(Rallying Patriots) – On top of the fact that Canada has socialized medicine, which is already awful, the COVID-19 charade has exacerbated an already failing medical system.
A major surgery backlog has forced Canadians to look elsewhere around the world for the life-changing procedures they desperately need. Despite paying into the socialized medical system in Canada, Canadians are finding there is no help for them when they need it.
“I had to do something,” Patricia Rush, 60, who travelled from her home in Alberta to Lithuania for a hip replacement, told Global News.
Rush (pictured here) was sent for an MRI in May of 2020 only to be told she had a fibril tear in her hip with a three-quarter cyst inside but there was no urgency to get her into surgery.
“I was bone on bone in my hip,” she said. “The pain was excruciating. When I would walk a certain way I would get a sharp pain in my leg.” Just to get around, she was forced to use a walker.
“My life was cut to next to nothing because I was in so much pain,” she said. “What do people do when they’re in this kind of pain? They must be suicidal and depressed.”
Rush was told the wait time for surgery at an Alberta hip and knee clinic would be 15 months. Three years later, she has yet to hear back from them.
Good thing she decided to take matters into her own hands and had the means to do it.
Rush, like scores of other Canadians, ended up in Lithuania where she was able to undergo private surgery and get back on the road to recovery and living her life.
“They answered all of my questions,” she said of Lithuania’s Nord Clinic where she had a total hip replacement on Oct. 11, 2021, just one month after reaching out for the surgery.
Including airfare, Rush spent $16,000 on the procedure. This was significantly less than the private surgery options she found in Montreal and the US.
“Thankfully I can afford to go to Lithuania but I know a lot of people who can’t afford to go there,” she said.
“I am so happy. I am in next to no pain,” Rush added, noting she’s been able to do yoga and ride a bike again.
Rush and many other Canadians have been forced into what is known as “medical tourism” thanks to Canada’s terrible surgery backlog. Of course, should you feel compelled to travel around the world for medical care, it’s important to keep things like hospital accreditation, licensing standards and drug regulations in mind.
According to a report from the Fraser Institute, last year, Canadians endured a median waiting time of 25.6 weeks between referral and the actual procedure.
“This year’s wait time is the longest wait time recorded in this survey’s history and is 175 percent longer than in 1993, when it was just 9.3 weeks,” the report said.
Ironically, while many Canadians are traveling abroad for surgery, the Medical Tourism Association has Canada ranked as the top destination in the world for medical tourism.
Unfortunately it seems that Canada is failing to meet the needs of its own people.
“I think when we hear about Canadians going overseas to seek medical treatment, it again is a reminder that our universal health-care system is no longer functioning adequately to meet the needs of Canadians,” said Dr. Katharine Smart, president of the Canadian Medical Association.
“The fact that people feel they need to go to the United States or Mexico or Southeast Asia or somewhere else in the world to have their surgery or other medical conditions dealt with, I think reminds us that our system is failing.”
Indeed, it does appear to be failing. Not only are residents being forced to spend thousands to seek medical care in other countries but they’re also forced to pay in taxes to support the universal healthcare system. A double whammy.
At the end of March, Canada’s health minister, Jean-Yves Duclos, said the country’s universal health-care system is “at risk” and announced a $2-billion pledge to help fix the surgery backlog.
“These delays are a burden that can be very hard to bear for the affected patients, their families and their loved ones, as well as for the health-care workers caring for them,” Duclos said.
Will more tax dollars be able to fix this failing system? Only time will tell but we highly doubt it.
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