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Everyone has said that health care is suffering with the number of cuts that are done to it. I have found out today that some of the office staff for the health care should be replaced too. I called the Halifax Infirmary today at 10:00 am, the taped reply said to call back at 9:00 am when the office is open. Now I don't know if it is just me, but that doesn't sound right at all. With situations like this happening it is a wonder that things actually get done in the health care field.
There are many people in the health care field that do their job to the fullest, however there are also some that feel that the government isn't paying them enough to talk on the phones to their family/friends all day. Those that act like they are doing something important and are really talking on the phones all day about nothing are the ones that are causing people to look at health care a different way. Health care in the past has always been on everyone's mind whether it will be around to help him or her when they need it or not. There is also the concern of how far a person has to go for the best health care. The distance to get the best health care possible seems to be getting further and further away every day, especially for those in small areas. The health care has been stripped down so much that places in the South Shore have to go to Halifax to have things done (3+ hour drive each way), which does make it a problem for many.
The more that the government strips from health care, the worse it is for everyone. I know that last year when the nurses went on strike, it caused a lot of problems. The hospitals are still backed up because of that. I met some nurses that I can understand why they went on strike; however there also were others that didn't deserve whatever they got from the deal. Those who didn't deserve the stuff from the deal were those who didn't go on the picket line but instead went to the bars, or stayed home while the others were on the picket line. Those on the picket line deserve the stuff from the deal, however those that felt they didn't have to be there to help out should have gotten nothing.
I have many stories about the hospitals in Halifax. Namely that if you were going to get looked at, don't go to Halifax because they are too backed up, that a person should go to a smaller area so that you won't have to wait as long to be seen. I have also seen that many doctors are becoming stressed out with seeing all these people without a break in sight, even with some of them having Fridays off. The doctors that are specialists in a certain area also should have voice mail so that people that need to shift appointments can get the appointments more easily, or at least those in the office for those doctors should have voice mail instead of having a recording that tells people that the office is closed and will reopen at a certain time the next day. The people are in the office for specific reasons, and that is one of those reasons.
I know that the health care field has been stripped every year that the government tries to balance their budget, however there is no need for people in the health care industry that doesn't pay enough attention to the public, as it should to their job. Those in the public are the reason the health care industry exists, however those in the offices seem to think that having everyone call back at once is easier than to have an answering machine pickup (or voice mail) for people to leave messages. This doesn't make any sense in a business way to look at it. Technically health care is a business, due to the fact people are employed to service the public, and also have office type people to sort through the confusion.
The health care industry is falling apart more and more, whenever the government feels that they can cut more off of it. The thing is that if we were to start cutting off some of those government positions there would all of a sudden be enough money to pay off the debt and be able to put money back into health care. There are also the perks that the government officials have that should go away too. Just like in any job there are limits to what you can claim, for the government it should be the same way. The million dollars extra that they found due to an error should not be used for the government to insure the budget stays on track, that million dollars should be put on the debt right now. If they were smart enough to do that, then there would be less of an interest rate on it for the next year.
Everything that makes Canada different from the other countries has taken a hit from the cutbacks from the government. The more that the government tries to do, the worse it gets. Especially when you have a Prime Minister that puts several million dollars into an art museum to celebrate the millennium, which in my eyes was a way to buy votes and to waste taxpayers money at the same time. It should have gone to debt, but the Prime Minister felt the museum was more important.
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