#canadian healthcare

[pandemic-info]

1 in 9 Canadian adults have experienced long-term COVID-19 symptoms; most continue to experience symptoms

The increased rate at which long-term symptoms occur in those with COVID-19 infections is an observed phenomenon that sets the illness apart from other respiratory viruses, such as the flu. This may be related to the fact that COVID-19 affects a wide range of body systems, not limited to the respiratory system, and has been documented to be able to cause organ damage in infected individuals.

[oldshowbiz]

NDP leader Tommy Douglas

[jayswing101]

Heads up for anyone living in Ontario, Canada. So it turns out we are living in the bad place 🙃 We have to turn up for this y'all. We turn up for this, and then we all go hunt the Ontario PC party for sport to show them how wrong they were for thinking that literally anyone would want private healthcare. Like wtf. How is this even a question???? Obviously the answer is "get fucked Douglas, no one wants your stupid ass private healthcare"

Anyway here's the link: https://www.publichospitalvote.ca/

Idk how many people from Ontario are even on tumblr but. Please reblog in case this is the thing that makes someone aware that the referendum to save our healthcare is happening!!!

[transenbyconfessions]

For the last 2 years since I came out I have been so immensely grateful that i live in Canada and that prescriptions for HRT can be handed out via informed consent here, and yet /today/ i learned that very very few doctors actually do it, and in almost all cases doctors will refuse to prescribe HRT without a dysphoria diagnosis, which, you guessed it, costs 3 400$ a year (JUST the therapy, nothing else) and takes between one and three whole ass years of therapy and that's not even mentioning the fact that I'd bet you that clinic must have UK level waiting lists of hell and I am so incredibly disapointed because i've been researching this for a year and its only /now/ that i think to check for specific doctors that i learn of how rare they are and this whole time i was getting so excited to know I lived in a country where professionals trust trans people to know what they're doing and maybe I was being blind on purpose (because why would here being trans here be any easier than any other country) but I really wanted to believe I could get out of all the therapy and waiting lists, just for a second, i wanted to believe it was possible

theres no point to this post i just wanted to rant because being trans is so ridiculously cruel sometimes

Submitted February 14, 2023

[fireladybuckley]

Did y‘all know that Alberta health services doesn’t cover any cost of CPAP machines? You know, those super critical machines to allow people with obstructive sleep apnea to actually breathe?

So unless my insurance through work will pay for part of it (and we can’t even ask them if they will because their workers are on strike), I have to pay nearly $3000 just to be able to breathe properly at night and actually sleep and not have a heart attack. And even if they do cover it, I’ll still have to front probably at least 1.5k.

Fuck AHS. Fuck the UCP’s attempts at privatizing healthcare and defunding everything they can. This is the future the conservatives want, one where the only people that survive past middle age are the ones that can afford to pay for it.

[r3st1np1ss]

the waitlist to get an assessment for top surgery is 18 - 24 months 😭😭😭 I knew it was going to be long but I didn't think it would be THAT long

[weirdstrangeandawful]

TW: medical

Not-so-fun-fact about Canada and our "free" healthcare is that our heatlhcare system is entirely provincially managed. As in it is set out in the BNA Act (part of our constitution) that the federal government cannot meddle (there's nuance but whatever).

This means that if you are like me and live in different parts of the country at different times of the year, your access to healthcare is severely restricted if you're not in the province that you "officially" live.

As in I cannot afford to take an ambulance in this province because I would have to pay out of pocket.

[markwateneymemorialcrater]

The Canadian Healthcare system is it's own kind of shitty

So I've been sick with something for about a week since first symptoms. It's not Covid, I took a test, but after hoping it would clear up after taking Thursday and Friday off and starting to feel better on Friday, but it is now tuesday and i still have a bad cough and sinus pressure. So I seek out Medical help.

Now because there is a massive doctor shortage i do not actually have a general practitioner. I need to get back on the wait list which will take if i'm lucky only 6-12 months, not 2+ years. So i decide to try a walk in clinic. I go to the one place a few blocks from me and am told that there are no longer walk in clinics and if you need an appointment you need to phone at 7:00am on the dot if you want to get a appointment that day. I am given the number of another clinic that opens at 10 that may be able to help. but i need to phone right at 10 if i want to get in. So i phone literally withing 10 seconds of the clock turning 10. i tried a few minutes earlier but it wouldn't let me go anywhere. I am now on hold and have been for 20 minutes. So i doubt i will be able to get in today. I just need some antibiotics. and the only other option would be to go to the ER which would mean a 4+ hour wait to even see a doctor.

Sure it doesn't cost anything out of pocket to get healthcare, but you get what you pay for i guess.

[oldshowbiz]

1946.

George Cadbury, the chocolate creme egg heir from England, was hired to advise Canadian premiere Tommy Douglas on economic policy.

Premiere Douglas was in the process of planning North America’s first socialized health care system.

Initially, socialized healthcare in Canada was merely local. The province of Saskatchewan was the testing ground. Cadbury’s economic set-up for universal healthcare was considered an undeniable success. Time magazine concluded in 1949, “Saskatchewan’s pinks had done a good job of keeping Saskatchewan out of the red.” 

For the next sixteen years, universal healthcare remained localized in the prairie provinces. Finally, in July 1966, Canada began its national universal healthcare system.

George Cadbury remained in Canada where he later founded the Planned Parenthood Federation of Canada. 

Cadbury scored another victory in 1969 when a campaign of his succeeded in having contraception removed from Canada’s criminal code.

[liminalweirdo]

if there's literally less than a handful of doctors in a city accepting new patients, you don't have free healtcare. you don't even have healthcare. what a joke.

[tiger-in-the-flightdeck]

I got a new prescription for a thyroid condition (I have a mass growing in it, and it doesn’t produce enough thyroidy goodness) and because the specialist wrote the script for the name brand rather than the generic, it ended up costing a little bit. When I said I didn’t have cash on me, the pharmacist just scratched out the fee and handed it over then put a note on my file to have the next refills as the generic type so it was free instead of two bucks.

This was after sitting in the doctor’s office watching people come in and out picking up month long ‘samples’ of insulin from the receptionist.

I don’t say it often, but I love this country, and wish my friends in the States had access to this kind of health care.

[lilbug-guy]

whent to the whatever doctor bc I thought it meant he would treat whateever is wrong with you but then when I told him all my (many) symtpons he just shrugged and said "whatever" and did a kick flip then he left

[sablegear0]

>Clinic calls to book phone appointment with doctor a few weeks out

>Day comes, get up in time for phone appt, wait around for call

>No call after half an hour. Call the clinic to ask what’s up

>”It’s not Dr. X (my GP), it’s Dr. Y (I’ve never met this woman in my life). She’s running behind with patients, is it still okay to call you?”

>Say yeah its fine, continue waiting for call.

>Hour and a half passes from initial appointment time. Receive phonecall from Dr Y.

>”So what did you need to talk about today?”

>Doc it was your people who called me! I don’t know!?

>Turns out it was just to get confirmation to re-refer me (what?) to a specialist I was already seeing (do referrals expire? wtf?).

>Confirm, yes I want to keep seeing this same person I’ve been seeing for several years for my same condition.

>Ask about some other self-assessment stuff I’ve been putting off. Have to bring those forms in-person. Not ideal bc clinic is in another city but w/e

>Call ends

>✨ Free Healthcare! ✨ 🙄

[johnrobertcameron]

Sometimes I feel very hesitant to give myself any praise, and even more hesitant to share my accomplishments. I'm sure I'm not alone when it comes to this.

6 years ago, I received my orange belt in Goju-Ryu. Shortly after that, I suffered a partially dislocated shoulder sparring in a tournament, though I didn't realize that's what the injury was until more recently. Despite being in agony, I continued to fight (because I'm stupid), winning that match and going on to take home silver in my division, but probably messing up my shoulder and arm worse than I needed to. That and a subsequent lower back injury related to a slip & fall on black ice sidelined me, and I gave up karate. My shoulder was never quite the same, and I constantly dealt with pain and reduced function in my left arm.

In July of 2021, with my back healed, and my shoulder feeling somewhat better, I returned to the dojo to continue training.

This coincided with the lifting of covid lockdown, and although we could work out and train, there was no contact, no sparring. Everyone was in rough shape after lockdown lethargy. Once sparring was allowed again, I enthusiastically donned my gear, and in my very first practice match, in exactly the same way as I'd injured myself the first time (my jab being stiffly deflected with an upper block), my shoulder was instantly popped out of the socket - full dislocation. I didn't know such pain was even possible.

Sensei put a makeshift sling on it before my spouse rushed me to the hospital. I'm extremely fortunate that the ER wasn't busy. I was seen within 30 minutes, put under within 90 minutes, and the doctor slid it back in with minimal damage to the capsule. I'm incredibly thankful for their skillful and efficient work, and for Canadian healthcare. I walked out less than 2 hours after being admitted, though I had a long road to recovery ahead of me.

This time, despite the injury being technically worse, I refused to let it stop me from going to the dojo, though my ability to train was obviously hampered and somewhat limited.

It took physio and a lot of hard work, and while I still have to be careful with it, my shoulder and arm are much better now. Ironically, because of the clean dislocation and skillful procedure to place it back in, I actually don't feel the constant sharp pain running down my arm that I did for years after the partial dislocation, which I never sought treatment for. (Again, because I'm stupid.)

Today I was graded for (and earned) my green belt. Yes, my head absolutely looks like a ripe tomato after that workout.

I know I'm not the most stalwart student at the dojo. Goju-Ryu is a constant battle with one's self. I struggle to retain Japanese terms and commands. I struggle to remember my kata. Sometimes, I struggle to simply motivate myself to show up.

But in the end, I guess that's what it's all about. As one of our dojo's Senseis put it, regardless of rank, we train each time like we're brand-spanking new white belts, because we never stop learning and finding ways to improve our practice. We push through the mental frustration, and the physical exhaustion, and never fail to come away a little wiser.