JUSTICE WANTED/ HOSPITAL ACCESS

JUSTICE WANTED
ACCESS TO HOSPITALS -

AN OBSTACLES COURSE

As we go through life, things happen to us about which we have little choice. We become victims of age or illness or accident. A mishap or sickness may come to someone we love and we then find ourselves visiting that person in hospital. Day after day, we travel to the hospital to give comfort to that friend or relative who is so important to us. (Visitors often take some of the burden off the staff.) The experience drains the best of us - the worry, the sense of helplessness and aloneness, the frustrations of the system, and very soon, exhaustion - burnout. Sometimes, despair.

As if that were not enough to have to deal with, we start out with the burden of trying to find a way to get from home to the hospital. We are often too tired to stand and wait for a bus in all kinds of weather. For many of us taxi fare is prohibitive. If we are fortunate enough to have a car, part of the problem is solved. But then we usually find that the nearest available parking space is blocks away from the hospital and, with almost every Montreal hospital situated at the top of a hill, the walk under the hot sun or through snow and over ice-often carrying supplies - is more than many people can endure.

Parking Fees - By-way Robbery ?

Of course, we could use the hospital parking lot. If we were among those who have money to burn. To enter the gates, you must hand the attendant a ten dollar bill. Whether your visit is brief or hours-long, upon departure, you will not see a penny of that ten dollars refunded. I have been a patient, a visitor and a patients' advocate at one Montreal hospital for a long time and it has been many years since the last time I received a dime of change at that parking lot. Your deposit is used up. Always.

WHO PROFITS FROM HOSPITAL PARKING LOTS?

Has anyone ever looked into this? Who owns the hospitals' parking lots? Who profits by charging patients and visitors such high rates? Parking arrangements can be made for patients who must go to hospital regularly for certain medical treatments, but why is there no consideration for hospital visitors, especially those who must come day after day - sometimes for weeks or months? I have asked these questions many times. The answers are: It is not a priority - and - Government budgets do not provide funds for parking. Those are not satisfactory answers. The problem is serious. These lots have a monopoly and users have little choice.

Access to hospitals is vital.
When you cannot get to the hospital there is no "access".

I propose that you, the readers, ask some questions on your own:
Who owns your hospital's parking lot? Who pockets the profits? Why is there no reasonable provision for parking for visitors and for out-patients? A hospital is not a luxury. We go to hospital because we must! Will these problems be solved by the proposed MUHC monolith? Will the parking lots there be owned by the hospital or by private interests? Who will pocket the profits? Will there be sufficient, accessible and inexpensive parking available for patients and for hospital workers and visitors ?

Recently I appeared on a television news program. The reporter asked a hospital administrator who owns the parking lot. He stated that the hospital owns the lot and receives thousands of dollars in profit from the proceeds. Considering the needs of our hospitals and their important work, one might consider this a good thing. But not everyone who has to go to the hospital can afford to contribute.

If you are sick and alone, how do you get to the hospital? You can't drive. You are too sick to use a taxi. Call an ambulance, of course! Wrong! If you are not covered by welfare or insurance, you may want to think twice before calling because - an ambulance will cost you well upward of one hundred dollars for the luxury ride.

I have been very sick at times, and the thought of calling for an ambulance made me sicker. I was afraid that I would not be able to pay the bill. I wonder if people have died while deciding if they should call for an ambulance. We will never know. They can't tell us.

Special Transport

Most patients are elderly and getting to the hospital is often a very serious problem. Some use special transport provided by the Montreal Urban Community. My dad used to spend hours on the telephone day after day just trying to get through to the service provider. The lines were always busy. The process is frustrating and wearing for people who are already debilitated. I rode along with my dad and earlier, with my husband, in those special transport vehicles. The rides were exhausting. There were long and frequent stops as the driver picked up one person in a wheelchair and another on crutches and waited for a third who was delayed and so on. The interior of the vehicle was sometimes too hot and sometimes too cold. We couldn't open the window. The van shook and rattled until, on one occasion, I had to ask the driver to make an unscheduled stop for me as I rushed outside to vomit. And it was not unusual for the driver to be smoking a cigarette in spite of the 'No Smoking' signs. If I, in my blessed good health became so sick, how much worse is it for frail and ailing people? WHO CARES?

The true character of a nation can be judged
by how it cares for its weakest members.

Phyllis Carter
Victims’ Voices