Healthcare in Ontario

 Quarterly PSA test

Thursday, August 4th, JB had to have his quarterly PSA test. He has to go to our local LifeLabs, a for-profit. That said, it is all free under our provincial healthcare system.

Lifelabs LP is located in Toronto, ON, Canada and is part of the Medical & Diagnostic Laboratories Industry. Lifelabs LP has 3,000 total employees across all of its locations and generates $977.91 million in sales (USD). There are 340 companies in the Lifelabs LP corporate family.

Joseph Brian had prostate cancer surgery in 2014, but they didn't get it all. If the test is good, he'll get his antigen Lupron injection next week to prevent it from growing. So far, so good.

He goes in for 8:10, and there is a new nurse. She gets the butterfly needle, which he always needs with his small veins. She fetches it. "Which arm?" she asks. 

"Any one," he replies. Left first, then right, but it doesn't work. He says if it was drilling for oil it'd be a dry hole. There was another nurse who was always called upon awhile back, and JB called him the closer. He was great! He has moved on. 

"OK, how about my hands," he asks? (It's not his first rodeo!)

First nurse gets 2nd nurse, who has more confidence, but didn't pass the Miss Manners test. Very abrupt. She checks his arms, checks his hands. "When was the last time you were here?" (What does that matter?!) 

Sometimes they try a hand warmer, he suggests helpfully. Nurse #2 filled a glove with hot water, gives it to JB, to put between the back of his hands. It was too hot, so they put a paper towel between his them. Nurse #2 tries, again in a half hour.  Success. The poor man. He came home for a rest.

💉💉💉💉💉💉💉💉💉💉💉💉💉💉💉💉💉💉💉💉💉💉💉

Friday, August 5th

This is his PSA result since his surgery in 2014. JB can go online and check it – usually within 24 hours. During the beginning of this process, they would require another face-to-face appointment, and the doctor to interpret the results. Thankfully, those days waiting with baited breath are gone. The results are good. We have a deep breath for another 3 months.

😷 😷 😷 😷 😷 😷 😷 😷 😷 😷 😷 😷 😷 😷 😷 😷 😷 😷 😷

Nursing in Ontario

We are so short nurses in Ontario (30,000 - they say). I fear our provincial government has nary a clue. Nurses have suffered so much on the front lines during COVID. Our personal support workers (PSWs) who assist them, are in short supply, as well. It's the nurses who supervise the PSWs. Emergency rooms are closing. Places like LifeLabs is competing for nurses. 

The nursing association did a survey and says that 1 in 2 nurses are considering quitting. Then, 60% say their mental health has deteriorated. This sounds accurate, as many of us NOT on frontlines, have many issues due to the pandemic. I found, when my principal was bullying me in 2005, that I am still having the same reactions to stress these many years later.

Our premier decided to create Bill 124 [Bill 124 Royal Assent (PDF)] to limit pay increases to public sector workers to 1%. It is disrespectful. This doesn't reward them in for hanging in, and it means that staff are moving to find better paying jobs. Nurses work long, difficult hours. They are called in to work when other nurses fall ill. One ICU nurse, interviewed on CTV news, said that she did 28 shifts in a row doing overtime. It is affecting critical care response teams. 

"According to the Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA), about 25 hospitals in Ontario were forced to scale back sections of their facilities on the previous long weekend due to staff shortages.This marks the first time in weeks that Ford has taken questions amid an  ongoing staffing crisis in the health-care sector and contract negotiations with education workers.

Burnout and illness among health workers, compounded by an influx of people seeking treatment that was put off earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic, has forced some hospitals to limit services and temporarily close their emergency departments."

Many nurses have left the front line jobs. When a facility cannot get a registered nurse (RN) who supervises nurses, they call in temps from for-profit agencies. There were 25 emergency rooms that closed last week, due to a nursing shortage. The average wait, according to nurses, is 10 hours in an ER waiting for a bed.  

The Nursing staffing system in Ontario is broken. 
ONA pay scale vs. the $110/h private agencies charge hospitals to fill RN vacancies
Hospitals are paying 2-3x more for a transient workforce
To save money and create a sustainable system, appropriately compensate full time work pic.twitter.com/QpsWeBvSso

— Michael Warner (@drmwarner) August 3, 2022

Where is our provincial health minister? Assuring us that all is well and stating that 9/10 patients are getting appropriate care. 

@fordnation the government claims they cannot afford to give equity to a female dominated profession but yet they are UNDER SPENT in health care by over 1.8 billion dollars. @ontarionurses @NurseWithSign @NursesWant

— Cathryn ONA, RN (@CathrynOna) August 6, 2022

Where is our premier?  At a $1300 entry fee golf tournament. He's having a great summer. Finally emerged from his summer vacation to assure us that emergency wait times are fine.