The BC healthcare system is “crumbling,” according to 26 specialists who have written a letter to Health Minister Adrian Dix, demanding action and outlining some horror stories across the province.
The letter was addressed to Dix on Wednesday, September 21, and comes as a result of what the specialists call the decline in specialist care.
“It is soul-destroying to be unable to provide the specialty care that BC patients need and deserve,” reads the letter.
“Patients are getting sicker and dying on our waitlists.”
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Numerous issues have plagued the BC healthcare system since the COVID-19 pandemic. Many residents have reported not being able to find a family doctor. Daily Hive has written horror stories about the issues with ambulance wait times, compounding the problem for BC healthcare.
A BC paramedic actually suggested not getting sick in a recent AMA on Reddit.
This group of specialists who have written the letter to Dix have outlined several stories out of thousands they could choose from to explain how the system is at risk. The letter mentions how the issues with surgical wait times are widely known, but that specific crisis extends into the “entire breadth” of specialist care.
One of the stories they shared is of a patient with sudden hearing loss. The letter states that the hearing impairment wouldn’t have become permanent if the patient had been seen sooner.
In a different case, a three-year-old child with possible autism had to wait 18 months for an assessment “while her anxiety-ridden parents” were left in limbo without support.
The specialists also outline how recently diagnosed cancer patients in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island are waiting two to three months for their first visit with an oncologist.
In Northern Health, a respirologist had to close her practice for two entire years “just to catch up and continue seeing urgent cases, “meanwhile patients have to travel hundreds of kilometres to see the next closest specialist.”
And, in Interior Health, patients are being forced to travel hundreds of kilometres to get simple X-rays due to wait times.
“If we do not work together to find solutions, Specialty care in this province is going to erode even further,” the letter states.
“As you said on September 13, ‘We need to transform the healthcare system;’ to succeed, this must include repair of Specialty care. We can help you do that.”
The specialists who have signed the letter hope to meet with Dix to discuss possible solutions to the ongoing problems.
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