Considering this post includes news/health/rant, I wasn't sure if this would be a "news" topic, a "health" topic or a "general" topic lol so I'm just putting it here and if it needs to be moved by all means feel free to:)
So I'm in Ontario and provincially, Andrea Horvath (NDP) made a deal with the Devil Dalton McGuinty (Liberal) and sided with his Provincial budget to avoid triggering an election last month. I, and many, although not wanting an election were prepared to have one if they triggered one by voting against the budget as the budget proved bad for Ontario.
Well after Horvath votes in favour of the budget McGuinty goes and cuts 100 million from OHIP (Provincial medical for those not in Ontario) something of course was not mentioned in his budget. Surprise. Surprise. How does this impact people in the grand scheme of things? Well McGuinty says it won't, they are minor changes, changes that the people of Ontario won't even notice. When I read that MRI's would be affected I panicked because that's my course of treatment for my brain tumour I had removed, but my next MRI wasn't scheduled until Aug so I didn't panic too badly. Until this week.
The last 2 weeks I've been dizzy, nauseated, losing my balance and having constant severe headaches around my incision line so I ended up in the ER last Sunday. I was diagnosed with benign positional vertigo but it alarmed the Dr because I had a brain tumour removed 18 months ago and BPV is oftentimes a symptom of a BT. So he suggests calling my Oncologist which I did on Monday who ordered an emergency MRI for this coming Sunday (27). So I asked if there was any charge for the MRI knowing the rules had changed and was informed there were not, great, but when I asked when my follow up would be I was told July 5. What?? I've NEVER waited more than 7 days after an MRI for the results especially if it was an emergency MRI. So today I asked if I heard wrong and maybe it was June 5, nope I heard right.
I was told that due to changes to the OHIP system my Oncologist has to cut his patient load from dozens he sees a day to just 5, so everyone has to be pushed further out than normal. I was told that if anything serious showed up I'd "probably" be brought in earlier but that's not the point, also what is deemed "serious"? Grrr. I don't know if anyone here has had to deal with waiting for MRI results for what feels like ages but in the cancer community it is referred to as "Scanxiety" and let me tell you it's true. To make someone wait over a month for results of a test that normally were received within days is just wrong! If I had $300 I'd hop the border, get my test tomorrow and results the next day at Buffalo, MRI.
Aside from me being affected by the cuts, my SIL is also affected. She recently found out that she has traumatic cataracts in both eyes that are progressing very rapidly (she is only 38 and has 4 kids) and what was normally covered 100% she now has to pay $200 per eye. If the budget has only been in effect for a few weeks and I know of 2 people affected by it myself included, how many thousands of people will be as well? I'm battling 3 infections in my body right now and actually when I went to the ER my concern was maybe they morphed into a serious infection which thankfully they hadn't but my Dr won't do any further testing on my head until the MRI results are back which leaves me in pain for the next 6 weeks until I find out about that.