Sorry to hear that.
With Kidney stones the treatment in the emergency setting is by and large conservative ie painkillers and Tamsulosin.
Yes I am fond of Australia it is a beautiful country with nice people minus the fire risks.
Did you receive any pain medication during the 14 hours?. Primary treatment for kidney stones is pain management and hydration. If that doesn’t work they move to a stent. Not saying that we don’t all wait but pointing out that there was nothing else they were going to do for you other than pain management during the 14 hours. Not clear if you weren’t given anything or given pain meds and been made to wait after that.
Would also add that I wish Canada would spend time educating the public how to be good patients. Try to come when you have a few issues to discuss not just one Rx refill. Write them down so you can get through them efficiently. Bring a list of your medications or bring your medications with you. Have a list of all the doctors you are seeing and the pharmacist you are using.
Immigrants from Asia tend to prefer Australia because of the weather. Less cold. Canada is VERY cold. At least that is the perception.
I actually think that all Canadian doctors should spend some time training in the USA or a country with private health care. See patients who are paying patients and learn how that system is like. How those patients behave. And also learn to deal with the outrageous demands that come along as well.
Sorry your mother wasnt waiting 3 years for a SCREENING colonoscopy! She already had symptoms?
Why Asian immigrant initially settled in Vancouver has nothing to do with weather. It has to do with proximity to Asia. Much easier to go home and visit family if you are living in Vancouver versus Montreal which was the more popular immigration city at the time. Vancouver remains popular because the short flight to Asia and because the large expat populations. Nothing to do with weather.
LICO amounts are supposed to be high enough to provide housing which is why I find the rates very low especially for the more expensive cities in Canada. Home ownership doesn’t mean that someone would have an extra bedroom and people can move so that would be hard to monitor. Research shows that you spend the most money on healthcare in the last 3 years of life. Healthcare will be the most expensive thing that the government pays for when it comes to individuals. There are some very lucky people who remain healthy until their sudden death but that is not always the case. Although families may want to care for their parents it is a very demanding job and it may not be possible. It is also unusual for an elderly person to not have an event that lands them in hospital at least once as they decline. Could be a stroke, heart attack, fall, aneurysm, cancer, etc. That could cost +100k and the parent may still return home to be cared for. If a senior has dementia or Alzheimers it may not be possible for them to remain at home. Their behaviour can get aggressive or they can try to escape at all hours of the day or night. They may be to heavy to lift for their family. The home may not be suitable for an elderly person with limited mobility like no downstairs bathroom. Children may still be working when their parents get sick. There is no way to guarantee that parents will not need expensive healthcare or can be cared for at home. Healthcare costs come up with talk of elderly people whether talking about PGP or seniors that have been in Canada their whole lives. There is inadequate spaces in nursing homes and that is the most expensive way to receive care other than hospitals. The provinces want seniors to receive home care but there aren’t enough resources in home care. There haven’t been enough resources for the disabled, sick or seniors for decades but it is getting worse. Many seniors would prefer to live at home. Unfortunately what happens is that it is left up to families and the family’s ability to pay for extra care. That means that the less well off without a lot of family often fall through the cracks. My grandfather lived in a private residence that was something crazy like +10k/month but started to have flashbacks about WWII due to his Parkinson’s and delusions about machines controlling people. We had to hire a PSW to remain with him in his room overnight because it would take too long for the one attendant on the floor overnight to help him. The PSW basically calmed him down and would sit next to him so he was reassured so could go back to sleep. The bills add up very quickly. Luckily he was in the position to do this. His kids would not be able to do this daily and run their lives and visit him during the daytime. Many people who have not gone through the healthcare system with an elderly person or someone with a serious chronic illness are unaware that there quite a lot of gaps in the healthcare system and are not prepared and have unrealistic expectations. The government should be much more open so people can prepare.
Not a huge difference because the majority of US residents are limited to who they can see based on insurance. They can’t just walk into any hospital unless they can pay cash. There are difficult patients in both the Canadian and US system. The difficult people tend to be difficiltvpeople to deal with in their normal lives. Was at the phlebotomy clinic at a large Ontario hospital when some older man had a fit when he realized he was just having blood work drawn and he was not seeing a doctor. He started yelling and demanding a manager and declared that he was a large donor to the hospital and deserved to see a doctor. The phlebotomist received to deal with the patient who I suspect was not a large donor to the hospital. He basically yelled for $0minutes and was still yelling when I left. Meanwhile a grandmother was allowing her grandchild to walk on the ar,a of the chairs in the waiting room and was acting like the furniture in the waiting room was a jungle gym. Felt bad for the whole team and made sure to say thank you and tell them they didn’t deserve to be treated great way.
I agree with you about healthcare costs. People need to be informed about them. You are talking about what you know. I work for a provincial housing authority and every day see clients struggling with finding housing (both citizents and PRs). I also see a lot of sponsored PRs who do not realize that they are not eligible for subsidized housing while they are under sponsorship (and make their family ineligible).
Very true but unless someone owns their home outright they could need to sell at any point. You also have to look at the whole country and there is a huge difference in housing prices. I think LICO is too low just based on the housing costs. Unfortunately some are so focused on sponsoring their parents they don’t read the fine print or don’t actually budget. They may not also realize many things are not covered. I have seen families that brought their parents to Canada because they couldn’t afford daycare. Then one parent got sick so they no longer had childcare and on child had to quit their job to care for their sick parent (often the mother). They ended up in a much worse situation. Some families have been cashing in RRSPs to meet income limits or declaring income that they didn’t earn just to sponsor their parents. They don’t realize that they will need to earn more when their parents arrive. I understand that for many it is an obligation but sometimes it would make sense to pay for care in their home country at least until they can get more established. With housing costs increasing it also has become much harder for families to purchase homes especially in some areas that are popular with certain immigrant communities which used to be affordable. When parents don’t speak English or French and want to be able to have access to the comforts of home many want to live in a certain area. I also wonder if some provinces will crack down on many of these parents accessing low income senior programs like dental care that only funds a limited amount of seniors.
