Herein I will praise Canada’s Medicare system
After spending the morning at St. Mary’s Hospital, here in Montreal, doing ‘pre-op’ for my upcoming total knee replacement on April 30, I’m very impressed with our medicare system.
Sure, I will have waited six months for the surgery. And yes, the hospital is a bit shabby and drab. And there were lots of people standing, waiting, for bloodtests (although there were also chairs available for those who wanted them.) However, I was served quickly and amiably as I got those tests (painlessly, I must add, since that’s not always the case with me), had an EKG, and got the knee in question X-rayed. The medical staff was polite and friendly, and made me feel like more than just a passing case.
As well, they took the time to question me, in a tone of concern, about everything to do with the post-operative period. Did I have stairs to climb? How many? A bathroom on each floor? Who would do the cooking for me? The cleaning? Would there be someone with me at night? Since these matters had nothing to do with the actual operation, I was impressed by their foresight and kindness; it wouldn’t really reflect badly on them, after all, if my house went uncleaned while I was healing, yet they were concerned about it.
After all the tests and questions, which took 4 hours, I was sent to an information session. I sat with eight other people who’d be having knee replacement surgery while we were informed, by various people showing us slides, about the operation itself. And we were served free juice and muffins, which I thought was very nice of the hospital staff, especially since I had just had blood tests and was feeling a bit faint.
I was also given a kit containing a plastic breathing apparatus I will apparently need in the hospital to breathe into from time to time to give my lungs a workout, especially before I start with physiotherapy. Plus, two packages of a special kind of soap for showering with on the morning of the operation, and a booklet basically repeating the info from the plenary session, info re what to bring to the hospital, like robe and firm, rubber-soled slippers. We were told that although the normal hospital stay is 5-7 days, we could stay longer if necessary. Then, if we’re still not ready to go home, we can go to a Rehab hospital for an indefinite period.
One of the physiotherapists came in at the end and told us about the kind of exercises we’d be doing with him in the post-op period. He also showed us various devices that we’d be lent to help put on socks, pull on pants and so on when we can’t bend over to do so. We were also told that, before our operation, a CLSC worker would come to the house to assess the place in terms of ease of moving around with a walker. He or she would also loan us each a raised toilet with arms, a walker, crutches and any other equipment we might need.
Most amazing, this will not cost me a penny. It’s free. Or rather, my taxes pay for it. Any citizen of Canada, no matter how poor, gets the same treatment, automatically. The only cost to me is a daily rate, covered by my husband’s insurance, if I want a semi-private room instead of a room with four to six bed in it. Oh, and $2 a day if I want a private telephone line. And a daily rate if I want a tv. That seems very reasonable to me. And the whole thing makes me feel very sorry for Americans, who often can’t afford HMOs, and are therefore often left uninsured. This operation apparently would cost me $16,000 if I was having it done here and wasn’t a Canadian. However, instead of worrying about such a cost and probably foregoing the operation altogether because of it, I can just focus on getting better.
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If we are friends, how lucky I am, for we have too many same habits, and I like writing too.