Trollheart

Yes, but when you had to go to the emergency room were you waiting like six or seven hours to be seen? That happens here: come in with a heart attack (maybe not quite that bad but even so, serious conditions) and it can be hours before a doctor will even get to see you. Something less than that, make sure you bring a book or a Kindle full of 'em cos you're staying for the duration!

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Engine

This absolutely happens everywhere in the US. Even with top notch insurance, emergency rooms are basically unpleasant waiting rooms unless you are literally dying, in which case they will attempt to save you right away.

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Burning Down

WTF, that is insane. I've never heard of that happening here - not to say that it doesn't, but I've always been put through pretty quickly. I know they triage people in the ER of course, but that's insane. A heart attack patient would be taken in right away here. Hell, even I saw a doctor and got an X-ray within three hours when I went to the hospital with a broken finger. I know that there is a huge difference in wait times in urban vs. rural hospitals though, especially here. Some rural hospitals don't even have ERs.

The main problem with waiting times here is that hospitals are often clogged up with hypochondriacs who come in convinced they have the fucking bubonic plague because they sneezed once. More outpatient clinics and urgent care centres are opening up here to help alleviate any congestion.

Taxman

So I'm not good at explaining this since this is a field I'm not a specialist and so my English is letting me down, but however.
I had some heart problems, too quick pulse or something, so there was a need for a research if there is anything more serious. Those heart problems were only a side effect of this depression and tress and anxiety, said the doctor.

However, I went to the public hospital or whatever it is, and they sent me to some private hospital or whatever where they did that research.
But it only did pay something like 50 euros,it should have paid something like three or four hundreds, but because of our taxes it did pay only that leas. And it was quick,no long queues or anything. So basically I think it did work out fine.

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Janszoon

Having been to a Jamaican hospital before, I can definitely say that it would be pretty hard to shock me.

As far as it goes with hospitals in my own country, as Engine said the wait times you described are pretty typical. The quality of healthcare varies a lot from place to place in the US and I'm lucky enough to live in a part of the country that's known for having pretty high quality healthcare, but even so the wait times are long, the costs are high and the insurance companies are always trying to screw you.

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Trollheart

It looks like Canada is in a league of its own then. See Engine's comment above. As far as your second paragraph goes, this is how it works in Ireland (well, in Dublin anyway): if you come in uner your own power (car, taxi, bus whatever) you go to the waiting room and you then have to wait many hours before being called into the actual A&E where a doctor will see you, I think straight away. If you come in in the ambulance you go directly in to A&E on a stretcher, are quickly transferred to a steel trolley

where you will remain until either the doctor sees you and sends you home or you get a proper bed.

It's pretty much the same wait then really, though they give priority to the emergency patients, which is why you'll see people out in the WR saying "I've been here for ten hours" and the reply from the harrassed nurse will be "Sorry but we have to see the ambulance patients first." It sucks but that's how it goes.

But it's mad to think that every time --- every time --- in the last two months that we went into the hospital we were waiting a minimum of seven to ten hours before any doctor saw my sister, and anything up to 24 before she got a bed, if one was deemed necessary (on some occasions she was just told she could go home, cue another 5/10 hours wait for an ambulance...)

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djchameleon

I've heard Canadians complain about long waiting times at ER. So it is just a case by case basis and BD seems to luck out.

Also is it that violent/accident prone in your area that so many high priorities are coming in TH?

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Burning Down

I have never heard about anyone complaining about super long wait times here. I don't know where Americans get this idea or what they hear about our system down there. I had to wait longer in a Detroit hospital than I have ever had to wait here, and I was more seriously ill. I got worse the longer I waited. Maybe it's also a case by case basis in the US, but at the time I thought how ridiculous it was for Americans to always go on and on about how great it is there and how they don't have to wait. In hindsight, I should have gone back across the border to a hospital in Windsor but time was of the essence.

The longest I've had to wait to see a specialist was probably 2 weeks at the most as well. Not too bad considering that he has a full roster of patients.

I think it definitely makes a difference that I live in a large urban centre. But there is still overcrowding in hospitals here, especially in labour and delivery wards (I have heard about women in hospitals here having to give birth in the hallway, out in public, because there were no delivery beds).

WWWP

At least in my experience if you're waiting it's because you're not dying. The people they see first are the people with really serious or unstable conditions. When my life was on the line I was seen right away, when I cut off the tip of my finger I was in there for seven hours. It's irritating, sure, but in an emergency room a patient should never be seen on a first-come first-serve basis, imo.

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The Batlord

Republican fear mongering generally. They pretty much do everything but claim that it's a sin against god to make sure we never get it.

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