StratfordToday received the following Letter to the Editor from reader Larry Baswick, regarding our story Just over half of surgeries for highly aggressive cancers done within the recommended timeframe in Ontario: report
I just read the report on the failure rate of our vaunted health system's cancer surgery practice.
Why is this? I am 80-plus and remember, as a child, our family doctor coming to our house to attend to us if needed. I have phoned my doctor for an appointment in the recent past and was left with the option of seeing them in the office in a couple of weeks or spending hours in the waiting room at the emergency department.
I think the problem lies, as most problems do, in money.
First, the amount of money spent on research to extend life is obscene. Money spent to improve quality of life seems to be justifiable. Money spent to get a few more months extension of a usually dismal existence could be spent on infrastructure and the front lines with nurses and doctors earning an income well above the 50th percentile - closer to that commiserate with what they do as opposed to being able to hit a baseball.
If they are presently overworked as they claim to be, we need more per shift and a renewed commitment to the task.
Now for the sacred cow. Governments are simply unable to manage our money. It is not in their DNA. Its bloated bureaucracy and built in lack of accountability requires the private sector and its experienced, capitalist leaders to assume control of our health machine. The clearly observable decline in its efficacy over the last half century would lead a monkey to call for a sea change in modus operandi. Never mind semi private - 100 per cent.
The status quo doesn't work! As Einstein said, repeating ineffectiveness doesn't lead to effectiveness (or something like that) or try, try something different to find success. It is ludicrous that our medical system leans on charity and gambling to survive. We can do better than a 50 per cent surgery on time factor.
Tommy Douglas is dead.
Larry Baswick,
Stratford
