the closure of 3131 Lakeshore Psych.

Psychiatric attendants used to make sure mental patients got up every morning, went to bed at night, took showers and ate decently. They had group therapy, workshops, bingos, dances, movies and sports to keep them busy.

Their quality of life was better, in my opinion, than that of many psychiatric patients who are living in the community today.

The 9-1-1 system is frequently called to help them. All we could do was deliver them to an ER.

 

[OldSolduer]

I hear that from the various Corrections Officers who are assigned to our various units. I guess some things never change.

Because we are stoopid gards who have no idea about mental health etc that is how the upper tiers in government see us.
Some of our staff have degrees in Justice, psychology among others.

 

[lenaitch]

Saw this from B.C. nine years ago,

Mayors calling for re-opening of Riverview Hospital

A group of B.C. mayors are calling on the provincial government to re-open Coquitlam’s Riverview Hospital for mental health patients.

bc.ctvnews.ca

Nothing new about deinstitutionalization.

Toronto experienced similar problems after the partial deinstitutionalization of 999 Queen St., and the closure of 3131 Lakeshore Psych.

Psychiatric attendants used to make sure mental patients got up every morning, went to bed at night, took showers and ate decently. They had group therapy, workshops, bingos, dances, movies and sports to keep them busy.

Their quality of life was better, in my opinion, than that of many psychiatric patients who are living in the community today.

The 9-1-1 system is frequently called to help them. All we could do was deliver them to an ER.

It happened all over Ontario after the Great Deinstitutionization of the 1990s, particularly impacting the communities hosting the former institutions. Adequate funding for the promised 'home and community supports' never materialized. Layer than onto the fentanyl/oxy/drug du jour problem and some communities are reeling.

The stated reasons about getting patients out of these institutions and integrated back into the community wasn't totally wrong, but the real reason was for the government to save money.

 

[mariomike]

Because we are stoopid gards who have no idea about mental health etc that is how the upper tiers in government see us.

Worked the Don part-time. Enjoyed the job.

It happened all over Ontario after the Great Deinstitutionization of the 1990s, particularly impacting the communities hosting the former institutions. Adequate funding for the promised 'home and community supports' never materialized. Layer than onto the fentanyl/oxy/drug du jour problem and some communities are reeling.

The stated reasons about getting patients out of these institutions and integrated back into the community wasn't totally wrong, but the real reason was for the government to save money.

Hope they never deinstitutionalize Penetang. What a spooky place that was!

 

[Good2Golf]

Hope they never deinstitutionalize Penetang. What a spooky place that was!

Used to weekend up in Victoria Harbour with a high school buddy, and you could hear them (at the institution) hollering across the water at night. ..sounded like a Friday 13 movie sound track…

 

[medicineman]

It's mainly a lack of doctors, apparently.

We know a few doctors who can't make any money here and are pretty much treated like sheisse by the Vancouver Island Health Authority.
though I'
One doctor is working in Alberta and hugely enjoys it. She comes back to visit her familiy every couple of months or so. Good money, enough support, grateful customers, supportive administration.

‘Not entirely shocked’: Victoria's walk-in clinic wait times longest in Canada (REPORT)

As a doctor shortage plagues southern Vancouver Island, it may be no surprise that Victoria is seeing the longest walk-in clinic wait times in Canada.

www.victoriabuzz.com

My doc this morning is a refugee from the Lower Mainland - couldn't get a family med job there as the BC gov't seems to have a hard on against family MD's lately. Frig, we've been trying to get PA's into BC for as long as I've been one -at least 14 years - gov't pats on the head, with one hand and jams a knife in with the other...and I don't see anything happening anytime soon, as they've always been a bit (read a lot) insular about having things like this that they can't/won't make at home their own way - witness their paramedic program's lack of reciprocity with other provinces up until fairly recently. Given the population, I don't understand why they can't/won't support a second medical school there - there are two in AB - other than they don't want to pay for what they've already got...

I'm not moving back any time soon.

 

[Good2Golf]

My doc this morning is a refugee from the Lower Mainland - couldn't get a family med job there as the BC gov't seems to have a hard on against family MD's lately. Frig, we've been trying to get PA's into BC for as long as I've been one -at least 14 years - gov't pats on the head, with one hand and jams a knife in with the other...and I don't see anything happening anytime soon, as they've always been a bit (read a lot) insular about having things like this that they can't/won't make at home their own way - witness their paramedic program's lack of reciprocity with other provinces up until fairly recently. Given the population, I don't understand why they can't/won't support a second medical school there - there are two in AB - other than they don't want to pay for what they've already got...

I'm not moving back any time soon.

A substantial part of why my wife (Victoria born) and I put our ‘retire back to her home’ in hold for the foreseeable future…far more certain to stay put in Eastern Ontario surrounded by several ver well-equipped regional hospitals and good health services and short specialist wait times, and a slightly longer than past (maybe 3-4 weeks) wintering somewhere warm that’ll take the edge off the depth of winter. A family friend having to buy his own bandages and surgery soap, etc. prior to colon cancer surgery was an eye-opener for us!!

 

[dapaterson]

My family Dr (Ontario) got fed up with running a practice, so downsized he patient list and joined a larger practice, giving her better work life balance and the ability to teach.

Unfortunately, since I am relatively young and have zero health conditions, I was downsized. Four years and counting of looking for a new primary health care provider.

 

[daftandbarmy]

A substantial part of why my wife (Victoria born) and I put our ‘retire back to her home’ in hold for the foreseeable future…far more certain to stay put in Eastern Ontario surrounded by several ver well-equipped regional hospitals and good health services and short specialist wait times, and a slightly longer than past (maybe 3-4 weeks) wintering somewhere warm that’ll take the edge off the depth of winter. A family friend having to buy his own bandages and surgery soap, etc. prior to colon cancer surgery was an eye-opener for us!!

BC lost control of the Health Sector under the Liberal Government when they created the Health Authorities/ Business Units under a quasi private sector system, and delegated away alot of the service delivery decision making from the centre.

My guess is that the governance structure might have to change to address the lack of control the Health Ministry has over service delivery.

 

[dapaterson]

Additional layers to blame before you hit the Minister are a feature, not a bug.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Curious that BC is antagonistic towards family physicians, because it really needs more of them, the people know this, and the government knows this and is currently engaged (with the other provinces) in the usual game of badgering the federal government to tax Canadians (unpopular) and pass along health care money to provincial governments for spending (popular).

Given the population, I don't understand why they can't/won't support a second medical school there - there are two in AB - other than they don't want to pay for what they've already got...

With the distributed model they have (UBC working with interior and island universities), the overhead of a second school might make less sense than expanding the existing one.

 

[brihard]

We’re super lucky. Got a good family doc when we moved out here- she’s approximately my age, been a doc since 2013 or so. I’m super easy as a patient, but sheMs been amazing with my wife... particularly in giving her the time to really listen. She’s freshly back to work after two kids in quick succession, so we’re hoping we’ll have her for another twenty years or so.

Flip side to that, my mom and stepdad, him with bad Leukemia, have no family doctor. Almost zero chance of getting one. But for the leukemia he’d likely be getting no meaningful care at all. And a great many people have similarly no access to regular care- I see it on my neighborhood Facebook group all the time, people looking for family clinics taking patients.

My cousin finished residency not too long ago. From some really candid conversation, the system by which we create doctors is brutal; we have resident in clinical settings working shifts 24 hours long, hopefully napping for a couple hours during that time and hoping they don’t crash the car on the way home. And that’s a conscious part of the resourcing model for hospital ERs.

The costs of medical school are horrendous, dissuading many from ever getting into the profession. Family physicians running a clinic eat the bulk of the overhead, which pushes more of them away from family medicine and into hospitals where they practice without paying for the infrastructure.

There needs to be a holistic look, combining both federal and provincial levels, into how Canada generates intake into the healthcare field, and how the practitioners are supported and sustained.

 

[mariomike]

This article from 2007 predicted the mess we are in now.

Canada's looming acute-care crisis​

The health-care system is about to embrace the baby-boom generation and a recent symposium at Queen's University forecast that, at best, the results will be problematic. At worst, our system may implode.​

Canada's looming acute-care crisis

T he health-care system is about to embrace the baby-boom generation and a recent symposium at Queen's University forecast that, at best, the results will be problematic. At worst, our system may implode.

www.thestar.com

 

[Colin Parkinson]

The guy looking after our daughter for her diabetes, was a spinal surgeon in India and is excellent to deal with. They can't call him "Doctor" as he is not certified here, we call him doctor because he does excellent work for us. The have about 6 "Case Managers" as they call these trained doctors. The medical profession is very much about guarding the sandbox for people trained in the "right schools".