Editor,
During a recent visit to the lovely town of Meaford where we were visiting friends, my partner developed a fever. Without going into a lot of medical details, we decided that a visit to the local hospital was the wisest course of action.
After what could be described as a reasonable wait time, she was seen by a nurse and then by a doctor, both of whom were pleasant, thorough, and competent. In spite of obvious under-staffing, the appropriate tests were done followed with a promise that we would be contacted with further lab results to ensure that the medication prescribed was appropriate for the infection in question.
I am well aware that many of us complain about hospital wait times. I am guilty of that myself. But what this experience reminded me of was how very lucky most of (us) are to live in a province/country where we have the highest level of medical assistance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And as importantly, many of us live in a community with a local, easily accessible hospital.
We leave these experiences with a renewed appreciation for how very fortunate we are compared to millions around the world who have virtually no access to medical facilities or the drugs to deal with potentially life-threatening infections and conditions.
I want to thank the doctors, nurses, and staff at the Meaford hospital who intervened in a timely fashion to provide the medical assistance we needed.
My personal resolve is to try to maintain a focus on what is excellent in our health care system and to recognize how grateful we should be that a high level of medical care continues in spite of longstanding systemic exhaustion and under-staffing.
With gratitude,
Joanne Brown, Peterborough, Ontario
