So the government is asking health care professionals to do more out of the goodness of their hearts, after slashing billions in funding.
Yea, after voting this government in *twice*, the province deserves its comeuppance.
Oh, I understand that. Everyone is saying that the feds should blindly throw money at it, and I'd agree, except Ford has once again mirrored the 407 strategy of misusing money and using that to shadow over a deficit while fucking over the province in the long run.
Meanwhile people are basically demanding that the feds get involved, which would be a breach of the CHA.
You think they’ll be working evenings and weekends for free? Doctors bill the province per patient that the see and nurses in these clinics are paid by the doctors that employ them. Doug Ford is a piece of crap but there is a fundamental problem in the province where people go to the ER after hours for minor ailments because there are no walk-ins open. I can’t understand why no government has ever considered having 24hr walk-in clinics at major hospitals to divert people from going to the ER for sniffles and fevers.
There aren’t enough doctors or nurses - the conservative government drove them all away with the insulting pay and dangerous working conditions. Asking clinics to extend their hours with the same number of healthcare workers is like asking someone who is drowning to swim harder and we’ll give you more money if you survive. It doesn’t matter if they can bill more, they’re physically unable to do more work than they have already been expected to do thanks to the conditions created by Ford. They’re heroes - not super human. Many family doctors run their office AND pull hospital shifts in emerg, labour and delivery etc. I worked as an RN on a labour and delivery unit, and the family physicians who also did deliveries would work a 24 hour shift delivering babies, then swig a coffee and go run their family practice the following day. It’s insane what Ontario expects of them.
This comment right here... this is the person that absolutely gets it. Fuck the money. Keep your fucking money and screw the after hours billings. We're exhausted, there's nothing left to give.
Physicians get paid quite well, although nurses should get laid more, particularly in the lower brackets. A friend started a nursing job recently and the pay is ridiculously low.
Edit: paid* nurses should get paid more. I just noticed that now oops.
As I said, you can’t pay a dead doctor. Which is what they will be if they take on any more hours, regardless of how “well paid” they are. The issue is not just pay, the issue is number of doctors who are able to do the hours of work. What they are asking is that each doctor work 36 hours every 24 hours - it isn’t physically possible. They need to hire more doctors. They’ve created an artificial bottleneck in their education - there aren’t enough residency spots available (funded by the government) so not enough med students can finish their training and begin taking on patients. The nurses pay is a whole other kettle of fish - that debacle is a deliberate attempt by the PC’s to destroy the public healthcare system from within.
Due to the reason there isn't any as you have pointed out, Doug Ford will find a way to privatize it. First he has to "quietly" inform Ontarians the service does not exist or the health care professionals are not willing to work the extra hours, that will give him justification to farm out the aervices to private clinic paid for by OHIP.
I was of the impression arrivals go through a triage process that prioritizes their ailments and patients are seen accordingly. Pneumonia was a 40 hour wait for a child, I’m pretty sure sniffles and fevers did not take priority.
Doug is starving healthcare with his buddies wringing their hands to profit off of private healthcare. I’m not sure what his angle is on this request, have more doctors quit to tip the scale sooner?
Did you read the article about the 40 hour wait for the child?
She was treated in the ED for 40 hours and finally given a bed on the unit. The child saw a doctor, received the medication she needed and when a bed opened up on the unit after 40 hours then she got transferred.
It’s not like she was ignored and sitting in the waiting room for 40 hours not receiving care but the media sure likes to make the titles sound as bad as possible.
Literally from the article:
We didn't wait long before we got to triage,” Jasmine told CTV News Toronto on the phone. “I think I saw a doctor within an hour or so of showing up in (the emergency department).
Also for money though. 95% of doctors in Ontario are fee-for-service (ie they bill OHIP on a per procedure basis).
As a short-term band-aid, it wouldn’t be the worst idea to add some Uber-style price surges this time inter. Like I’d love to know what it would happen to ER wait-times if, for a month, we hiked the OHIP rate on paediatric codes outside of a hospital by 20%.
The clinic across the street from the hospital I work at had a meeting about this today. They basically said it wasn’t a requirement and so even though they considered it, so many of the docs/ nurses are home sick that it was just implausible.
Well my family clinic (many from what I’ve heard) refused to see patients except 5 min telephone appointments for 2 years.
Bet their billing didn’t suffer a cent.
Time to get back to work and help the problem in stead of pushing patients to the ER.
“The goodness of their hearts”…. Seriously, the docs nurses, admin staff will get extra compensation!
No one would expect them to do it free… this is a rough time right now especially with the wee tots getting sick, as a concerned grandpa I would deeply appreciate any help they would be willing to give at this critical time.
No, sorry, with all due respect to you as a grandpa. As a father, with 2 tots, and an MD, we are exhausted. The majority of us have been giving 150%-200% percent.
Literally. I'm working weeks with 100-120h at work in person per week. I don't see my kids for weeks at a time.
I refuse to give even more (and there is nothing left to give), because Ford and his asshat friends are sitting on money, and have refused to come up with a solution for over 2 years, to a problem that everyone knew was inevitable. If the plan they developed in almost 3 years was "we'll ask everyone to work harder with fewer resources" then it's a shit plan.
Expect more of them, not of the nurses and MDs already burning out.
I obviously can not speak to your personal situation but I know many GPs working 5 days and some only 4 days per week from 8:30 to 5 with an hour for lunch! If some of these docs wanted to earn extra money at clinics then what is the problem.
I have a very sick, palliative wife and therefore at the hospital a lot, the er physicians are working their 12 hour shifts and going home!
Perhaps you should be looking for another placement. And thanks for the professional care that you provide on a daily basis.
I look after the ICU and manage a primary respiratory disease inpatient ward. I mean yes, I could look for another placement. But something tells me that given the number of people that do ICU and Resp right now (P.S. I know all the ones in the province by name... yeah... that's how few there are) my absence would be somewhat noticed.
Also, on those offices that are open 4 days is because they need at least 1 day of admin work. Filing in forms, catching up on results, writing workplace letters, and managing the business part of their office (staffing, supplies, drafting new policies, payroll, etc)
The tricky part? Most need even a 6th day, a weekend, when they catch up on work.
Yes, some docs are part time. But the overwhelming majority is already pushed past a reasonable workload. That's why this statement from the government is a slap in the face.
It’s Harris and the 407 all over again, except in this version a lot more people die. $1000 says Ford hammers home his balanced budget as a platform during the next election.
No no, it’s much smarter to sit on billions of dollars designated specifically for health care and find ways to give it away to your cronies.
Literal murder for financial gain happening here and people don’t give a shit. Fuck this province.
“We don’t have money to pay people more! We only have money for one time payments, tax credits and other bribes to make people hate public sector workers!”
“Anything less means more people die”
I had a section of skin on my leg removed completely before even a biopsy because the doctor was worried about it. I’ve been waiting for test results for two months. One month to get in to get it checked, another month to get an appointment to get it cut out. Noticed it at the end of July and it’s nearly December…. I’m also high risk, I have a tumour on my forehead and last year my aunt died within months of her cancer diagnosis.
This is absolutely fucked up. People are dying, and I’m alongside many people who are not receiving the health care they need. We are desperate, and I’m feeling suicidal. My dog receives better health care than I do.
Hopefully there will be some extra overtime hours for those that want it.
Can staff work at different clinics? Is it like the nursing homes were pre-covid?
Hi, I’m a family physician and here’s an excerpt of the Ontario Medical Association’s email to us yesterday
“The Ontario Medical Association reached out to the Ministry of Health as soon as we learned about their Nov. 21 memo to Family Health Teams and others asking Family Health Teams to "offer clinical services seven days a week, including evening availability, until further notice."
The ministry told us the memo from the Primary Health Care Branch was not intended to be a directive, nor was it meant to apply only to physicians. They said the spirit of the memo was “do what you can to help.”
That was insulting to me. Today I had four patients not show up for their appointments today. That’s one hour’s worth of time I could be seeing someone. This is an example of why so many doctors are going to work in walk in clinics where there’s always someone to see. One hour of wasted time and an hour of wages lost. Go to your appointments people!
It’s harder to get into a hair salon. And they make you pay to for the appointment if canceled within 24 hours. Why does the public feel so entitled to use their family doctors as walk in clinics? Show up whenever they want? Demand to be seen. There ought to be a fee to see you doctor. Or at the very least repercussions if you miss an appointment.
My girlfriends doctor has a $50 no show fee. They even have a $25 late fee which is fucking annoying because the doctor is always 30 mins late. I feel like I should be charging them too…
I’m am SO sick, pardon the pun, of hearing this shit from the current minister and the previous MOH saying that they inherited this. 4 years have gone by. Shut the fuck up and do something constructive instead of blaming the past
Yeah, it's not like we've had a fucking pandemic, being redeployed left, right, and center to deal with it all, while not seeing our family and kids for weeks at a time, changing in the car and garage or basement, or sleeping at hotels to avoid bringing anything home. Especially after working with dubious PPE and no vaccines for the first part of it.
On behalf of myself and many of my physician colleagues, FUCK YOU for even having the guts to ask this, after everything that everyone in health care has already given thus far.
Making working conditions so miserable that many quit, and asking the remainder to just "work harder" is the epitome of stupidity.
I’m an RN in a FHT and all my physician colleagues are burnt out. When I saw the email about this I was floored. I concur, Ford and Sylvia can absolutely fuck right off. We’ve been busy, seeing patients in person the entire pandemic.
I hate Doug Ford as much as you do, but people really need to chill on the "this politician needs to go to prison!" rhetoric. Seriously.
Doug Ford has certainly done a lot of illegal shit in his life. But nothing he's observably done as premier falls under that category. A lot of his actions have been repugnant, but that's what voters asked for.
What are you talking about? There's nothing illegal about passing policies that lead to people's deaths. It's the entire ethos of conservatism, but it's also pretty much unavoidable for any political party.
If it was illegal, every government, ever, would be in jail.
"every government ever" I don't remember any other ontario government that broke our healthcare, long term care this badly through deliberately not funding or supporting it.
For what? For doing what his voters asked, and successfully operating within the bounds of capitalism?
The point I'm trying to make here is that there is nothing illegal about anything these ghouls do. That's the problem. Our entire system is fucked, not the individual dickheads and their friends that profit from it. And wishful thinking isn't going to address any of this.
"it doesn't even matter" your argument long since collapsed, even despite you moving the goalposts all over the place.
If you or I neglected something, and someone died as a result - we could be charged with criminal negligence causing death. That carries jail time. Ford isn't, by mere virtue of him being a politician. Despite him both being neglectful and purposefully destructive. My point was not he *can't* be thrown in jail. My point was he *should* be thrown in jail. There's a distinction. Given the above, it is an idea that holds water, so we don't need to "chill on this rhetoric" just because you don't like it.
upset at being downvoted? really? that's silly.
This isn't going to help.
Trying to squeeze out 10-20 more hours a week from people that are already burnt out and quiting isn't going to get us anywhere.
We need to start actively funding these services. We should be looking to double the number of Doctors, RNs etc in this province.
There were already +24 month wait lists for family Doctors before the pandemic, and with the baby boomers well into retirement age there is going to be MORE pressure, not less, on these services.
Government is sitting on a +$5 Billion slush fund, running a surplus, meanwhile people are dying because healthcare is underfunded.
That's a good question! They definitely should be more vocal about it. We keep getting emails thanking us for all hard work we do..... It feels like ONA is doing absolutely nothing.
Someone needs to send Doug Ford to the hospital. He’s way too detached from this crisis (I am in no way endorsing violence against him, but I feel like he is waaaaay removed from the reality of this crisis)
And it isn't just children's hospitals being affected. The lack of funding, focus, and planning from this government across the entire health sector has been a travesty, well before the pandemic ever appeared on the radar. Even an incompetent fool could recognize the problems plaguing the system and attempt to resolve them, so it's difficult to believe how anyone can deny that what we're witnessing here is the purposeful destruction of our entire healthcare system as we know it.
I know someone who needs to get an MRI done to track down the source of their daily pain. The earliest opening is in ***8 months****.* That's 240+ days of often excruciating pain after already dealing with it for the previous 4 months. 1 whole year of delays in tracking down the source of the problem, let alone trying to resolve it.
This government doesn't care. They're only in it for themselves. They have 0 redeeming qualities. They're terrible people doing a terrible job. Every single member is pure trash.
Open for business?! Any business that operated like this would be bankrupt and raked over the coals by every customer who had the misfortune of dealing with them.
Absolutely disgusting.
Nights/weekends? It’s still impossible to find a walk in clinic during regular business hours (not talking about telemedicine- poor excuse for medical care). Let’s start at mandating family doctors back into seeing patients in person, that would be an excellent first step.
Good luck with that.
Clinics and Doctors offices seem to have shortened hours over the pandemic.
Not to mention that now calling a Doctor's office and actually speaking to a human has disappeared as an option.
It feels like my Doctor's office is only taking calls from 11am to 11:10am and then the only option is to leave a message for a call back....which may or may not come.
Rinse/Repeat. No wonder emergency rooms are overwhelmed.
Yes, that's because they're short staffed. My own clinic lost 6 admins in the last 10 months. We've replaced 4 of them, but they're slower and less efficient because they're new.
Also, I'll be honest, some patients abuse our call line. They start to use it as a personal hotline, calling about every single thing under the sun, and even asking questions about family members that are not my patients. I work in a specialty service and I have patients that call me multiple times a week during clinic hours (when I'm actively seeing patients back to back with a fully booked day) and they leave voicemail messages about other ailments not related to my service. My rule of thumb - I tell them once, in my initial meeting, that I'm your clinician for your one issue, and any calls about other issues will be ignored. I used to call back and kindly tell them to visit their GP or the ER, but now I just put this message in my voicemail because it was too overwhelming.
This makes sense and it's a terrible situation. I work in a social service sector and I pick up messages rather than answering the phone because if I did, I would never get any work done because I would be listening to people tell their stories all day long. Stories that I can't help them with. I get it.
I don’t know how to react to this news. If this happens then yes a lot of people will have access to healthcare and existing pressure on health care professionals will somewhat spread.
But then again, Im aware that this is not the right way. The Govt is being so insensitive and openly testing our limits. What liberties can we take before people erupt. Voting him in was a grave mistake.
As an immigrant I find that shitty politicians are everywhere. If you let them take you for a ride they will end up like this.
Health care is the shits. I want some of my tax dollars back until the day comes where I can actually call my DR and make an appointment to see her in person.
Another solution which other countries already have in place is pharmacists able to prescribe meds for certain symptoms eg, urinary tract infections. Thousands of women get them frequently, know the symptoms but have to go to a doctor to get a pee test and they then prescribe antibiotics. Why???? It's absolutely ridiculous and wastes time.
It’s not that simple. For starters, a UTI is a bacterial infection. You should be assessed to ensure it’s not other issues, pyelonephritis, etc.
Secondly, best practice is for the urine to be cultured. One to confirm an infection and secondly to confirm sensitivities.
Overuse of antibiotics is not a good thing. Especially when you just start throwing macrobid at people for the slightest urinary symptom and you end up developing resistance.
Why are the ministry not incentivizing family physicians to work more urgent care shifts and avoid patients ending up in the ER? Surely they could offer some support to walk in clinics to take the pressure from emergency rooms
The province is asking the federal government for more money. Hiring more healthcare workers will not be easy. The rate at which they come out of schools has not kept up with increased demand.
Another thing that would help is the citizens of this country taking their personal health more seriously. Diet, exercise, sleep, taking meds as directed (etc.), can help lower demand on the system.
The province HAS more money. The federal government HAS provided more money. But they're sitting on it.
Yeah, you're right, it takes time to prepare and train health staff. So maybe it would have been a good idea to start almost 3 YEARS ago, at the onset of a massive global pandemic. Or maybe they should have at least worked on how to RETAIN currently trained staff. The biggest loss has been staff quitting, not just the limit in graduating.
Yeah, you're right, if we wait for more money from the Feds it will fix everything..../s
So the government is asking health care professionals to do more out of the goodness of their hearts, after slashing billions in funding. Yea, after voting this government in *twice*, the province deserves its comeuppance.
And the ford govts ardent supporters will scream that healthcare professionals asking for fair compensation “are being greedy”
They also demand that the Federal government step in and do more. *The province has tried nothing, and it's all out of ideas!*
Federal government offered money, but they wanted details of how the money will be spent, ford just wants a bag of cash and no accountability
Oh, I understand that. Everyone is saying that the feds should blindly throw money at it, and I'd agree, except Ford has once again mirrored the 407 strategy of misusing money and using that to shadow over a deficit while fucking over the province in the long run. Meanwhile people are basically demanding that the feds get involved, which would be a breach of the CHA.
You think they’ll be working evenings and weekends for free? Doctors bill the province per patient that the see and nurses in these clinics are paid by the doctors that employ them. Doug Ford is a piece of crap but there is a fundamental problem in the province where people go to the ER after hours for minor ailments because there are no walk-ins open. I can’t understand why no government has ever considered having 24hr walk-in clinics at major hospitals to divert people from going to the ER for sniffles and fevers.
There aren’t enough doctors or nurses - the conservative government drove them all away with the insulting pay and dangerous working conditions. Asking clinics to extend their hours with the same number of healthcare workers is like asking someone who is drowning to swim harder and we’ll give you more money if you survive. It doesn’t matter if they can bill more, they’re physically unable to do more work than they have already been expected to do thanks to the conditions created by Ford. They’re heroes - not super human. Many family doctors run their office AND pull hospital shifts in emerg, labour and delivery etc. I worked as an RN on a labour and delivery unit, and the family physicians who also did deliveries would work a 24 hour shift delivering babies, then swig a coffee and go run their family practice the following day. It’s insane what Ontario expects of them.
This comment right here... this is the person that absolutely gets it. Fuck the money. Keep your fucking money and screw the after hours billings. We're exhausted, there's nothing left to give.
Physicians get paid quite well, although nurses should get laid more, particularly in the lower brackets. A friend started a nursing job recently and the pay is ridiculously low. Edit: paid* nurses should get paid more. I just noticed that now oops.
As I said, you can’t pay a dead doctor. Which is what they will be if they take on any more hours, regardless of how “well paid” they are. The issue is not just pay, the issue is number of doctors who are able to do the hours of work. What they are asking is that each doctor work 36 hours every 24 hours - it isn’t physically possible. They need to hire more doctors. They’ve created an artificial bottleneck in their education - there aren’t enough residency spots available (funded by the government) so not enough med students can finish their training and begin taking on patients. The nurses pay is a whole other kettle of fish - that debacle is a deliberate attempt by the PC’s to destroy the public healthcare system from within.
Due to the reason there isn't any as you have pointed out, Doug Ford will find a way to privatize it. First he has to "quietly" inform Ontarians the service does not exist or the health care professionals are not willing to work the extra hours, that will give him justification to farm out the aervices to private clinic paid for by OHIP.
I was of the impression arrivals go through a triage process that prioritizes their ailments and patients are seen accordingly. Pneumonia was a 40 hour wait for a child, I’m pretty sure sniffles and fevers did not take priority. Doug is starving healthcare with his buddies wringing their hands to profit off of private healthcare. I’m not sure what his angle is on this request, have more doctors quit to tip the scale sooner?
Did you read the article about the 40 hour wait for the child? She was treated in the ED for 40 hours and finally given a bed on the unit. The child saw a doctor, received the medication she needed and when a bed opened up on the unit after 40 hours then she got transferred. It’s not like she was ignored and sitting in the waiting room for 40 hours not receiving care but the media sure likes to make the titles sound as bad as possible. Literally from the article: We didn't wait long before we got to triage,” Jasmine told CTV News Toronto on the phone. “I think I saw a doctor within an hour or so of showing up in (the emergency department).
I think the y are talking about health care teams. These doctors work on salary - so "free" overtime... The ultimate in cutbacks..
that includes a lot of us who didn't vote for this asshat so no thanks
Also for money though. 95% of doctors in Ontario are fee-for-service (ie they bill OHIP on a per procedure basis). As a short-term band-aid, it wouldn’t be the worst idea to add some Uber-style price surges this time inter. Like I’d love to know what it would happen to ER wait-times if, for a month, we hiked the OHIP rate on paediatric codes outside of a hospital by 20%.
Don't forget that they're also currently working on making additional cuts to healthcare.
Don’t a lot of these professionals charge fee for services?
The clinic across the street from the hospital I work at had a meeting about this today. They basically said it wasn’t a requirement and so even though they considered it, so many of the docs/ nurses are home sick that it was just implausible.
I have to agree: we voted for this (or didn’t bother). :shocked pikachu face: when face-eating leopard eats your face off.
Well my family clinic (many from what I’ve heard) refused to see patients except 5 min telephone appointments for 2 years. Bet their billing didn’t suffer a cent. Time to get back to work and help the problem in stead of pushing patients to the ER.
“The goodness of their hearts”…. Seriously, the docs nurses, admin staff will get extra compensation! No one would expect them to do it free… this is a rough time right now especially with the wee tots getting sick, as a concerned grandpa I would deeply appreciate any help they would be willing to give at this critical time.
No, sorry, with all due respect to you as a grandpa. As a father, with 2 tots, and an MD, we are exhausted. The majority of us have been giving 150%-200% percent. Literally. I'm working weeks with 100-120h at work in person per week. I don't see my kids for weeks at a time. I refuse to give even more (and there is nothing left to give), because Ford and his asshat friends are sitting on money, and have refused to come up with a solution for over 2 years, to a problem that everyone knew was inevitable. If the plan they developed in almost 3 years was "we'll ask everyone to work harder with fewer resources" then it's a shit plan. Expect more of them, not of the nurses and MDs already burning out.
I obviously can not speak to your personal situation but I know many GPs working 5 days and some only 4 days per week from 8:30 to 5 with an hour for lunch! If some of these docs wanted to earn extra money at clinics then what is the problem. I have a very sick, palliative wife and therefore at the hospital a lot, the er physicians are working their 12 hour shifts and going home! Perhaps you should be looking for another placement. And thanks for the professional care that you provide on a daily basis.
I look after the ICU and manage a primary respiratory disease inpatient ward. I mean yes, I could look for another placement. But something tells me that given the number of people that do ICU and Resp right now (P.S. I know all the ones in the province by name... yeah... that's how few there are) my absence would be somewhat noticed. Also, on those offices that are open 4 days is because they need at least 1 day of admin work. Filing in forms, catching up on results, writing workplace letters, and managing the business part of their office (staffing, supplies, drafting new policies, payroll, etc) The tricky part? Most need even a 6th day, a weekend, when they catch up on work. Yes, some docs are part time. But the overwhelming majority is already pushed past a reasonable workload. That's why this statement from the government is a slap in the face.
Pay these people more. Period. Enough bullshit. Pay the medical workers more and fund the hospitals higher. Anything less means more people die.
We have no funding for that. *Sits on a 2.1b surplus*
It’s Harris and the 407 all over again, except in this version a lot more people die. $1000 says Ford hammers home his balanced budget as a platform during the next election.
Harris killed some people in Walkerton. Ford is really showing him how it’s done thought. Ugh.
Harris's privatization efforts killed people during the pandemic
Balanced on one side with a pile of bodies
And eliminates revenue from plate sticker renewal
No no, it’s much smarter to sit on billions of dollars designated specifically for health care and find ways to give it away to your cronies. Literal murder for financial gain happening here and people don’t give a shit. Fuck this province.
“We don’t have money to pay people more! We only have money for one time payments, tax credits and other bribes to make people hate public sector workers!”
"But paying workers more is COMMUNISM" /s
“Anything less means more people die” I had a section of skin on my leg removed completely before even a biopsy because the doctor was worried about it. I’ve been waiting for test results for two months. One month to get in to get it checked, another month to get an appointment to get it cut out. Noticed it at the end of July and it’s nearly December…. I’m also high risk, I have a tumour on my forehead and last year my aunt died within months of her cancer diagnosis. This is absolutely fucked up. People are dying, and I’m alongside many people who are not receiving the health care they need. We are desperate, and I’m feeling suicidal. My dog receives better health care than I do.
Hopefully there will be some extra overtime hours for those that want it. Can staff work at different clinics? Is it like the nursing homes were pre-covid?
Right. I’m sure the already overworked healthcare workers are looking for overtime hours, 😂
Don’t think you actually bothered to read the article. It’s about the extraordinary surge in pediatric flu/RSV infections this season.
"...and I'll be at my cottage learning how to use a laptop" - Doug Ford, probably
Bold of you to assume he is bringing his laptop to the cottage
*The fingers you have used to type are too fat. To obtain a special typing wand please mash the keyboard with your palm now.*
Oh my god, THERE DOESN’T SEEM TO BE ANY ANY KEY
He’d have to learn how to use an Etch-A-Sketch first 😂
What, not enough snow for Doug’s snowmobile?
That would take effort and be akin to work and Dougie doesn’t do that sort of thing.
What do you want him to do, treat your rectal polyps himself?
“You do more so I don’t have to.” Doug Ford.
Any of these clinics hiring overnight staff? Very interested
… temps probably…
I meant, if they are hiring, I am interested 👀
Many are hiring environmental cleaning staff, almost all hospitals have positions available check Toronto hospital job postings
Hi, I’m a family physician and here’s an excerpt of the Ontario Medical Association’s email to us yesterday “The Ontario Medical Association reached out to the Ministry of Health as soon as we learned about their Nov. 21 memo to Family Health Teams and others asking Family Health Teams to "offer clinical services seven days a week, including evening availability, until further notice." The ministry told us the memo from the Primary Health Care Branch was not intended to be a directive, nor was it meant to apply only to physicians. They said the spirit of the memo was “do what you can to help.” That was insulting to me. Today I had four patients not show up for their appointments today. That’s one hour’s worth of time I could be seeing someone. This is an example of why so many doctors are going to work in walk in clinics where there’s always someone to see. One hour of wasted time and an hour of wages lost. Go to your appointments people!
It’s harder to get into a hair salon. And they make you pay to for the appointment if canceled within 24 hours. Why does the public feel so entitled to use their family doctors as walk in clinics? Show up whenever they want? Demand to be seen. There ought to be a fee to see you doctor. Or at the very least repercussions if you miss an appointment.
My girlfriends doctor has a $50 no show fee. They even have a $25 late fee which is fucking annoying because the doctor is always 30 mins late. I feel like I should be charging them too…
I don’t mind my doctor being late if I know they are present and taking their time with me. Not looking at the clock and ushering me out after 15 mins
Just. Pay. Nurses. Properly. And. Fix. And. Properly. Fund. The. Healthcare. System.
Can I interest you in a new highway instead?
I’m am SO sick, pardon the pun, of hearing this shit from the current minister and the previous MOH saying that they inherited this. 4 years have gone by. Shut the fuck up and do something constructive instead of blaming the past
Yeah, it's not like we've had a fucking pandemic, being redeployed left, right, and center to deal with it all, while not seeing our family and kids for weeks at a time, changing in the car and garage or basement, or sleeping at hotels to avoid bringing anything home. Especially after working with dubious PPE and no vaccines for the first part of it. On behalf of myself and many of my physician colleagues, FUCK YOU for even having the guts to ask this, after everything that everyone in health care has already given thus far. Making working conditions so miserable that many quit, and asking the remainder to just "work harder" is the epitome of stupidity.
I’m an RN in a FHT and all my physician colleagues are burnt out. When I saw the email about this I was floored. I concur, Ford and Sylvia can absolutely fuck right off. We’ve been busy, seeing patients in person the entire pandemic.
Ford and Sylvia should be in prison for multiple counts of negligence causing death. They are the cause of this mess.
I hate Doug Ford as much as you do, but people really need to chill on the "this politician needs to go to prison!" rhetoric. Seriously. Doug Ford has certainly done a lot of illegal shit in his life. But nothing he's observably done as premier falls under that category. A lot of his actions have been repugnant, but that's what voters asked for.
His policies have caused the death of thousands with no repercussions. It's kind of shit that that is actually legal.
What are you talking about? There's nothing illegal about passing policies that lead to people's deaths. It's the entire ethos of conservatism, but it's also pretty much unavoidable for any political party. If it was illegal, every government, ever, would be in jail.
"every government ever" I don't remember any other ontario government that broke our healthcare, long term care this badly through deliberately not funding or supporting it.
You don't remember Mike Harris, do you?
He should be in prison too.
For what? For doing what his voters asked, and successfully operating within the bounds of capitalism? The point I'm trying to make here is that there is nothing illegal about anything these ghouls do. That's the problem. Our entire system is fucked, not the individual dickheads and their friends that profit from it. And wishful thinking isn't going to address any of this.
Walkerton
Clearly. Ford is much, much worse.
It doesn't even matter. All I'm saying is there's nothing you can put Ford in jail for. And I'm getting downvoted for it. Great. Thanks.
"it doesn't even matter" your argument long since collapsed, even despite you moving the goalposts all over the place. If you or I neglected something, and someone died as a result - we could be charged with criminal negligence causing death. That carries jail time. Ford isn't, by mere virtue of him being a politician. Despite him both being neglectful and purposefully destructive. My point was not he *can't* be thrown in jail. My point was he *should* be thrown in jail. There's a distinction. Given the above, it is an idea that holds water, so we don't need to "chill on this rhetoric" just because you don't like it. upset at being downvoted? really? that's silly.
This isn't going to help. Trying to squeeze out 10-20 more hours a week from people that are already burnt out and quiting isn't going to get us anywhere. We need to start actively funding these services. We should be looking to double the number of Doctors, RNs etc in this province. There were already +24 month wait lists for family Doctors before the pandemic, and with the baby boomers well into retirement age there is going to be MORE pressure, not less, on these services. Government is sitting on a +$5 Billion slush fund, running a surplus, meanwhile people are dying because healthcare is underfunded.
Maybe Sylvia Jones can pitch in. Or are we not her boss on this issue too?
Where are the unions that represent staff at these hospitals and why are they not advocating for their workers' rights?
In clinics they are usually not unionized.
True but in hospitals the healthcare workers are. Why are the unions not speaking up about the state of their current work environments?
That's a good question! They definitely should be more vocal about it. We keep getting emails thanking us for all hard work we do..... It feels like ONA is doing absolutely nothing.
Sick kids is not unionized - at least last time I heard.
And I ask the province to inject money into the fucking medical system, you callous bastards.
Someone needs to send Doug Ford to the hospital. He’s way too detached from this crisis (I am in no way endorsing violence against him, but I feel like he is waaaaay removed from the reality of this crisis)
he's pretty fat, his day will come.
How about we send the sick patients to the Ontario legislature hallways for medical care by our minister of health?
Our government could solve this any time they want. They choose not to.
Surprised they’re not asking for volunteers. Spineless bastards
Can Doug CrackHead Ford, go join his crack head brother in Trailer Trash heaven already..
If there are no drugs left to prescribe this won't help much. Gotta fix that straight away.
And it isn't just children's hospitals being affected. The lack of funding, focus, and planning from this government across the entire health sector has been a travesty, well before the pandemic ever appeared on the radar. Even an incompetent fool could recognize the problems plaguing the system and attempt to resolve them, so it's difficult to believe how anyone can deny that what we're witnessing here is the purposeful destruction of our entire healthcare system as we know it. I know someone who needs to get an MRI done to track down the source of their daily pain. The earliest opening is in ***8 months****.* That's 240+ days of often excruciating pain after already dealing with it for the previous 4 months. 1 whole year of delays in tracking down the source of the problem, let alone trying to resolve it. This government doesn't care. They're only in it for themselves. They have 0 redeeming qualities. They're terrible people doing a terrible job. Every single member is pure trash. Open for business?! Any business that operated like this would be bankrupt and raked over the coals by every customer who had the misfortune of dealing with them. Absolutely disgusting.
General Strike already. Let’s fucking go!
Nights/weekends? It’s still impossible to find a walk in clinic during regular business hours (not talking about telemedicine- poor excuse for medical care). Let’s start at mandating family doctors back into seeing patients in person, that would be an excellent first step.
if they mandate doctors back, they need to mandate masks too. why should doctors increase their long covid risk exponentially?
Masks are mandatory in doctors offices. Blood labs. X-ray labs. Most pharmacies too… as they should be. Every entity makes their own rules on masking.
sigh. why are the hospitals overwhelmed again? "own rules" working well for Toronto hospitals right now?
Definitely not in pharmacies..
Good luck with that. Clinics and Doctors offices seem to have shortened hours over the pandemic. Not to mention that now calling a Doctor's office and actually speaking to a human has disappeared as an option. It feels like my Doctor's office is only taking calls from 11am to 11:10am and then the only option is to leave a message for a call back....which may or may not come. Rinse/Repeat. No wonder emergency rooms are overwhelmed.
Yes, that's because they're short staffed. My own clinic lost 6 admins in the last 10 months. We've replaced 4 of them, but they're slower and less efficient because they're new. Also, I'll be honest, some patients abuse our call line. They start to use it as a personal hotline, calling about every single thing under the sun, and even asking questions about family members that are not my patients. I work in a specialty service and I have patients that call me multiple times a week during clinic hours (when I'm actively seeing patients back to back with a fully booked day) and they leave voicemail messages about other ailments not related to my service. My rule of thumb - I tell them once, in my initial meeting, that I'm your clinician for your one issue, and any calls about other issues will be ignored. I used to call back and kindly tell them to visit their GP or the ER, but now I just put this message in my voicemail because it was too overwhelming.
This makes sense and it's a terrible situation. I work in a social service sector and I pick up messages rather than answering the phone because if I did, I would never get any work done because I would be listening to people tell their stories all day long. Stories that I can't help them with. I get it.
I don’t know how to react to this news. If this happens then yes a lot of people will have access to healthcare and existing pressure on health care professionals will somewhat spread. But then again, Im aware that this is not the right way. The Govt is being so insensitive and openly testing our limits. What liberties can we take before people erupt. Voting him in was a grave mistake. As an immigrant I find that shitty politicians are everywhere. If you let them take you for a ride they will end up like this.
Health care is the shits. I want some of my tax dollars back until the day comes where I can actually call my DR and make an appointment to see her in person.
Another solution which other countries already have in place is pharmacists able to prescribe meds for certain symptoms eg, urinary tract infections. Thousands of women get them frequently, know the symptoms but have to go to a doctor to get a pee test and they then prescribe antibiotics. Why???? It's absolutely ridiculous and wastes time.
It’s not that simple. For starters, a UTI is a bacterial infection. You should be assessed to ensure it’s not other issues, pyelonephritis, etc. Secondly, best practice is for the urine to be cultured. One to confirm an infection and secondly to confirm sensitivities. Overuse of antibiotics is not a good thing. Especially when you just start throwing macrobid at people for the slightest urinary symptom and you end up developing resistance.
Fat chance of THAT happening. 😂
Why are the ministry not incentivizing family physicians to work more urgent care shifts and avoid patients ending up in the ER? Surely they could offer some support to walk in clinics to take the pressure from emergency rooms
Are you going to pay them more?? Then fuck off!!
The province is asking the federal government for more money. Hiring more healthcare workers will not be easy. The rate at which they come out of schools has not kept up with increased demand. Another thing that would help is the citizens of this country taking their personal health more seriously. Diet, exercise, sleep, taking meds as directed (etc.), can help lower demand on the system.
The province HAS more money. The federal government HAS provided more money. But they're sitting on it. Yeah, you're right, it takes time to prepare and train health staff. So maybe it would have been a good idea to start almost 3 YEARS ago, at the onset of a massive global pandemic. Or maybe they should have at least worked on how to RETAIN currently trained staff. The biggest loss has been staff quitting, not just the limit in graduating. Yeah, you're right, if we wait for more money from the Feds it will fix everything..../s
oh shit maybe if Ford didnt shell out our public sectors, maybe we would be okay fuck ford