Below is a moving letter sent by a health care worker. If you have a story to share, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Dear Mr. Glouberman,
Having read the recent article where you were interviewed (Globe & Mail February 10, 2011), I was rather interested in your dialogue. I am a nurse in a busy acute care facility, and as a front-line health care worker I'm always interested in any new input that perhaps can assist me in some way in my day-to-day interactions with both patients and their families. I was especially interested in your comments regarding how patient-provider relationships are fleeting and where investing in customer service appears not to be a priority. I can assure you that on many occasions both myself
and other care providers have questioned the same, wondering how, perhaps we could of served our patients better than seeing them fall through the cracks.
However, if your Patient's Association is to succeed, I would hesitate to predicate much in the area of positive results without having advocated to all levels of government, firstly. Until our government begins to take our patient relation issues seriously enough, along with much needed support and resources for those of us who provide the actual health care, I really don't see much change. Unfortunately, many patients that present to us initially, already have both acute and chronic conditions combined, which of course, makes their treatment and recovery much more complex and longer. Once we are in fact trying to piece together the pieces of the puzzle for each individual patient, there are yet thousands more waiting at the gate down in the ER's or admission clinic, while bed managers are forcing us to juggle/move another bed to make room for more. Also, many of us caregivers are becoming patients too, as we wait in line at the family physicians office or lab or radiology clinic on our day's off for our tests, due to "burn out" and chronic fatigue from being overworked. There are countless times that I've gone home after an exhausting 12 hour shift wondering if I could of perhaps provided better informed information and or comfort and reassurance to my patients, but was too busy or simply too overwhelmed to do so. If there is to be some fundamental restructuring, it must be done in a practical way to improve our patient relationship culture. I can tell you one thing, though, privatizing the health care system will not improve that, especially where those patients with chronic conditions are concerned. Then you wind up developing a "cherry-picking" type system where those patients with chronic problems will continue to fall through the cracks at an even faster pace.
It's also unfortunate that our medical college of physicians and surgeons, and pharmaceuticals, continue to fail to recognize some of the more alternative approaches, natural remedies and treatments that are available, or as common sense would prevail, good old fashion "preventative medicine". How can one legislate this type of behavior?..... not, I believe, and that is unfortunate too. But we must advocate for both "patient-health provider" in order to effect any type of meaningful change.
Written by Carol Carbol.