So, I got a call from the QEII this morning. A very nice nurse let me know that the orthopaedic surgeon has an opening now and offered to book me an appointment for a consultation about my knee. Now, to me, this was completely out of the blue... where did this come from? Turns out she was following up on a referral from my GP. A referral that was made in OCTOBER 2015! That's over 1 year and 9 months ago!! It's been so long that it took me a while to remember why I was referred in the first place. Luckily it wasn't serious and I have been able to continue to function. I can't imagine what it's like for anybody with a truly crippling condition. For someone with debilitating pain, having to wait that long must be torture, plain and simple. And it's wrong. long sleeve

THIS is health care in Nova Scotia. THIS is what the current provincial government is perpetuating, along with the debacle that is public education. THIS is what drives people out of this province. THIS needs to be fixed. The shortage of doctors to take over the practices of retiring GP's needs to be fixed. The health records system needs to be fixed. Emergency health services need to be fixed. Community and in-home health care need to be fixed. Cancer care at-home drug coverage needs to be fixed. Basing the salaries of physicians on fee-for-service needs to be fixed, as it's preventing the implementation of online consultation and information exchange. So many other issues in health care need to be fixed.

Yet we can spend $24,289,855 on the Bluenose II. We can dole out millions to private businesses in the "hopes" of luring jobs here - jobs which don't stay when the money runs out, if they materialise in the first place. We can strip employees out of the public service and then contract out the work for millions more than it would cost just to hire permanent staff. We can force our public school teachers out on strike and then add 3-
and 4-year-olds to the education system. Our government's spending priorities seem to be way out of step with the needs of Nova Scotians. Not just this government, either - previous governments have contributed to the mess we have today.

I don't know what the solution is. Politicians don't seem to be willing to look past the next election to come up with a long-term solution, one which (heaven forfend!) would have input from all three major parties. Politics has created such deep divides that it seems impossible for people of different stripes to come together to actually get something done. No one party is completely right about anything. All three have health care policies that, in part, are actually complementary. Maybe the time has come to pull everyone into a room and hammer out a new deal. Because what we have isn't working.