Your Health Care Experiences in Ontario: “Huge wait times. poor quality care’

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on The Trillium, a Village Media website dedicated exclusively to coverage of provincial politics in Queen’s Park.

We asked you to share your health care experiences with us – and you did.

You told us that Ontarians are waiting too long for health care at every step: to find a family doctor, to see their family doctor, in emergency rooms, for specialist appointments, for mental health care , for analyses, for operations and for beds. in long-term care.

Media village partnered with tech company CrowdSmart AI to gauge Ontarians’ experiences with the health care system and asked readers to participate. More than 1,500 readers shared more than 2,000 thoughts on the state of the health care system and their own experiences, and provided feedback on the ideas posted by other participants that resonated most with them.

The CrowdSmart AI system revealed those that best reflect the Ontario experience as a whole and found the common themes.

Loudest and clearest? Waiting times. So loud, in fact, that it almost drowned out everything else.

The simple phrase “Long wait times” was the single most upheld thought shared by readers. “Long wait times. Poor quality care,” was the third.

Others have gone into detail on the same topic.

Some talked about their long waits for care in emergency rooms.

“I dread going to the ER because of the wait times,” wrote another.

One reader wrote that they spent $8,000 on private care for their husband, praying that their finances would last long enough that he wouldn’t be forced into a long-term care home of his choosing.

Others spoke of years-long waits for operations.

“Cancer surgery should have taken place within 28 days of diagnosis. It took 84 days and a late change of doctors and hospitals to make it happen,” one reader wrote.

Many wrote about not having a family doctor or rushing appointments after long waits – if they had one.

“Even if one is lucky enough to have a doctor, contacting them, let alone booking an appointment in less than two weeks is next to impossible,” one reader wrote.

“My wife and I don’t have a family doctor and are on a 10 year waiting list. I’m 76,” wrote another.

Readers have complained that doctors insist on addressing only one problem per visit — for billing purposes — or make patients undergo unnecessary virtual visits to increase profits.

But not everyone was unhappy with their primary care: Of the few positive comments, the one most strongly endorsed by most readers was “I have a great family doctor I trust.” It was the second most popular sentiment overall.

At the same time, “No GP” was supported almost as strongly.

While many people complained about the medical care they received, others blamed a faulty system rather than the health workers they encountered.

“While providers have continued to be caring and are clearly doing their best, it is clear that they are struggling with an increased workload coupled with a decrease in support from the government. This results in longer wait times, sometimes with poor results,” wrote one. reader.

Other readers linked long wait times, overcrowded facilities and rushed doctors to missed diagnoses and poor health as well.

Lack of available mental health care was a common concern.

“My daughter struggles with many mental health issues and there is no help,” one reader wrote.

“No mental health support, just constantly being thrown from organization to organization with no structure,” wrote another.

Some readers have complained about age discrimination.

“Once I turned 65, the attitude changed. “She’s old who cares,” wrote one.

Privatization was another common theme, with some readers strongly against it and a few talking about the private options they used.

“Private, for-profit clinics really scare me. I retire and lay off health workers. I won’t pay a dime to these capitalist monsters,” was one reader’s feedback.

“Waiting times to access health care services are longer unless you are willing to pay at a private clinic,” wrote another. “Finding a doctor is almost impossible unless you want to pay. The government seems to want to invest in private clinics/services (more) than in existing public services. ER wait times got worse, not better as promised. Long-term. care is only available to the wealthy. We are definitely in a two-tier health care system thanks to the federal and provincial governments.

Trillium shared that feedback with the health minister’s office, and a spokesperson for Sylvia Jones issued a statement in response that previously blamed the Liberal government for problems in the health care system.

“Our government does not agree with this status quo,” Hannah Jensen said in the emailed statement.

“That’s why, under the leadership of Premier (Doug) Ford, our government has made record investments in our publicly funded health care system to build a more connected and convenient health care system that gives people the care they need need, when they need. this,” she said. “Since 2018, our government has increased the health care budget by more than 31 percent, investing more than $85 billion in the system this year alone. We added more than 80,000 new nurses and 12,500 new doctors to the health care workforce, we added more than 3,500 new. hospital beds across the province and we’re breaking ground on more than 50 hospital developments to add 3,000 more, all while making historic investments to connect more than 600,000 people to primary care and adding thousands of new medical schools, nursing and Nursing Education Places in the Province”.

“To continue to reduce wait times for surgery and diagnostic procedures, we’ve invested more than $1 billion to support innovative hospital ideas to make access to care faster and easier,” Jensen continued.

“But we’re not stopping there, we’re adding 100,000 new, publicly funded scans so patients across the province have faster and easier access to the care they need, when they need it,” referring to the MRI expansion funded by the government. and CT scans in private institutions.