Another thrilling encounter...

...with our health care system.

The thing is, I'm feeling a little torn about this. We finally got a family doctor after being up here since 2001... and after waiting for so long, I swore I'd be the most appreciative patient ever.

That being said... I've gotta confess it sure isn't easy... and that's completely apart from my totally unreasonable general dislike of being anywhere near any hospital for any reason.

First off, I show up at x-ray for my appointment this morning (actually 20 minutes beforehand, as instructed) and still, like at the local deli counter, had to take a number for service.

Here's something I don't get... they already had all the paperwork faxed over from the specialist... but apparently won't put it into the computer until you present your face at the intake window.

It makes for a bit of a circus, as there was the usual crowd of tottery older folks, as well as... and I'm not making this up... a blind woman and her service dog milling around in the waiting room (and I can't even begin to imagine how much more frustrating this is for her).

Call me wacky, but here's a suggestion... hire some word-processing grunt to pre-input all the requisitions into the hospital computer as they come in. It'd cut the processing time at least in half and, as a side benefit, no one would have to stand there watching all that painful two-finger typist bullshit.

When I got to the lab there was, despite my scheduled appointment, another half-hour spent waiting for the technologist.

Suggestion #2... don't tell people they have a fixed appointment if you can't deliver. I can be there at a certain time AND I can sit there for hours... my personal best is seven hours with a sick fevered child... but I resent being played.

Now the testing itself, was done in a very professional manner by very pleasant and obviously competent people and I am grateful that someone is willing to do this sort of work, but again, I wish we weren't always behind the eight ball here. At one point, in the middle of almost three hours of testing, I was shuffled off the machine table and into the hallway for 20 minutes, presumably to hot-swap some other unfortunate soul in for a gamma-ray quickie.

Frankly, it's more than a little alarming and I obviously only see one tiny piece of the puzzle. I'd hate to think what hoops dialysis or chemotherapy patients have to leap through.

Apparently the system is on the brink of imploding and I hate to think what it's gonna be like when I'm actually old and frail.

Anyway... had to get that off my chest.

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