Canada: 'It's insane': Patient Told She'd Have To Wait 4.5 Years To See Neurologist

Wow. It appears 4.5 years to see a specialist is finally too damned long to wait.... though 18 months to 2.5 years they don't blink an eye at. This is crazy. I had some migraines and vision problems a few years ago and I thought it was bad that I had to wait a couple of weeks to get into a neurologist! Watch the press interview with the doctor at the link. This isn't a one-off.

This is the kind of crap that scares the hell out of me with a full run government run system. It isn't like Canada is a 3rd world country here.

www.ctvnews.ca...

An Ontario doctor says health-care wait times have reached “insane” lengths in the province, as one of her patients faces a 4.5-year wait to see a neurologist.

When Dr. Joy Hataley, a family practice anesthetist in Kingston, Ont., recently tried to send a patient to a neurologist at the Kingston General Hospital, she received a letter from the specialist’s office telling her that the current wait time for new patient referrals is 4.5 years.

Dr. Hataley said she’s used to hearing back from specialists who are unable to see her patients for months, and even up to 2.5 years. But a 4.5-year wait is “insane,” she told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview.

“This is an alarm bell,” she said. “What it is to me is a red flag to the system.”

a reply to: infolurker

Well that's Capitalism for yah.

haha

originally posted by: EmmanuelGoldstein
a reply to: infolurker

Well that's Capitalism for yah.

Yeah, but it is free....

If you can live with whatever undiagnosed problem you have for years before seeing a specialist and getting imaging diagnostics.

a reply to: infolurker

Uhh yea maybe to see a specialist within arms reach.

Maybe look further away, like in private health care does?

I sprained my ankle and it got worse over a 2 week period, I went to a walk in clinic and got the OK for ultrasound and x-ray.
I called around, and within maybe a 10 km radius of my house I had about 3 - 4 week wait, I called around further away and found a next day test.

Canadian health care only lacks for emergency use because everyone and their uncle goes to walk ins or emergency for a cold and a cut on their finger and clogs up the system.
But in cases where seeing a specialist is needed it's either you get in right away, or it's not urgent and you wait, or you call around and find somewhere willing to take your appointment. You do have some control over your health care here, it's not their way or the highway. CTV is ridiculous.

The issue probably isn’t serious or isn’t getting worse.

sure, there are wait times but I would assume it’s because a lot of people are wasting their time. like those who complain about the five hour wait in the ER, yet you showed up with a slight flu, that person that came in having breathing issues and heart palpitations, yes, they get to go first.

a reply to: infolurker

Yikes..
Hope no one gets cancer, heart didease.... lupus.. some autoimmune disease.

Well, maybe that specialist is booked up. There are other specialists around, the person may have had to travel to another town to see one sooner, just because one is booked up doesn't mean you can't try another one. Here the doctors just tell you they are not taking new patients, go find someone else.

originally posted by: rickymouse
Well, maybe that specialist is booked up. There are other specialists around, the person may have had to travel to another town to see one sooner, just because one is booked up doesn't mean you can't try another one. Here the doctors just tell you they are not taking new patients, go find someone else.

Really depends on where you are in Canada. In Alberta, specialists will not even take your appointment without a direct referral from your doctor. Meaning, your doctor has to make that appointment. You can't do it.

I didn't have as much of a bad time as this patient, but I still was forced to hobble around with an uncasted broken ankle for 5 days while waiting on the ortho surgeon to get back to me about my referral from the doctor. Come to find out, the doctor I was supposedly referred to was no longer even a surgeon at that clinic and they claimed they had zero record of anyone calling to schedule me. Four days of a broken ankle and orders to stay off my feet and it took multiple calls to the referring doctor and the uncooperative clinic (who didn't want to deal with us, much less give us the new phone number and office address of the specialist I was supposed to see.)

The health care system is broke as hell in some areas of Canada and we're paying for it with our taxes.

a reply to: infolurker

meh..come to Australia...we have Medicare and Private Heath Insurance - usually get to see a specialist within about 6 months if not "dire" urgent under the free system.

a reply to: infolurker

An in the United States it takes about that long to save up enough money to pay the doctor!

a reply to: Subrosabelow

Is it possible to purchase private, enhanced, coverage. Over and above the government provided care?

a reply to: infolurker

If it'd take Canadia 4.5 years, it'd take US 22.39475 years if run by the Federal Government we all know and loathe.

The general premise of such a thing isnt inherently a doomed idea, but then there's the problem of humans running it, and then there's the twilight zone horror show matinee concept of the US Federal Government running anything.

originally posted by: Bigburgh
a reply to: infolurker

Yikes..
Hope no one gets cancer, heart didease.... lupus.. some autoimmune disease.

Nine Months from Cervical Cancer diagnosis, to first treatment. That was 6 years ago. It appears that things are getting worse for Canadian medicine. Tragic.

Another picture of socialism and how it doesn't work,the liberals who ask constantly for free things,have a habit of dismissing things,but that is their nature,the truth not in them,unless they can benefit or profit

a reply to: Bigburgh
I had a recent experience trying to get in to see a rheumatologist for what my doctor suspected was an autoimmune disease... My regular doctor called the local rheumatologist and tried to get me in, to no avail. The next name that they came up with, a rheumatologist in Oklahoma City which is an hour and a half drive,had a one year wait time. Nearly all of the rheumatologists I called had nothing sooner than a year out. I finally looked just north of Oklahoma City, in Edmond, and found a wonderful arthritis and rheumatology group who got me in in under a month!

You really have to dig. And then, to find a truly gifted physician, you have to dig harder and deeper. It’s sad, and it shouldnt be this way, but it’s true.

originally posted by: Oldtimer2
Another picture of socialism and how it doesn't work,the liberals who ask constantly for free things,have a habit of dismissing things,but that is their nature,the truth not in them,unless they can benefit or profit

So you think Canada is a socialist country ?

The wait times are no joke north of the border.
In the Toronto area I had a good friend wait 10 months to get into a specialist for liver disease, and no they didn't drink.
Another friend died of a heart attack waiting to see a cardiologist.
Both worked and paid their taxes, essentially paid into the system for years. One was 45, liver disease girl, and heart attack guy passed away at 53.

It happens all the time but unless the family raises a stink it's not reported.
The fried with liver issues had PREVIOUSLY waited 8 months for a simple ultrasound, THEN another 10 months for the specialist appointment. We're pretty lucky she has some decent dna and didn't die.

Kingston is a small city. They probably have one maybe two neurologists in the entire place. Near Toronto you can get in to see a specialist within a few months. I believe it took two months for my dad to get in to see a specialist and my aunt was only a month for a neurologist. Seriousness plays a major roll.

originally posted by: dfnj2015
a reply to: infolurker

An in the United States it takes about that long to save up enough money to pay the doctor!

How true.
They fix us so we are live long enough to pay the bill.