Dr. Brian Kleinberg, Chiropractor & Personal Life Coach.
Take a number. That is what the Ontario (and essentially Canadian) health care system has come to. We wait. We wait hours. We wait days and weeks to get diagnostic test results. We wait months to get an MRI. We wait months, and even years in some cases, to see a specialist. Many of us may compound these wait times as we have no family MD to direct our care. As a chiropractor I see patients who have waited way too long to get test results and see specialists before they are referred to me. In my chiropractic practice I educate my patients to seek care for their complaints sooner, not later. Yet, people have gotten used to the idea of waiting for health care. This is unacceptable. Seeking health care is not like buying meat in the butcher shop. We take a number to wait our turn to be served for meat. But we can wait – it’s not affecting our well being. Our health is our most prized commodity. We have relegated its importance to that of everyday household foods and products we purchase. But there are serious consequences for waiting for our health care. We suffer needlessly in pain. We may acquire new problems as our body compensates for the area of disease or injury. We defer critical decisions such as rehab or surgery which can lead to disability and in some cases, tragically death. The immediate availability of health care services should be a priority issue for all politicians and stakeholders. For that we shouldn’t wait.
