Dear Editor:
RE: ‘No accountability,’ Sept. 7.
My mother was a registered nurse who worked in Ontario hospitals for 30 years. She would entertain our family with supper-time tales of the waste and unaccountable spending being done by hospital administrations and the ministries of health. She knew there was no use complaining to anyone about it, because “free health care” is the public’s holy grail that no political leadership wants to touch.
In the 1970s hospitals provided what was then called “medical care” but sometime since, the name was changed to “health care.” No wonder people are confused about this issue. Hospitals/doctors are continually advertising for more business and now they are upset that people are showing up at their offices in droves. Advertising works you know! Ask Advertiser publisher Dave Adsett about that.
Before starting an exercise program, consult your doctor. Before taking a vitamin or mineral supplement, consult your doctor. Before changing your diet, consult your doctor. Before buying over the counter medication, consult your doctor. Before buying any medical equipment, consult your doctor.`
Let us change the emphasis back to medical care and stop advertising for more business. Also give every patient an expense receipt so that they know what their visit, medical consultation or procedure actually cost the taxpayers.
It would keep the invoicing to OHIP honest since there is an official accounting being done by the doctors and the patients.
Michael Freiesleben,
Fordwich