BY MICHAEL JAMES
Mention the state of health care in Northern Ontario and Dr. Ronald Baigrie will be the first to admit it is inadequate.
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DR. RONALD BAIGRE |
That said, Baigrie takes exception to the way the problem is portrayed in the media.
?I get a little bit tired of reading all of the editorials saying we?re short of doctors, we?re short of this, we?re short of that,? Baigrie said.
?Anybody who thinks that the problem is going to be solved in the next five or 10 years is kidding themselves.?
Rather than waste his time complaining about the problem, the Sudbury cardiologist he decided to come up with some solutions to help people better navigate the health care system, whether it be hospital corridors, treatment centres, walk-in clinics or emergency rooms.
Those solutions are detailed in his self-published book, The Secrets of Becoming a Priority Patient.
The central premise of the book is that people, or health-care consumers, have to take more responsibility for their own health care.
?Somebody else may be responsible for doing the bypass operation, but we?re responsible before and after. I think people tend to forget that. Unfortunately, over the years, we?ve suggested to people, ?Don?t worry about it. We?ll look after it,? but we can?t anymore.?
There just aren?t going to be enough doctors or nurses available over the next decade to correct the problem, he said.
To illustrate his point, Baigrie drew attention to the new Northern Ontario Medical School.
?The first graduate may become a doctor within the next eight to nine years,? he said.
?What are we supposed to do in the meantime??
To compound the problem, 50 per cent of surgeons are going to retire in the next six to eight years, Baigrie said.
Factor in the average age of nurses in Ontario, which Baigrie places at 48 years of age, most of whom he expects to retire by age 55, and the situation clearly isn?t going to improve any time soon.
There is a shortage of about 3,000 doctors in Canada, Baigrie said.
?There?s no way on God?s green earth those numbers can be replaced in the current system, in the timeframe we?re talking,? he said. ?If we think we have a crisis right now, just watch it get worse over the next few years.?
Right now, there are as many as 30,000 people in Sudbury without a family doctor, which means those people are
forced to rely upon walk-in clinics. This creates fragmentation or a lack of continuity of care.
?Walk-in clinics are not designed to look after patients the way doctors did in the 1960s and 1970s,? he said. ?They
were designed to basically put out fires. (Consequently) you?re not going to get a complete top-to-bottom
assessment in clinics, nor will you get it in an emergency department.?
One way to compensate for this lack of continuity of care, in Baigrie?s view, is for patients to get in the habit of keeping a journal, detailing their medical history and symptoms.
Not only does it facilitate the process, it gives the doctor a more precise means of making an accurate diagnosis or recommendation for further treatment.
In Baigrie?s view, people need to demonstrate to doctors they take their health seriously.
?The more assertive...and participatory you are, the more likely you are to be taken seriously and get what you?re after,? he said. ?The squeaky wheel gets greased.?
The Secrets of Becoming a Priority patient is available at the local Chapters bookstore.
