We need to rescue our ailing hospital system

Health-care transformation needed next, Feb. 11

I was recently released from Mount Sinai Hospital where I was admitted for pneumonia.

While there I was able to witness first-hand the deterioration of our health-care system.

First, I learned that there is virtually no way to enter a hospital except via the Emergency Department. Can our doctors not be trusted as much as the ER intake staff to determine a patient’s need for hospitalization?

If Doug Ford were to spend a Friday night in a downtown ER, I’m sure he’d find it much different from his party with developer friends. Such a stay might even cause him to take meaningful measures to revitalize a health-delivery system desperately in need of it.

After nine hours in the ER, I was admitted to hospital and given a rundown room in a wing of the hospital that was clearly overdue for renewal. The flooring was so worn-out that no amount of scrubbing by an overworked staff could make it look even remotely clean. Morning found my room with no hot water.

I must say that the doctors and staff that cared for me without exception provided excellent care — though the strain on many of their faces told a tale of being overworked and undercompensated.

It should be no surprise that as funding for public health care deteriorates, people turn to private alternatives. This in turn is used to justify the government’s recent romance with private-care facilities.

Is this not, after all, part of the Ford government’s plan to rob us of our hard-fought-for public healthcare system?

The taxpaying voters in Ontario must rise up and speak up and demand that the new infusion of federal funding for health care is properly allocated to rescue an ailing system.

Bill Howes, Toronto