Dear
@fordnation,
@SylviaJonesMPP and our entire Provincial Government.
I've written you this video essay—recorded while my child underwent surgery—only after 36 hours of sleep deprivation and social maneuvering to get our healthcare system to pay attention to my daughter's acute appendicitis.
This would be unacceptable if my daughter were unique—but she's not. Her case of appendicitis is as routine and standard as emergency surgeries can get. And if we botch it so badly on something so straightforward, then all Ontarians should be very, very concerned about our future health prospects.
In my anger from the last 24 hours, it's tempting to blame
@StMarysGenHosp and
@grhospitalkw. Both hospitals did an atrocious job of prioritizing care for my daughter. But I know that blaming these institutions, and especially the healthcare professionals within them, would be misplaced. These are good, hardworking, caring people, who have been trapped in the impossible place of running emergency departments that are so wholly under capacity there's simply no way for them to meet their mandate.
That is unacceptable.
For as long as I've been alive,
@ONThealth has provided the healthcare system that we all know and hate. During the triage at Grand River Hospital—I told the triage nurse that I was going to very publicly share our experience.
Do you know what her response was? "Good. Please do!" Was her reply. She's spent much of her career raising the alarm of how our emergency rooms are failing our citizens and her—along with her colleagues—have been entirely ignored.
For our children and for our seniors. For our doctors and our nurses.
Do better. For all of us.