Mount Sinia Hospital says,
``For some patients, quick access to an MRI can literally spell the difference between life and death. "If you have cancer, you can't afford to wait long for an MRI scan so you can be treated, Even in less drastic cases, improved access to MRI imaging will have a significant impact on patient care outcomes.`` (http://www.mtsinai.on.ca/publications/YHRSummer2001/newmri.htm)
Ontario, which is reportedly has the best wait times in the country, (probably due to the amount of MRI machines it possesses, 6 times what N.L, PEI, N.S, and N.B combined possesses ,) reported a 107 day wait as of Mar. 2008, the best it’s ever been.
(http://www.health.gov.on.ca/transformation/wait_times/providers/wt_pro_mn.html)
(http://secure.cihi.ca/cihiweb/en/mit_dec2006_tab1_e.html)
The ramifications for such a number are so dramatic on a human cost level, it seems to me it is hard to justify the National Defence budget of 18.2 Billion dollars. If we can afford to kill to the tune 18 billion..... Billion. What are we to say about not being able to afford the MRI units which cost about 12 - 13 million?
CBC, the government run broadcaster, reported that wait times cost the Canadian public about 14.8 Billion a year in through lost workers, overworking of our nurses, and excess/ duplicated tests. And let us not forget the Surplus for 2006 and 2007.
Stats Can reports as follows,
“The nation's federal, provincial, territorial and local governments, as well as the Canada/Quebec Pension Plans, recorded a combined surplus of $29 billion in 2007, up slightly from the $28-billion surplus in 2006.
The record $29-billion surplus mark was reached only twice in the last 20 years. The 2007 surplus was a result of revenues of $603 billion and expenditures of $575 billion.”
Anybody have a calculator?
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/070614/d070614a.htm
Canada`s population according Stats Can is 33,247,893 people as of April 08, with a growth rate of 1 person every minute and a half.
Number of MRI machines in the country, 196 as of 2007.
That is 1 MRI device per 169,632 persons; however that doesn’t take into account the distribution of the machines, for which Yukon, N.W.T., Nunavut, P.E.I, and N.L. have a combined 3 MRI Machines.
http://secure.cihi.ca/cihiweb/en/mit_dec2006_tab1_e.html
To put that number into perspective, consider this; Pittsburgh alone has more MRI machines than ALL OF CANADA.
http://healthcare-economist.com/2008/02/11/pittsburgh-has-more-mri-machines-than-canada/
This predicament has spurred the creation of what is becoming privatized Canadian healthcare. The for profit health system that has made the United States famous for killing off it’s sick and weak, is literally already in place in our country.
http://www.accessmri.com/services/patients.htm?gclid=CJnM6aCp_JICFRwLIgodBgK4Bg
http://www.stjosephmri.com/en/
http://www.medisys.ca/medical-imaging/mri.htm
If this kind of de construction of the healthcare system, were to take place in England, France, Spain, Austria, Italy, San Marino, Singapore, Malta, Japan, Andorra, Omen, Portugal, Norway, or any of the other 29 countries that out rate our healthcare system, it would result in a revolution.
http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html
But we sit idle, while the gene pool winners in Ottawa defecate on there countrymen.
The best part of being Canadian is having the ability to force change. I invite you to contact the following “REPRESENTATIVES” to demand that your children, you and your elders; (you know the ones who stopped us from becoming Nazi’s) get the system back into the hands of the voters.
Health Care Minister – Tony Clement
The Honourable Tony Clement, P.C., M.P.
Health CanadaBrooke Claxton Building,
Tunney's PasturePostal Locator:
0906COttawa, Ontario K1A 0K9
Or online @ http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/home-accueil/contact/minist_e.html
Deputy Minister's Office -
Health CanadaBrooke Claxton Building,
Tunney's Pasture Postal Locator: 0906C
Ottawa, Ontario, CanadaK1A 0K9
E-Mail - dm_sm@hc-sc.gc.ca
Online @ http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ahc-asc/minist/deputy-sous/contact/index_e.html
Or
The Ontario Health minister @
http://www.health.gov.on.ca/english/common/contact.html
Takes less time than it does to Masturbate. Consider it.
It's not like I'm the only one who cares there are some activist out there that are looking for support.
http://www.healthcoalition.ca/
http://www.canadians.org/healthcare/index.html
Matthew James Livingston
