I did end up in most cases with that hospital going elsewhere, but sadly, the only other hospital in the city can be just as bad and has an average wait time of 12.2 hours. Now that I think back on that day, I believe it was that i went in because I had gotten bit by a rabid mouse repeatedly in my sleep. The shortest distance from here to St. Mary's Hospital here is approximately 10.5KM (6.5mi), and the other one on the other side of downtown comes in a 22.1KM (13.75mi). Here's the real shocking part… Because the health-care system in Waterloo Region is getting so out of hand, I willingly drive to Guelph (Wellington County), which is approximately 45km (28mi) out of my way to my specialist's office, and a whopping 98.5km (61.2mi) for any other kind of medical care for two reasons:
1) Our so called health-care "professionals" in Waterloo Region make it quite clear in Waterloo Region that they do not care about anything other than their pay cheque as they have demonstrated on several occasions, including the big wigs of such establishments. In my opinion, they are the health-care nonprofessionals by the way that they conduct business.
2) The vast majority of health-care "professionals" in Waterloo Region are both bigoted and obviously under-educated. I didn't so much instantly become a second class citizen and have the quality of the care suddenly drop for informing them that I'm gay because at least in Southern Ontario, being gay is something that the vast majority of people think nothing of. The biggest problem in Waterloo Region to my observation is that as soon as I inform the health-care "professionals" that I'm HIV+, I automatically become either some test experiment, or some second class citizen that they treat unfairly. To give you one such example, when I told the one doctor that I'm HIV+, he for no reason at all moved me to a private isolation unit and took additional precautions over and above the standard "universal precautions" that they're supposed to use with everyone. I'm not talking anything minor like a pair of gloves… Ohhhh no... I'm talking 3 pairs of latex gloves, a face shield, pretty much a fucking HAZMAT suit (similar to the ones they use in surgery), face mask, and a whole lot more. When I asked for the reason for this it was so that I (and I quote) "don't run the risk of continuing the spread of a serious communicable disease." It was at that time that I told the doctor where he could go and what he could do when he got there, as well as telling him that I thought by that point that we were through, and proceeded to head to Norfolk General Hospital in Simcoe, Ontario.
I could go on in great detail (actually I have a 156 page "diary" so to speak of all the horrors that I've had with health-care in Waterloo Region). It just goes to remind me why I'll take the drive to Simcoe, Ontario (Norfolk County) to Norfolk General Hospital, because I've never been there for longer than 4 hours (and the wait time where I live averages 12.2 hours waiting just to be seen by a doctor), and I have never had a problem with anything they've done. In fact, I often praise the staff at that hospital because there have been times where hospitals like Brantford General Hospital in Brantford, Ontario (Brant County) couldn't get things right after being given 5 chances, so I finally went elsewhere. Just an FYI… BGH (Brantford General Hospital) is actually worse than Kitchener. Their average wait time is 16.5 hours, and they've been rated Ontario's #1 WORST hospital by a number of review boards.
Again more reason for going to Norfolk General Hospital... I have only ever been put in isolation three times in all the times I've gone in there. The first time I didn't care because it was so that med students could come in and learn about various things (particularly surrounding HIV), and ask me intelligent questions out of honest curiosity that the text books just don't teach. The time I was put into isolation I asked about it because I didn't understand the reason for it. The answer I got was "We see on your file that you're HIV+, and there's a younger gentlemen in the same general area that you would have otherwise been in that we are trying to determine if he has the flu or H1N1. We just wanted to make sure that we kept you away from that, because with your HIV, you don't need something like that to compound the problem." This type of answer, I didn't mind because it provided me with a what I felt to be a solid justified reason for doing something like that. Then comes the third time. I couldn't understand why they were putting me in isolation, so I asked yet again on that visit. Again the answer that I got was at least satisfactory to me, because I could understand their point of view. When asked, they answered with, "Your chart says you're HIV+, which is a sensitive subject matter to begin with, and the doctor is likely going to have some rather sensitive questions regarding it. Given that your HIV status is nobody else's business and there is still a stigma around the whole subject in the general community, we wanted to make sure that we didn't potentially expose you to unwanted attention, out your status, or worse off, create an uncomfortable situation for you by speaking about such a sensitive subject matter where it could be overheard by anyone." Once I informed them that I appreciated the thought, but didn't think it was necessary because I can handle myself just fine, they have never put me in isolation since.
I also think what makes the whole health-care system a little worse off is that a lot of the better doctors weren't happy with the limits and budget restrictions that the government put into place, so the only people that really stick around on the most part are the young med students who don't know that they could make so much more money and deal with less crap if they went to a country like the USA where such things are privately billed. That being said though, I cannot knock the Canadian medical system overall for that, because there are still some people in the field (particularly in smaller towns) that do actually have a passion for the job still.... Not to mention the fact that I did things like spent almost 2 weeks in the hospital in Lethbridge, Alberta sick as a dog over the Maple Leaf Foods scare that went on a few years back, yet for the entire duration of my stay, I did not see so much as one bill. The whole subject never came up as soon as I handed them my health card. What made it even more interesting was that the health card at the time was registered to my old address in London, Ontario, yet from 3 provinces away in Alberta, they could still process it and not have me have to deal with the headache of the bill.
