I had a 14ga puncture wound last year in Canada, about 1" from my femoral artery. Rapidly flowing blood, tourniquet applied on-scene just below the groin.
Ambulance was on scene quickly, I was immediately put into the trauma center in the ER, stapled, full body CT with contrast, tetanus booster and some more stuff I don’t remember. Time in ER waiting room: zero. Time in hospital: ~1.5 hr total, mostly spent waiting for a follow up outside the ER.
I paid $250 for the ambulance and nothing else. Canada’s healthcare system is GREAT at keeping you alive (if you’re not indigenous, which is a true national shame).
Canada’s healthcare system is not amazing at keeping you healthy. Something minor and chronic? Get fucked, it’s a 2 year wait for a specialist referral. Minorly hurt but not at risk of death? Yeah enjoy the 4-10 hour wait in the ER room. When will you be seen? Idk when we can get to it. Want to see a doctor? Walkin will see you for free in about 45 minutes. Want to see your doctor? Yea they’re out this month working at the hospital, how’s 3 months from now?
All of this is vastly better than my time growing up in the US where the hospital missed diagnosing me with pneumonia and gave me permanent lung scarring. Or missed my fractured ankle on the xray and said I was fine. And then billed my parents 10’s of thousands of dollars.
I will say, in my city, our family doctor is in office at least 4 days a week.
If you dont have a scheduled slot, you can see another in the same clinic tho, but usually you wanna schedule if possible.
If you give them a few hours heads up before leaving, you can usually be in and out in lile an hour total which is fine imo for non-energency.
For emergencies you are not spending any time in the waiting room yeah, they are pretty good at fixing you up fast.
If you just go to a hospital 15 minutes out of town at a smaller city, non emergency wait times plummet tremendously.
We have like 3 hospital options where I live, to go to, that are an extra 15min drive but 1/10th the wait times for non-emergency.
Politicians love to pick the one hospital dead center of the city that is the busiest one and cherry pick its busiest time of year as average wait times.
In reality its the exception and most other hospitals are faster, and 1 city out from the major one and hospital wait times are negligible.
I had a 14ga puncture wound last year in Canada, about 1" from my femoral artery. Rapidly flowing blood, tourniquet applied on-scene just below the groin.
Ambulance was on scene quickly, I was immediately put into the trauma center in the ER, stapled, full body CT with contrast, tetanus booster and some more stuff I don’t remember. Time in ER waiting room: zero. Time in hospital: ~1.5 hr total, mostly spent waiting for a follow up outside the ER.
I paid $250 for the ambulance and nothing else. Canada’s healthcare system is GREAT at keeping you alive (if you’re not indigenous, which is a true national shame).
Canada’s healthcare system is not amazing at keeping you healthy. Something minor and chronic? Get fucked, it’s a 2 year wait for a specialist referral. Minorly hurt but not at risk of death? Yeah enjoy the 4-10 hour wait in the ER room. When will you be seen? Idk when we can get to it. Want to see a doctor? Walkin will see you for free in about 45 minutes. Want to see your doctor? Yea they’re out this month working at the hospital, how’s 3 months from now?
All of this is vastly better than my time growing up in the US where the hospital missed diagnosing me with pneumonia and gave me permanent lung scarring. Or missed my fractured ankle on the xray and said I was fine. And then billed my parents 10’s of thousands of dollars.
This is perhaps the most accurate explanation I’ve ever heard for our healthcare system here in Canada. I’m definitely going to use this in future.
I will say, in my city, our family doctor is in office at least 4 days a week.
If you dont have a scheduled slot, you can see another in the same clinic tho, but usually you wanna schedule if possible.
If you give them a few hours heads up before leaving, you can usually be in and out in lile an hour total which is fine imo for non-energency.
For emergencies you are not spending any time in the waiting room yeah, they are pretty good at fixing you up fast.
If you just go to a hospital 15 minutes out of town at a smaller city, non emergency wait times plummet tremendously.
We have like 3 hospital options where I live, to go to, that are an extra 15min drive but 1/10th the wait times for non-emergency.
Politicians love to pick the one hospital dead center of the city that is the busiest one and cherry pick its busiest time of year as average wait times.
In reality its the exception and most other hospitals are faster, and 1 city out from the major one and hospital wait times are negligible.