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Discussion starter · #44 · (Edited)
Well, ours is "free", and yes, we do have a high number of people who most likely frequent our ER because they don't have to pay, however, we have triage. The most urgent are seen immediately. If you choses to come to the ER with a non-urgent matter, you will be advised in triage of one of our many walk-in & after hours clinics, and if you chose to wait, you will wait a loooooong time while the true emergencies are handled. There is no wait if you have an emergency. The long waits people hear about are mostly because those people probably should not have presented to an EMERGENCY room for treatment. If you can wait 5 hours to be seen, you should be at a walk-in. 1 hour wait at most. If you come in with a level 2 or emergency, you do not wait at all. Level 3's have a bit of a wait if we re extremely busy, and usually level 4s & 5s don't need to be there. Our waiting room is usually filled with levels 4 & 5.
 
Same here, although I did go for my very first ever complete check up this year....at age 50. (and I have very good health insurance)
Oh I do too. My check ups would be totally paid by insurance--if I were to go have one.
 
You won't be able to get in then..........:)
Free is not the word ! Our Health Service is " free" to those who contribute to the National Insurance !

It's also free to other Nationals that pay nothing !

At the moment they can ALL get in so we aren't really any differnt when it comes down to it except that if YOU come to the UK without insurance then we will still save your life if you fall ill as far as I am aware !
 
Well, ours is "free", and yes, we do have a high number of people who most likely frequent our ER because they don't have to pay, however, we have triage. The most urgent are seen immediately. If you choses to come to the ER with a non-urgent matter, you will be advised in triage of one of our many walk-in & after hours clinics, and if you chose to wait, you will wait a loooooong time while the true emergencies are handled. There is no wait if you have an emergency. The long waits people hear about are mostly because those people probably should not have presented to an EMERGENCY room for treatment. If you can wait 5 hours to be seen, you should be at a walk-in. 1 hour wait at most. If you come in with a level 2 or emergency, you do not wait at all. Level 3's have a bit of a wait if we re extremely busy, and usually level 4s & 5s don't need to be there. Our waiting room is usually filled with levels 4 & 5.
Well, ideally this is the case. The problem is this all depends on the quality of triage. I waited 4 hours to see a doctor for a suspected DVT. (Blood clot). Sure enough they had to ask the ultrasound techs to stay late because the lab had already closed. The diagnosis: 2 completely occluded vessels in my left leg a potentially fatal condition. Even the ER doc was a bit ticked off that the triage nurses fell down on the job. The ultrasound closed at 4:15 and the lab at 4. I almost didn't go in.

I left the ER 6 hours after arriving with a then 4 week old at home. Luckily there was no problem with my breast milk supply or my mom would have been in a bind.

I can't go to a walk in clinic or my family doctor will drop me as a patient because his office will get the bill for a walk-in clinic visit. (Not sure if this rule is specific to Ontario or not. ) In Ontario, my part at least there is a shortage of family physicians. Too many med school graduates leave for the big money available in the States. We really need to institute a way of enticing them to stay.
 
Well, ideally this is the case. The problem is this all depends on the quality of triage. I waited 4 hours to see a doctor for a suspected DVT. (Blood clot). Sure enough they had to ask the ultrasound techs to stay late because the lab had already closed. The diagnosis: 2 completely occluded vessels in my left leg a potentially fatal condition. Even the ER doc was a bit ticked off that the triage nurses fell down on the job. The ultrasound closed at 4:15 and the lab at 4. I almost didn't go in.

I left the ER 6 hours after arriving with a then 4 week old at home. Luckily there was no problem with my breast milk supply or my mom would have been in a bind.

I can't go to a walk in clinic or my family doctor will drop me as a patient because his office will get the bill for a walk-in clinic visit. (Not sure if this rule is specific to Ontario or not. ) In Ontario, my part at least there is a shortage of family physicians. Too many med school graduates leave for the big money available in the States. We really need to institute a way of enticing them to stay.

Maybe they should try capitalism........:)
 
Discussion starter · #51 ·
Well, ideally this is the case. The problem is this all depends on the quality of triage. I waited 4 hours to see a doctor for a suspected DVT. (Blood clot). Sure enough they had to ask the ultrasound techs to stay late because the lab had already closed. The diagnosis: 2 completely occluded vessels in my left leg a potentially fatal condition. Even the ER doc was a bit ticked off that the triage nurses fell down on the job. The ultrasound closed at 4:15 and the lab at 4. I almost didn't go in.

I left the ER 6 hours after arriving with a then 4 week old at home. Luckily there was no problem with my breast milk supply or my mom would have been in a bind.

I can't go to a walk in clinic or my family doctor will drop me as a patient because his office will get the bill for a walk-in clinic visit. (Not sure if this rule is specific to Ontario or not. ) In Ontario, my part at least there is a shortage of family physicians. Too many med school graduates leave for the big money available in the States. We really need to institute a way of enticing them to stay.

That was definitely a case of someone dropping the ball. Definitely. I would thing (and hope) that that is more the exception than the rule.

And here in NS, you can, and are encouraged to, go to your closest walk-in clinic for help. Doctors here most certainly would not drop you. Most family drs here have an on call dr to see after hours emergencies that may not warrant an ER visit. Most people see their dr's on call partner.


We have a shortage here too. It's Canada-wide. =(
 
Sorry T, I think I stole your doctor. My primary care physician is from Canada - US trained, but lived in Canada until med school. Why is that, is the pay substantially lower up there?
 
Sorry T, I think I stole your doctor. My primary care physician is from Canada - US trained, but lived in Canada until med school. Why is that, is the pay substantially lower up there?
Maybe he felt an intense bourbon, horse-racing, and Bill Monroe deficit that could not be rectified in Canada. I suggest that the Canadians work on that if they want to solve their physician shortage.
 
Maybe he felt an intense bourbon, horse-racing, and Bill Monroe deficit that could not be rectified in Canada. I suggest that the Canadians work on that if they want to solve their physician shortage.
Now that makes sense.

I didn't steal one though, mine is from here, grew up on a farm and educated here at UNMC. And would not trade him away for nothing.;)
 
How did this get from wearing helmets to the health care system?

Any way, I'll bite. We have triage here also. And it works very well 99% of the time. I don't know of any instances where the triage messed up, but I am sure that somewhere, someone did. After all the nurses that work triage are human too. So the possibility of human error is there. I could give you several personal stories of how well triage works. But I won't bore you.

And Colin, the hospitals here (in the US) will also save your life -- with or without insurance.
 
How did this get from wearing helmets to the health care system?

Any way, I'll bite. We have triage here also. And it works very well 99% of the time. I don't know of any instances where the triage messed up, but I am sure that somewhere, someone did. After all the nurses that work triage are human too. So the possibility of human error is there. I could give you several personal stories of how well triage works. But I won't bore you.

And Colin, the hospitals here (in the US) will also save your life -- with or without insurance.

Any time I've been to the ER, the Triage has worked fine, the majority of my trips involve a rash, a tightning in the throat and often an antibiotic. ;) Works everytime, right to the front of the line and a Dr. real quick. sometimes he just looks in my thoat and leaves if he's busy with several folks and comes back later, but real quick there's a real nice nurse with a shot.;)
 
What a lot of folks don't understand is that the triage nurse is almost always a well seasoned nurse, I know our rule is no triage until you have had special training and at least 6 months on the floor if you are a nurse with experience and 1yr. for the newbies! It is not a job to be taken lightly and you need to be on your toes, most of us have a sense when a true emergency comes through the door. I have no idea how you know, you just do, and its usually not the most dramatic, it will be the quite pt. sitting in the corner or the parents carrying in the kid that gets your attention. Do folks also understand that here in the United States you are not allowed to turn ANY pt. away ever, not from an ER- you can get your doors closed for doing so, if we have too many pt.s and its not safe for a pt. to come you can go on divert, which sends a pt. coming by EMS too the next available hospital, however if a pt. is not stable and EMS feels that pt. needs to come to your facility, room or no room you take them!! Pts are not going with out care, the problem in my opinion are those who use the ER for a runny nose because they don't want to go to the clinic, or wait for an appt. National Health Care will not fix this, we have OHP here in Oregon, and since it's implementation, I have been an RN long enough to see the before and after, and IMO - it has made things so much worse! These people come to the ER because its free and they don't have to wait! We have a 60% non pay rate, because if they come and OHP doesn't deem it an emergency we don't get payed, but we NEVER turn pts. away- how is national health care going to fix it, when has a government ever run something more efficient then the private sector. It defiantly cant do it for cheaper. If you think it can, I would like to have some of what your smoking!! O.k rant over, once again I don't think I'll change anyone's opinion, just wanted to state things from my perspective and 17 yrs. of ER nursing experience- oh and as for the Doctors from Canada, we have 2 and yes its because they make more money here, but also love to bash our country on a regular basis- we also have 5 nurses from different countries- 4 from Canada, 1 from New Zealand - they are here for the same reason- more money;)
 
Discussion starter · #60 ·
What a lot of folks don't understand is that the triage nurse is almost always a well seasoned nurse, I know our rule is no triage until you have had special training and at least 6 months on the floor if you are a nurse with experience and 1yr. for the newbies! It is not a job to be taken lightly and you need to be on your toes, most of us have a sense when a true emergency comes through the door. I have no idea how you know, you just do, and its usually not the most dramatic, it will be the quite pt. sitting in the corner or the parents carrying in the kid that gets your attention. Do folks also understand that here in the United States you are not allowed to turn ANY pt. away ever, not from an ER- you can get your doors closed for doing so, if we have too many pt.s and its not safe for a pt. to come you can go on divert, which sends a pt. coming by EMS too the next available hospital, however if a pt. is not stable and EMS feels that pt. needs to come to your facility, room or no room you take them!! Pts are not going with out care, the problem in my opinion are those who use the ER for a runny nose because they don't want to go to the clinic, or wait for an appt. National Health Care will not fix this, we have OHP here in Oregon, and since it's implementation, I have been an RN long enough to see the before and after, and IMO - it has made things so much worse! These people come to the ER because its free and they don't have to wait! We have a 60% non pay rate, because if they come and OHP doesn't deem it an emergency we don't get payed, but we NEVER turn pts. away- how is national health care going to fix it, when has a government ever run something more efficient then the private sector. It defiantly cant do it for cheaper. If you think it can, I would like to have some of what your smoking!! O.k rant over, once again I don't think I'll change anyone's opinion, just wanted to state things from my perspective and 17 yrs. of ER nursing experience- oh and as for the Doctors from Canada, we have 2 and yes its because they make more money here, but also love to bash our country on a regular basis- we also have 5 nurses from different countries- 4 from Canada, 1 from New Zealand - they are here for the same reason- more money;)

Our triage nurses are like gold. Yes, they are human, but they do what they do exceptionally well.

And yes, it's purely a money thing.
 
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