Oh Canada....

[FloydGondolli]

April 23, 2004

Quebec man dies after he forgets health card and is forced to return home

MONTREAL (CP) - A 21-year-old man died of appendicitis after he was refused treatment at an emergency clinic because he didn't have his provincial health card with him.

Gerald Augustin complained of stomach pains on Thursday but the receptionist at the St-Andre medical centre told him he had to return home to get his health card. He didn't make it back to the clinic in Montreal's east end.

About four hours later, a friend alerted police and called an ambulance for the man, who had a fatal attack of appendicitis in his apartment. He was pronounced dead in hospital.

Rouslene Augustin, administrator at the St-Andre clinic, said the man didn't appear to have any urgent symptoms when he came to the clinic.

"If this guy was an emergency case, we would accept him if he had his card or not," she said.

"I don't see what we did wrong. I'm not defending the clinic, we just followed the rules."

Health Department spokesman Dr. Marc Giroux said clinics are obligated to provide service for emergencies even if no medicare card is produced.

"In the case of an emergency, the medicare card is not necessary," he said.

In non-emergency situations, patients must provide payment upfront and are later reimbursed by the provincial health insurance board.

Esther Noel said she wonders if her brother was aware he could have paid for medical attention.

"Maybe they did not say to him you have to pay," she said.

Quebec Health Minister Philippe Couillard said it's too soon to say if anyone is to blame for the man's death.

"Was the person or was the person not presenting obvious symptoms of emergency, when he presented himself at the clinic?" he asked.

"This has to be known and it will be known after the inquiry."

The provincial coroner's office has called an inquiry. The coroner has asked police to determine if Augustin had been injured in a criminal act in the past few days.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2004/04/23/pf-433973.html

 

[Dr.Atkins]

the hospital will go down

by canadian law it is illegal to refuse medical assistance under any circumstances

 

[FloydGondolli]

I'm sure that will make the dead guy feel much better.

 

[xpanda]

Weird. I went to the hospital once with a broken arm, obviously not an emergency, and didn't have my wallet with me ... I had to sign a consent-to-release-my-heath-records form and that was it. Health care is largely regulated by the province ... perhaps the rules are different in Quebec.

At any rate, the law is likely designed to protect our system from those south of the border (or other visitors) from using the system without first being a taxpayer. That does, of course, make sense. I am surprised that your screw-you-lazy-bastard mentality wouldn't first think: "well, it's his responsibility to bring his health card ..." Your concern for this man is completely inconsistent with your other posts on personal responsibility, although completely consistent with your contempt for socialised health care.

 

[Phaedrus]

posted by xpands:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>
I went to the hospital once with a broken arm, obviously not an emergency, and didn't have my wallet with me ... I had to sign a consent-to-release-my-heath-records form and that was it. Health care is largely regulated by the province ... perhaps the rules are different in Quebec.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

While not exactly life-threatening, I'm hard-pressed to think of a doctor or triage nurse in the States who would not consider a broken arm an emergency. If it is not set properly and fairly quickly the damage can be severe, you *can* die from bone fragments entering the bloodstream, failure to set quickly can lead to having to re-break the arm later to be reset, etc.


Phaedrus

 

[EverFresh]

Things are much worse in my country:

Study Blames 18,000 Deaths in USA on Lack of Insurance
by Steve Sternberg

WASHINGTON -- More than 18,000 adults in the USA die each year because they are uninsured and can't get proper health care, researchers report in a landmark study released Tuesday.

The 193-page report, ''Care Without Coverage: Too Little, Too Late,'' examines the plight of 30 million -- one in seven -- working-age Americans whose employers don't provide insurance and who don't qualify for government medical care.

About 10 million children lack insurance; elderly Americans are covered by Medicare.

It is the second in a planned series of six reports by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) examining the impact of the nation's fragmented health system. The IOM is a non-profit organization of experts that advises Congress on health issues.

Overall, the researchers say, 18,314 people die in the USA each year because they lack preventive services, a timely diagnosis or appropriate care.

The estimated death toll includes about 1,400 people with high blood pressure, 400 to 600 with breast cancer and 1,500 diagnosed with HIV.

''Our purpose is simply to deliver the facts, and the facts are unequivocal,'' says Reed Tuckson, an author of the report and vice president for consumer health at UnitedHealth Group in Minnetonka, Minn.

Among the study's findings is a comparison of the uninsured with the insured:

* Uninsured people with colon or breast cancer face a 50% higher risk of death.

* Uninsured trauma victims are less likely to be admitted to the hospital, receive the full range of needed services, and are 37% more likely to die of their injuries.

* About 25% of adult diabetics without insurance for a year or more went without a checkup for two years. That boosts their risk of death, blindness and amputations resulting from poor circulation.

Being uninsured also magnifies the risk of death and disability for chronically sick and mentally ill patients, poor people and minorities, who disproportionately lack access to medical care, the landmark study states.

''The report documents the immense consequence of having 40 million uninsured people out there,'' says Ray Werntz, a consumer health expert with the Employee Benefit Research Institute. ''We need to elevate the problem in the national conscience.''

Calculating the cost in human suffering, he says, ''is one way to get there.''

Copyright © 2002 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc

 

[American]

Everfresh....Looks pretty simple to me...you need to get insurance.

 

[Oceans11]

American....Looks pretty simple to me...you need to get a decent healthcare system.

 

[American]

It sounds like it's decent if you pucker up and get insurance. If you want someone else to take care of you, then yes, overhaul the health care system. I try to live without depending on other people.

 

[xpanda]

When you go to an American hospital or clinic where you don't have previous records, what is the procedure before being admitted or treated (excepting emergencies?) Do you need to show proof of insurance? If so, Floyd's implication by posting this article is moot.

Phaedrus: the arm wasn't so broken that you could tell by looking at it. It was swollen, but it had just been hit by a baseball. Xrays indicated a fracture. At any rate, broken arm bones do not qualify as an emergency in my view.

 

[EverFresh]

X, the procedure is you either produce evidence of insurance, a credit card or cash or else you're shown to the door, emergency or no emergency

 

[xpanda]

Well, in that case: Floyd, shut yer piehole.

 

[UncleMoneybags]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> X, the procedure is you either produce evidence of insurance, a credit card or cash or else you're shown to the door, emergency or no emergency <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Vega,

You need to get your head out of your a$$. I know a Mexican national that had appendicitis not 3 years ago. They treated him without insurance and without him providing any sort of payment in advance. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he stiffed them. It is against federal law to refuse anyone treatment especially for a life-threatening condition (that includes Canadians).