Ambulances take stroke victims directly to Kingston because a drug that minimizes the effect of strokes is not available at Quinte Health Care.I guess that's just a little too expensive, huh?
Dr. Mohamed Gaber, chief of staff at QHC, said the drug will one day be available at QHC, but there just isn't the manpower to do that now.
If tPA is to be given to a patient, it must be administered by a doctor with "special knowledge," Gaber said. The four QHC sites do not have such qualified personnel available at all times to treat stroke victims with the drug.
"You need 24-hour service, seven-days-a-week," Gaber said.
But heck, I guess it's not that big a deal... I mean, how many people are there in the "senior citizen community"?
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RELATED: How old is your doctor?
-- TORONTO -- The Ontario Medical Association says there are still 850,000 people in the province who do not have a family doctor.*
OMA president Dr. Ken Arnold says Ontario is short about 2,500 doctors, and notes that 2,600 physicians currently working in the province are over the age of 65.
He says if those physicians decide to retire, Ontario would lose about 10 per cent of its family doctors and about 13 per cent of its specialists.
