Don't Get Sick On A Sunday Morning In Quebec

For the first time in my life I felt sick enough to go out and venture off into Quebec's over stretched and Byzantine universal health care system last week.  Reluctantly, I headed out knowing full well I wasn't properly packed with provisions to endure the long journey into the abyss.

Normally, I just make an appointment with my family doctor - I'm one of the lucky ones because millions of Canadians don't even have that! -  but it was Sunday and he wasn't working. This is where my brief adventure began.

Long story short, the local clinic told me they were closed as they were dealing with over crowded conditions. They gave me a piece of paper with other places to go but was told to not hold my breath.

After driving and calling around, 17 clinics were either closed or not taking patients. The private hospital we use was also closed but that makes some sense.

My only option was to go wait and piss away 10 hours of my life in one of our very old hospitals. I'd rather let the virus run its course thank you very much.

I did the next best thing and went to a pharmacist. I always supported allowing pharmacists to diagnose patients. We need all the help we can get. Of course, this being Quebec, the Canadian health care system is rigid beyond logic and reason.

I explained my symptoms and the pharmacist offered some advice and some special cough drops.

End of pointless journey.

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Canadians boast about the universal health care system to the point of neglecting the reality that it's expensive, inefficient and nearly impossible to access in a timley manner.

In Quebec, you can be turned away from basic health services by the nature of how things are structured.

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Moreover, Canada is among the world leaders in public health spending as a percentage of GDP. Yet, it lacks the proper modern equipment like MRI's. I always hear this and that organization trying to raise money for a new machine. Which begs the question, where in the world is all the money going?