#oh and the province caps how many patients a gp can see in a day

[awkward-teabag]

This is the end result of kicking the can down the road because no one wants to spend the money to fix public healthcare and wanting to privatize healthcare, and I absolutely believe this was a needless death.

I'm lucky in that I have a nurse practitioner (after being years without anyone after my previous GP retired and no one could/would take her patients) but it still took nearly a week for an emergency appointment less than a month ago.

If not, though... walk-ins don't take people unless you show up at 6am and are lucky or can spend all day refreshing a telehealth app to snag a cancelled appointment (which only works if it's something telehealth can actually do something about).

The ER is always an option but I can see why someone in their early 20s doesn't do that. It also relies on hoping you'll be taken seriously instead of being told you're young and healthy so can manage and having to advocate/fight to be taken seriously.

Dix has been horrible as health minister for years and needs to be replaced. Horgan also thought the care he got as premier was similar to what everyone got. Eby has yet to say anything as far as I know but Dix still has a job and nothing will change while he's in it.

Over a fifth of the province doesn't have a family doctor, walk-ins have become something you need to make an appointment for weeks later, and the ER is where you go if you need to be seen ASAP. Urgent care centres was just a political distraction to make it seem like Dix was doing something—many shut down within a couple years due to a lack of staff.

Because that's really what it comes down to, a lack of healthcare providers and a government that doesn't think it needs to change how it does things or increase pay so people can afford to stay/move to the province. 'cause in BC, family doctors get the least pay and also have to pay their own rent/leases and more so after all the deductions they walk away making not too much more than minimum wage while also having medical student debt and being a small business owner.

So of course people leave when they could make more money elsewhere and not have to learn another major skill set on the fly.

Urgent care centres were, supposedly, supposed to cut out the whole being a small business owner that family doctors also have to be but it doesn't solve the lack of compensation in a high cost of living province.

And just in the last year or two, the current government fought against the nurses union to not increase wages as much as the union wanted and refused to tie wages to inflation.

Sadly cases like Sophia have been happening for years and will continue to happen until our healthcare system gets an overhaul that's been needed for decades.

Family and friends of a young shelter worker in Nanaimo are speaking out about her death from an undiagnosed serious infection. They told Global News they believe she could have been saved if she had access to a family doctor. Sophia was only 23 years old when she died on Nov. 27 after repeatedly being misdiagnosed by doctors. “She was full of life, super funny, had a great sense of humour,” Sophia’s mom, Melonie, told Global News.

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