1934 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

When you need health care, you end up in a lottery

For several days last week, I was too ill to work.

 

Because I have a chronic illness that can become life-threatening quickly, each morning I tried to connect with the Downtown Urgent and Primary Care Centre.

 

Each day, although I called relentlessly, I couldn’t even make it into the queue of callers waiting for a response — the phone lines were that jammed.

 

By Sunday evening, I knew I had to visit the ER, and I knew it would be a miserable experience. The first couple of hours involved waiting, tests, waiting — but that’s fine.

 

A sign in the packed ambulatory ward promised a nurse would check in “shortly” with people who arrived. I’d been there for two hours, and nurses were rushing back and forth, not even making eye contact with people standing at the desk, trying to check in with them.

 

So I gave up and went home. I tried the urgent care number again the next morning, with the same results.

 

After five days of trying, a family doctor fitted in a phone chat between his regular patients. He was also kind and helpful.

 

What about the people who are too ill to persevere, or who don’t have the support of family members and friends?

 

At the Downtown UPCC, the advice, when I stopped in, was to have multiple members of a household calling from different phone numbers — on the off-chance that one would be successful.

 

This is a lottery, not a health-care system.

 

 

 

Heidi Tiedemann Darroch

 

Victoria

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...led-cat-8527685

[dasmo]

So more people then?

[Victoria Watcher]

A Victoria General Hospital nurse says illicit drug use by patients occurs daily in the hospital, and the health authority does little to enforce no-smoking rules, which is putting nurses and other staff at risk.

“I can definitely tell you it happens daily,” Laura Martin said outside the hospital’s main admitting area on Thursday. “We have a no-smoking policy but nothing’s enforced.”

Martin, a B.C. Nurses’ Union steward for the approximately 1,200 nurses at the hospital, wiped away tears as she talked about trying to protect nurses from inhaling toxic drugs, touching illicit powders with ungloved hands, and being injured by intoxicated patients.

The B.C. Nurses’ Union supports harm-reduction measures, but president Adriane Gear said the “prevalence” of illicit-drug use in hospitals has spiked since possession of small amounts was decriminalized, which is exposing nurses not only to toxic fumes but also the criminal element bringing drugs to these patients.

“No one’s monitoring that and that’s ­ridiculous,” Gear said in an interview.

https://www.timescol...s-nurse-8556050

[dasmo]

“The B.C. Nurses’ Union supports harm-reduction measures.”
No they don’t. They allowed thousands of nurses to be fired for standing against the harms of Covid measures.

[Victoria Watcher]

(Speaking of flogging dead horses)

[dasmo]

Never forget 🤷🏽

[dasmo]

Especially when we are still in a healthcare crisis and they aren’t hired back like they were in Alberta. So the dead horse is still in the room beside the elephant.

[aastra]

 

...the “prevalence” of illicit-drug use in hospitals has spiked since possession of small amounts was decriminalized, which is exposing nurses not only to toxic fumes but also the criminal element bringing drugs to these patients.

 

I never thought I'd see the day when ordinary people just trying to do their jobs and live their lives would be exposed to drugs, the criminal element, and potential violence. This is unacceptable.

 

Come on. They're challenging the reader to think. If all of this stuff is so deadly scary and dangerous in limited amounts in a controlled and semi-secure environment, then what about on the streets where there's no mitigation whatsoever?

[Victoria Watcher]

Dutch woman, 28, to be euthanized over mental illness after psychiatrist said it will 'never' get any better

'There's nothing more we can do for you. It's never gonna get any better,' Zoraya ter Beek recalled her psychiatrist telling her



https://www.foxnews....-get-any-better



Now that this woman is famous internationally, she should just start a GoFundMe. She’d get millions. Might not make her happy / not depressed but it’s worth a try.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 06 April 2024 - 10:12 AM.

[dasmo]

I assume that is her incurable mental illness is narcissism.

[Victoria Watcher]

Jones said prior to the decriminalization pilot project, it was not acceptable to be doing drugs in a patient’s room or in a hospital hallway. “Management would have options, but now they don’t have those options,” she said.

There’s no enforcement of no-smoking rules when it comes to drug use by people with substance-use challenges, she said.

The problem isn’t just the smoke for staff and other patients in the hospital, but the behaviours and criminal element drug users are bringing into hospital settings, she said.

“There’s drugs lying around on their side tables, there are needles not properly disposed of in their bedding, there’s patients’ stuff being stolen,” said Jones. “There’s nothing done about it. We just report it and that’s it. Crime happens here all the time, like dealers are known to come and deliver.”

BC United mental health and addiction critic Elenore Sturko introduced a motion Monday to end the decriminalization pilot project, a call that was repeated by the Opposition on Tuesday.

“Open, illicit drug use is so out of control in hospitals, the drug dealers are now brazenly conducting business on the rooftop patio of St. Paul’s Hospital,” said Sturko.



https://www.timescol...rcement-8577135

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 10 April 2024 - 08:37 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

B.C. to require hospitals to have designated space for substance use

 

British Columbia will require every hospital in the province to have a designated space for patients with substance-use disorders to use illicit drugs after concerns were raised that an increase in such activity in prohibited areas of hospital grounds is putting health care workers at risk.

 

Health Minister Adrian Dix had announced this week that the province would create a task force to standardize rules across the province and create “active supports” to help patients manage their addictions while in hospital.

 

When asked Thursday by The Globe and Mail whether this meant requiring overdose prevention services or designated-use spaces in every hospital in B.C., the minister replied: “That is the purpose of the effort.”

 

The confirmation comes as B.C. nurses are speaking out about safety concerns related to patient drug use. BC Nurses’ Union president Adriane Gear said while there has always been some degree of illicit drug use in care spaces, it appears to have increased since B.C.’s drug decriminalization pilot began early last year.

 

 

https://www.castanet...r-substance-use

[max.bravo]

We’ve unlocked a new level in clownworld BC edition

[Nparker]

RIP Hpyocratic oath.

[dasmo]

They hate us….

[Mike K.]

So smoking is allowed once again on hospital grounds? That ban has been in place for a very long time.

[Victoria Watcher]

Ontario’s publicly funded health insurance plan must pay for a special procedure in Texas for a non-binary person seeking gender-affirming care, the province’s Divisional Court has ruled.

 

The procedure, not available in Ontario, involves receiving a vagina while still keeping a penis.

 

The 3-0 ruling by Ontario’s Divisional Court this week is the first from a court in that province on gender-affirming care, and in particular, on treatment for non-binary people, said lawyer John McIntyre, who was involved in the case. He said he was not aware of a similar ruling elsewhere in Canada.

 

Two years ago, an adult known in court documents as K.S. requested Ontario Health Insurance Plan funding for the surgery in Texas, saying they did not want to invalidate their non-binary identity, or increase the risk of urinary incontinence and orgasm dysfunction, by having their penis removed.

 

But OHIP rejected the request, asserting that a vaginoplasty without a penectomy, as the surgery is known, is not a listed procedure in the Health Insurance Act’s schedule of benefits. K.S. appealed that decision to the Health Services Appeal and Review Board, which overturned OHIP’s ruling, saying the procedure is in fact listed. OHIP appealed to Divisional Court (the Superior Court sitting in panels of three for appeals from administrative tribunal decisions).

 

 

https://www.theglobe...irming-surgery/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 12 April 2024 - 08:46 AM.

[dasmo]

"gender-affirming care, and in particular, on treatment for non-binary people" So we are paying for this person to get a vagina-like body modification for kinky sex? 

[Nparker]

#clownworld - justice/healthcare edition 

[dasmo]

#clownworld - justice/healthcare edition 

Their initials are K.S.