B28 - Hospital Expereience

Hi everyone,

About a month ago I came down with what I thought was a cold. I had an extreme headache plus my whole spine ached to the tip of my tailbone and all my joints were sore and achy. Added to that my private parts were also in pain. I basically stayed in bed to two days as all I was doing was sneezing and sweating.

After the second day the sneezing was gone but I felt it had gone into my chest and throat, but nothing ever materialized as in a cough or sore throat but it just hung on as a background feeling of "something" waiting to attack me. Although my body aches gradually disappeared I was still left with a tenderness and pain in groin and private parts, OK! Testicles, there I've said it. I thought it would go way with time but that was not the case as I also began to have pain in my kidneys.

I'm out of province, and I asked around about seing a GP and was told that there is awaiting list of over 5000 people looking for a doctor. I called a few public clinics to see if I could get help but they couldn’t help me so I ended up going to the emergency ward of the hospital. That was an experience I wouldn't forget.

I sat in the waiting room for 5 1/2 hours and then was taken to an examining room. As per hospital regulations I stripped down and put on a hospital gown and for the next 3 1/2 hours I sat on a chair reading Chatelaine. After 3 hours I was getting cold so I put my clothes back on and five minutes later the doctor came in. I disrobed as we talked and after a brief examination I was given a prescription for an bladder, kidney, prostrate, testicle infection.

While that's my story, the other 30-35 people in the waiting room are in the same boat. The hospital appears to look after people in the order of severity of injury or illness or as ambulances come in and I have no problem with that. What I do have a problem with is the casual attitude of the staff. There is no rush and I don't know if it's true or not but there appeared to be only one doctor on call, and this is in the daytime, 10 am to 7 pm. What would they do if there was a real emergency situation? So much for our universal health care that's going down the tubes!

John