Cutting through the wait-time bafflegab

Astonishing bafflegab is sometimes what is dished out to the Nova Scotia public by its own government. Witness the recent press release from the provincial Health Department entitled Wait Time Strategies Paying Off. We were told that the province is making progress to ensure Nova Scotians get faster access to health care.

Health Minister Chris d’Entremont trumpeted, "we are approaching a turning point and starting to see important wait time reductions. We have made significant investments in this area and it is very encouraging to see that the strategies we are implementing are paying off."

The release threw out a bunch of numbers and issues, but the next day, d’Entremont had to admit to a reporter that he had no way of proving that wait times are actually any better.

Provincially, he stated, that average waits for long-term care beds have fallen by nine per cent, or two weeks, since January. Well, all I know is that one of my neighbours continues to occupy a bed at Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital after being in Valley Regional for a couple of months.

Despite the Scotia Surgery Demonstration Project where 250 orthopedic patients received publicly funded surgery in a private facility, orthopedic patients in the Valley are faced with two-year wait times.

Wolfville resident Pat Patterson is blisteringly angry that nobody in government will talk to him about the fact he had to go to Panama for orthopedic surgery not once, but twice.

Welsford resident James Skinner found the department’s unfounded allegations about an improved system just added to his frustration. He’s been waiting 16 months for help for his severe sleep apnea. “I've had two interactions with Minister d'Entremont myself. One was a request for help in getting faster health care and the second was a request to have the department of health find an out of province doctor who could do my nasal surgery sooner than the currently scheduled July 2009. In both cases he responded, but provided little assistance.”

James also received a generic letter from then federal Health Minister Tony Clement three months after writing. “He spent the majority of the letter talking about how much the government was doing to improve health care in Canada. He then suggested I contact the NS Health Minister, which, of course, is what I had done already.”

James was also told to expect to wait at least a couple of months for an MRI. “I found it funny that Minister d'Entremont said the N.S. patient-to-MRI ratio was the best in Canada.” In Ottawa where he previously lived, he says, he never waited more than two weeks for the diagnostic procedure.

To top it all off d’Entremont claimed in the now infamous press release that, “Nova Scotians continue to have better access to doctors than anywhere in Canada. Nova Scotia has the highest number of physicians per population in the country, and the lowest percentage of people without a regular family doctor.”

I can’t imagine that’s going to help the hundreds of patients locally whose physicians already have or are closing up shop next month.

Reducing wait times might be one of the government's five immediate priorities for

improving the economic and social well being of Nova Scotians, but the Rodney MacDonald regime has a peculiar way of trying to convince us. I don’t believe the bafflegab anymore.