#waiting with sick baby for 4 hours just means theyre not urgently sick

[kaisam]

Triage is a thing for a reason in emergency departments. Yes, I am sure you and your sick baby are having a shitty time, but you'll both survive a few hours. Some people might not have that long. Yes, wait lists for public health specialists are ridiculous, and emergency can take forever. But if you have urgent medical need, you will be seen.

To use myself as an example, using public health system in Australia. A couple years back I had to go to the emergency department of the Eye and Ear hospital because I had a pressure headache, on a background of having had eye surgery a few weeks prior. It was a mild headache. I certainly seemed in better shape than the tradie with a metal fragment in his eye or the screaming kid in the corner of the wait room.

But I was seen immediately. Didn't get to sit in the waiting room immediately. Went through triage and then seen straight after immediately. Because my "pressure headache" was actually increased pressure in my eye (your eye is a ball of fluid that needs to be able to drain, so if it can't, there are problems) which, if not brought down ASAP, could cause permanent damage to my optic nerve, and thus my vision. So I was seen immediately.

This is the job of triage.

Your kid screaming cos they have an earache and they're in pain is a shitty situation, and may feel like the end of the world to you. But they will survive and have no lasting damage from it. You will be seen eventually. But others need to be seen more urgently, to prevent death/harm.

I had to go to emergency for that twice. Second time got rushed into surgery the next morning. The issue has since been resolved, but I do have some permanent damage to my vision from those incidents. But I received good care, immediate care when necessary, from the public health system. The only costs were ~$60 for medications and some late night ubers to emergency.

Public universal healthcare WORKS.

Sometimes I see people from countries with public healthcare systems post videos that are like “This is the reality of socialized medicine. I had to wait in the ER with my sick baby for 4 hours.” “I had to wait 8 months to see a specialist. That’s egregious.” or “They didn’t have a bed for my loved one in mental health treatment.” and it’s like. Come to America babygirl. You can experience all of this and have your insurance deny it and pay thousands and thousands of dollars for it. Like I know healthcare systems in countries with public health can be bad but when I see someone imply they’re bad because the healthcare is universal, I want to jump through the screen and put my elbow on their throat. “The NHS is deeply flawed, therefore we should abolish it and go back to private healthcare. That will definitely make healthcare in this country better!” I am going to Kill You.