LETTER

Would a new co-op help our failing health care system? 

With all the terrible hospital news we read lately, I don’t know what to think about our system in Quebec. What possible solution could work? Fred Ryan’s proposal last week to penalize CISSSO managers when there is a failure in service makes good sense.

Quebecers just pay so much money for the health system we have, but what we get in return isn’t acceptable. I don’t mean to make blanket statements. I know there are amazing caregivers who work so, so very hard. 

If a measure of society is how we care for our ill, Quebec is failing incredibly. Pontiac is huge! It takes hours and hours to drive around that county. Yet the health services at their one hospital have failed expectant mothers again and again.

Apparently they get access to psychiatric help on a monthly basis and just one for the whole county. 

Here in Aylmer, we have doctors who are leaving and less service at our CLSC all the time. Virtually everyone I know pays to use drop-in clinics in Ottawa!

Perhaps Mr Ryan hit the nail on the head. Why do we have so many managers in our system? And how can so many people, who are paid handsomely, do such a failing job? There is a fundamental problem that no government seems to be able to solve. 

The CAQ would need a few mandates to prove they can put the healthcare house in order but I doubt anyone in this province believes they’d even try.

Will it take a new stab at a health co-op to make a difference in Aylmer? I’d be willing to try. Keep up the good work, Bulletin. Love reading the Ryans!

Beatrice Colden

Aylmer