Editor:
For some time I have been uncomfortably astride the fence that separates Canadians between socialized and private surgery. I tended to ascribe to the belief that a well funded and timely public system would best serve us all. I am no longer sitting on the fence with the uncomfortable pickets that seem to have sharpened overnight. The issue is just not that simple.
The core issue seems to be timeliness. I have been trying to get surgery on a hip injury sustained over a year ago running on trails. I did this to keep this now 70-year-old body in a more or less decent condition. Waiting as long as I have incurs further debilitation and diminution of my health and fitness. The longer I go without maintaining a level of cardiovascular fitness, the longer I must go to regain optimal health.
Am I thinking of “jumping the queue”? That’s not how I see it. I consider the option of private surgery to be a logical recourse to unacceptable wait times – wait times that governments have been promising us would be brought under control.
In the final analysis, I am responsible for securing my health and well-being, and that includes the choice of making decisions unfettered by failed bureaucracy and ineffective programs. No one goes without the immediate attention they deserve in times of serious injury or organ failure (although even the latter might be debatable). Shorten the wait list, and if you can’t do that, allow me the right to take matters into my own hands and obtain medical options that will not only resolve current issues, but ensure that I will recover in a timely fashion and continue in the healthy ways that I am, at present, unable to pursue.
George Connell, Madeira Park
