Madam, – Sitting here in Toronto, I opened the online Irish Times to discover that healthcare in Canada is both “coming apart at the seams” and “falling into disrepair” with waiting rooms “packed to bursting“ and more and more “public money being sucked into the maw of the ailing system” (HEALTHplus, January 11th). The article begins with a harrowing scene from the emergency department of a hospital in Montreal, probably the only city in Canada in which no new hospitals have been built in recent decades and where there is a greater shortage of healthcare professionals than in most of the country.
It might, however, just as easily have begun inside “Emerg” at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, an equally “public” institution that has developed a highly efficient and effective system of triage and treatment. I’ve seen the numbers and I’ve been a patient there.
The point is that healthcare in Canada is nowhere near as dire or as imperilled as the article suggests – and nowhere near as good as it should be. In Ontario, for instance, cancer and cardiac care are generally excellent while joint replacements require too long a wait. There is indeed variation in the quality of care across the country, a particular challenge in a nation that spans six time zones, but the widespread commitment to a “one-tier” system is strong and broadly shared. It has inspired real innovation, such as the Western Canadian Children’s Heart Network that provides first-class care to children and families over a vast territory.
The article seemed intent on finding the state of healthcare here is as bad as it is there. From what I read every day in your newspaper, that’s not the case. – Yours, etc,