Bloganuary writing prompt
What do you complain about the most?
Next to extraordinarily high grocery and food prices, and the price of just about anything across the country, the thing I complain about or that bothers me the most is this.
The lack of family doctors and adequate and accessible healthcare in Nova Scotia and across the entire country for that matter.
Wait times in emergency rooms can be 5, 10, 15 to 20 hours. Many emergency departments in smaller facilities close at night or over the weekends at times due to insufficient staff levels. There are horror stories of seriously ill patients waiting in hallways on stretchers for 24 hours before being seen by a doctor.
And the list of issues within our healthcare system is long and varied.
But, back to Nova Scotia and the lack of family physicians.
Right now there are about 140,00 folks in Nova Scotia without access to a family doctor. In other words, they can't find a family doctor who will take them on as a patient.
The graphic is from a January 2023 news article that shows the distribution of people who need access to a family practice across the province.
Luckily for Lynn and I, we are relatively healthy at this point. But, the concept of booking an appointment for say a yearly checkup with a family doctor here is nonexistent for us.
Back in Ontario, the doctor I had, I was with him from the day he started his practice. Now, as I'm getting older I have thyroid, and cholesterol issues along with Type 2 diabetes. Monitoring these and treating them here is very difficult without a family doctor.
Anyhow, without going on and on about it, this(at least for early in the morning today) is what I complain about the most. I may find something else to complain about later in the day.
--as always with love--
--- get outdoors; find inspiration; discover yourself ---
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