The editor:
OK, I give up! After at least half a dozen calls to our local health clinic at the Preeceville Hospital and hearing a robo message telling me that my call cannot be “taken at this time” and that I could perhaps satisfy my need by calling Health Links or, get this, “Call 9-1-1.” Wow! What a solution to simply wanting my prescription renewed.
The only really true communications I’ve gotten are from the local pharmacist telling me that I should be phoning for an appointment as our physician and nurse practitioner are now only taking booking at least six weeks into the future. What he didn’t tell me is how I might do that. Now really, does that require a personal visit to the clinic to talk to the booking clerk? Or is the clerk dealing with such clients, and therefore finding no time to take phone calls?
Now I know that I am not alone in this. Rarely a coffee break with friends goes by when this subject is not brought up and repeated time and again but often with more dire stories, and far too often, dire consequences. Surely, in an age of emails, texting, and other electronic devices, there are better ways than this to communicate our needs and more importantly, be “listened to and heard.” It seems logical to me that incoming calls, if taken and analyzed, would provide health planners a great deal of information from which to start making improvements.
Now laying blame without truly examining and understanding the underlying causes of such problems within such complex systems as our health system is rarely productive. However, one is led to question whether any such examination is taking place. And there is a woeful failure of administration to communicate outward and in turn invite feedback from its community. It seems to me to be part and parcel of a much greater concern that our health system is failing and that mobilizing for change rests to a large degree with consumers insisting on better performance.
Florence Landygo
Sturgis
