Waterloo Region Record

Navigating health-care system a nightmare

When one of my kids is sick, I play a game I call ‘Which Emerg Will I Go To Today?’

MORAA MOCHAMA MORAA MOCHAMA IS A MEMBER OF THE RECORD’S COMMUNITY EDITORIAL BOARD.

Our health-care system is a mess.

Anyone who has tried to navigate this system in the last, oh, I don’t know, two decades, has known this to be true. Yet, it’s only now with the closure of emergency rooms and health-care workers exiting the industry in high numbers that our politicians seem to be paying attention.

As an individual it is difficult, but as a parent it has been a nightmare.

Last fall, when my younger son got a deep cut on his forehead from tripping onto the corner of a table, I played a game I call “Which Emerg Will I Go To Today?”

I chose to drive to Stratford rather than go to my closest hospital, Grand River in Kitchener, because another mom told me it would be a shorter wait.

I played the game again last month when Son #1 had a six-day-long fever. My doctor advised that a wait at Grand River would be nine hours. I opted for McMaster Children’s Hospital and its easy breezy six-hour wait.

This is what it has become: a game at a time where we as parents are at our most helpless. An inadequate health-care system spotlights our vulnerability and we know we’re powerless.

And it’s not just in emergencies either.

Earlier this year, I tried to book an appointment with my son’s pediatrician as he was having new onset sleep issues that had been persisting for weeks. It should have been a straightforward task; I found myself navigating gaps in communication from providers, long delays, and a procedural quagmire that makes the passport office lineups seem short. It would be four months until a doctor could see him.

The straw that broke this camel’s back came the day I missed the twice rescheduled appointment. I had written down 1 p.m., but it was at 11 a.m. I would need to go back to my family doctor for a new referral. Should I get one, the new pediatrician would see me: eight months after I had started looking for help.

I did not call my doctor or make a new appointment. I was seething. I was a raging mama bear determined to get someone with a medical degree to talk to me about my son. I spent the next two hours finding the first Telehealth appointment I could and got one for that same day. That one 10-minute consultation unburdened me of the concerns I had been having. It didn’t resolve anything, but at least I was able to talk to someone, anyone.

Parents do what we need to for our kids. We endure. We endure long wait times in the emergency room, long wait times at clinics, long waits for appointments that get scheduled in the distant future, and long waits for referrals to unavailable specialists.

In order to get my kids the care they need as quickly as possible, I have had to take things into my own hands.

I’ve even considered purchasing a stethoscope just so I can answer with confidence each time a Telehealth nurse asks me “How does his breathing sound?”

Our health-care system can be great; I’ve witnessed it firsthand.

When my first pregnancy was in crisis, from my midwife and a team of nurses and doctors at Grand River Hospital to the attentive paramedics that transported me to Hamilton just in time for me to give birth, to my son’s first six months spent in the neonatal intensive care unit, I have seen how our health-care system shows up to take care of you.

But during an emergency shouldn’t be the only time. The system should work before you’re at your worst.

INSIGHT

en-ca

2022-08-13T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-08-13T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://waterloorecord.pressreader.com/article/281676848691589

Toronto Star Newspapers Limited