The utterly heartless and arbitrary rationing of health care in Canada produces many horror stories. As I have written before, a particularly cruel rationing method limits the number of surgeries of a given type at a given hospital. Once the allotted number of surgeries have been performed for the fiscal year, no more operations are allowed.
A current textbook example is provided by the intense suffering of an Ontario man:
A mentally disabled Elliot Lake man will have to live with a painful stomach condition for a few more months because Sudbury Regional Hospital (SRH) has a limit on the surgery he needs.
The middle-aged man, who was born with his stomach in the wrong place, suffers from severe and painful dry heaves. His condition can be cured by a procedure called laparoscopic anti-reflux surgery, which would change the position of his stomach.
However, the hospital has limited Sudbury's two thoracic surgeons to doing just 25 of these surgeries in a fiscal year, and they have already surpassed their limit.
The man was originally scheduled for surgery at Sudbury Regional Hospital in December, but the procedure was cancelled twice, says Heather Tasse, a home support worker for Community Living Algoma who helps to care for the man.
The man's surgeon, who has asked not to be named, told Tasse the hospital isn't allowing him to perform any laparoscopic anti-reflux surgeries from the beginning of February until the end of March, when the fiscal year ends.
Demand for his services has been increasing over the past few years. He is one of only a few doctors in the province able to perform anti-reflux surgery in a minimally invasive fashion.
Tasse says her client is near the top of the surgeon's 14-month waiting list, because he is in so much pain.
In a similar vein, a Quebec hospital has just halted all hip and knee operations until April when a new fiscal year begins ...
Ethan Lichtblau, chief of orthopedics at Santa Cabrini Hospital in Rosemont, said he quit doing hip and knee surgeries this week after a Health Department directive to stop operating because the hospital has blown its prosthesis budget this year.
... with all the ensuing human costs:
Incapacitated by joint damage, Joan and Don Brigden have squeezed their lives into two rooms by installing their bed and a shower downstairs.
She is 70 and was slated for hip replacement since May; he is 68 and was to get a new knee in September.
[...]
The couple from Bowman, 70 kilometres north of Ottawa, had to start from scratch, facing an eight-month wait for a consultation.
"She's gone from using a cane to a walker to a wheelchair in four months," Don Brigden said of his wife.
"We are literally living in two rooms. It's terrible. We shouldn't have to suffer this way."
[...]
The Brigdens had expected their suffering would end shortly. They were looking forward to doing their grocery shopping together once again.
But this week, they found themselves on yet another waiting list.
... Santa Cabrini, has shut its operating room to knee and hip replacements because of budget restrictions.
[...]
"We paid taxes all our lives for this and now they tell us they don't have the money to do it right away."
[...]
The Brigdens are going to wait until Santa Cabrini opens again to knee and hip surgeries in April.
"It's just a shame we have to wait that long. She should be walking around being functional," Don Brigden said of his wife.
"It's just not right."
28 Feb 2006 @ 5:58am