(Me waiting at the General Hospital wrapped up in a blanket)
It was a rainy morning on November 1st when I
awoke at the crack of dawn for my laparoscopic cholecystectomy at
the McGill University Hospital Centre’s (MUHC) General Hospital of
Montreal. I was told to arrive at 7:30 am.sharp in order to be prepped for my surgery that
was scheduled for 9:30 am.
My case could have been an easy one were it a
simple bout of discomfort, but, unfortunately, a major attack in May showed
that I had a gallbladder full of sand with an imminent risk of complications.
As such, my amazing surgeon, tried to fix a date for my surgery in the two
months prior to my departure for Greece in July but to no avail. She warned me
that if I had another attack during my three-month absence, I would have to
undergo the procedure in Greece.
Luckily, although my summer was replete with
discomfort and crises of indigestion, the episodes were not so severe as to
require emergency surgery.
My doctor’s secretary contacted us in early
September and, after much discussion, I was finally given an appointment for my
cholecystectomy for November 1st, a full five months after my initial
gallbladder attack.
Unfortunately, the secretary called again, on
the day before my surgery, to tell me that the procedure had been
postponed to November 12th. I objected, explaining that the discomfort in my
abdomen had become unbearable with severe episodes of indigestion and pain, not
to mention the ever-present danger of me developing pancreatitis.
So, there I was, at 7:30a.m., that Thursday,
November 1st, at the Montreal General. And there I waited. As the hours passed,
the staff would come to inform me, every now and again, that:
1.
my doctor's team had been rushed into cranial
surgery;
2.
the Montreal General Hospital is a first
response trauma centre and, as such, planned operations are often postponed;
3.
that after two emergency procedures for surgeon,
my turn would come.
Patiently, and without a frenzy, I waited and
waited, constantly being told that my surgery would take place. The time had
reached 5:00p.m. and, knowing that “planned” surgeries ended at 2.30, I began
to worry whether I would ever survive the system, given that my doctor had
told me about the danger of any further delay.
In the end, as a result of my physician’s insistence, the surgery was finally
performed at 6p.m., a full 9 hours late. Thanks to her professionalism, she
managed to overcome a dysfunctional system that could have ended in tragedy.
There, in the anteroom, waiting for a surgery
that was constantly in doubt, I realized that the country in which I have lived
over the past 30 years, and especially the province of Quebec, has allowed its
health system to deteriorate dangerously. I was told
that the cutbacks made by Prime Minister Philip Couillard's outgoing government
were devastating the operations of the MUHC, with others noting that orders had
been given to refrain from administering all but urgently needed medical tests
to the elderly in order to save 150 million dollars.
https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/quebec-orders-hospitals-to-cut-150-million-in-direct-care-to-patients
The cuts were deep, I was told, as well, at the new Mega Hospital
that houses the former Royal Victoria Hospital, the Children's Hospital and the
General Hospital of Montreal. Nurses are in short supply and underpaid, making
for much, long overtime and forcing them to leave the service prematurely.
The Children's Hospital emergency ward is forced to operate with a
single pediatrician through its overnight hours. Parents are desperate, dealing
with a system that puts their children's lives at risk. The First Aid
Clinic at the brand new Glen functions with a minimal medical and hospital
staff, forcing people to wait for endless hours to cope with urgent medical
problems.
Personally, I was hit by the cuts. In
pre-operative testing, the attending physician decided against doing a blood
test on the basis of other good blood tests I had undergone in October of 2017,
risking, of course, any possible consequences. At the same
time, I experienced the cuts at the Montreal General Hospital where I saw many
planned surgeries being postponed. In order to procede, my doctor was forced to
treat me as a high danger incident since I had been waiting for months with the
attacks increasing in their persistence.
According to medical specialist, who, although
reluctant, eventually left the MUHC to work in the US, “the staff follow the rules, they can not
perform surgery without the necessary personnel, without an anesthesiologist.
Unfortunately, McGill has limited the number of doctors who can work full
shifts in its clinics and in surgery. Τhe Staff follow the Rules, they can
not just open another operating room without proper staffing.”
He goes on explaining : “this was probably a result of a lack of
anesthesiologist availability as the government limits the number of full-time
staff McGill can employ as a way of controlling the number of procedures being
performed.”
Furthermore, other sources noted: "when the majority
of the resources are used to pay the medical specialists and the wages of its
nurses are frozen, the hospital system is in a stalemate. We pay taxes to fund
a medical system that does not reward patients properly."
The medical network of Quebec and Canada is,
unfortunately, often reminiscent of what one would expect to find in
the third world. People wait endlessly for appointments with specialists,
procedures are not performed because there is no staff and surgeons scramble
unsuccessfully to find nurses and anesthesiologists that are unavailable.
It is a system that is severely ill and in
urgent need of surgery to repair its political and functional deficiencies!
