StratfordToday received the following Letter to the Editor from reader Mike Sullivan, in regard to Matthew Rae and health care difficulties:
Why does your government keep making health care more difficult?
I have lived in Stratford for over four years. I have not been able to locate a family doctor. I registered with Health Care Connect and when I phoned them two years ago to check on my status i was told to phone back every year to make sure my name had not been removed from the list.
I went to the website to find the number. It is listed as 1-800-445-1822 on this web page. https://hcc3.hcc.moh.gov.on.ca/HCCWeb/faces/layoutHCCHomePage.xhtml?sW=414&sH=896&btype=Netscape&bver=5.0%20(iPhone;%20CPU%20iPhone%20OS%2017_6_1%20like%20Mac%20OS%20X)%20AppleWebKit/605.1.15%20(KHTML,%20like%20Gecko)%20Version/17.6%20Mobile/15E148%20Safari/604.1&ajax=y
Calling that number tells you to hang up and call 811. I did that on Monday. They could not help me directly, but said I would get a call back from a ‘navigator’ in 24 hours. They asked my preferred time to receive a callback. I said between 7:30 and 10 as after that i am often not near my phone. No call in 24 hours. At 10:16 on Wednesday a call came from 1-866-797-0000, but no message was left. As i understand it they are supposed to leave a message telling me to call 811 again and start again. When i noticed i had missed the call i phoned 811 again and went through the same process. Today at 10:16 again a call came in from the above number and i was able to answer it. She asked for my health card number. I told her it would take me a minute to walk to get my wallet. While i was walking she hung up on me, and did not phone back.
I called 811 again. I went through the same process a third time. Again she asked what time i would like a call back. I said between 7:30 and 10. When pressed, she advised that their morning ‘window’ is actually between 9 and 12. She also advised that the call back would be within 24-48 hours, not 24 hours.
Mr Rae, with respect, the lack of family doctors is a huge issue. As you know there are no walk-in-clinics in Stratford. I have had to present myself at the Stratford hospital emergency department on three occasions since coming here, for matters which should have been handled by a family doctor. This wastes their precious resources. And with the tendency of your government to close emergency wards across the province even that is at risk.
I ask, therefore, that you use your good offices to fix these problems.
1. The health care connect website needs fixing.
2. The system for contacting health care connect is horrendous. I have now spent a week just trying to establish if I am still in a queue. Apparently I cannot know my place in the queue. It’s easier to book a visit from a cable company! I should be able to be connected to a ‘navigator’ as i was in the past, with one phone call.
3. There needs to be a concerted effort to attract family doctors to smaller places like Stratford. Perhaps spending money on training rather than giving it to private surgery clinics would be a place to start.
Mike Sullivan
Stratford
