SARS forces Ontarians to U.S. for medical help

Ottawa Citizen(via National Post) ^ | April 10, 2003 | Tom Blackwell

[saluki_in_ohio]

SARS forces Ontarians to U.S. for medical help

By Tom Blackwell The Ottawa Citizen

Thursday, April 10, 2003

TORONTO - Restrictions imposed on Ontario hospitals due to the threat of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome are pushing many Canadians to head south of the border for treatment or diagnostic testing, often at their own expense.

With elective surgeries and outpatient clinics suspended in Toronto-area hospitals, people are paying for MRI scans and other services in the United States themselves rather than wait at home.

The Ontario government has covered the costs of three surgeries in the U.S., fearing danger to the patients if they had to wait longer for the operation here.

"All of our front-office staff have said, 'Wow, are we running more commercials or something, because all of a sudden our Canadian calls have gone way up,' " said spokesman Kevin Burns of Buffalo MRI and CT.

MRI exams in Buffalo cost about $465 U.S., while full-body CAT scans run to as much as $900 U.S. Buffalo MRI says it can do the work within 24 hours.

The Ontario government closed two hospitals and froze most patient visits, elective surgery and clinics at other Toronto-area hospitals to contain the outbreak. Less-stringent limits were placed on other Ontario hospitals. James Young, the province's commissioner of public safety, said yesterday the government wants to start restoring those services, but warned it will happen gradually.

Meanwhile, close to 200 employees of an unnamed Toronto-area company were ordered into quarantine yesterday after an employee who was supposed to be in isolation repeatedly came to work while suffering SARS symptoms.

The incident and others prompted stern rebukes from officials who say their quarantine edicts must be obeyed to control the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome.

The public health department ordered a Toronto high school closed until next Tuesday after learning that a student who may have the illness attended school last week while symptomatic. The city's board of education closed an adjoining elementary school as a precaution.

Toronto health officials have also issued 20 letters of warning to quarantine violators, many of them companies that were ordering employees back to work before their 10-day isolation period had ended.

The number of suspect or probable cases rose by 10 yesterday and now stands at 242 across Canada. Among the five new suspect or probable cases in Ontario is an adopted baby brought back by couple from China at the end of March.

[george wythe]

I want my socialized medicine,
and I wanted now.

Hey Canadians,
since you love warm weather so much,
what about taking a jaunt
to a Caribbean island,
let's say Cuba?

Cheap airfare,
cheap hotel rooms
and socialized medicine.

[gridlock]

Well, then knock yourself out, you lucky dog. If any of this is true, you are surely leading the blessed life, and we would all be streaming across the Canadian border, even as we speak.

[Snowyman]

Just look up , Lawson Research Institute in London, or ,
The Ottawa Valley MRI clinic , in Hull opened in December for private MRI appointments. For $725 a patient can be seen within two days and have MRI results back as early as 48 hours.“We provide people with a choice,” says Joanne Farmer, vice-president at the clinic

Gee ,I was wrong. Only $725. Canadian.

[gridlock]

Okee Dokee. Whatever you say.

A'int nobody spreading disinformation about health care costs these days...

And who makes those slick MRI machines? GE or Bombardier?

[Sunsong]

I'm am so sick of Canada... their smugness and complaceny, their betrayal of us over the war etc. the name calling from their government etc etc. And now they are irresponsibly sending people with SARS here. Time to close the border with Canada.

[-YYZ-]

You seem to be the one missing the point. You've as much as already admitted that this is a result of SARS, not socialized medicine, so really this is just an opportunity for you to enjoy one of your favorite pasttimes, Canada bashing, on the backs of those infected and killed by SARS. Real nice.

[-YYZ-]

Can you people freaking well read?!?

We are not sending SARS patients to the US. We are sending some patients to the US for treatment because some of our hospital's operations have been severely restricted due to measures taken to control SARS. Geez, try reading all the words in an article, maybe twice if necessary, before you respond.

[hawkaw]

I'm am so sick of Canada... their smugness and complaceny, their betrayal of us over the war etc. the name calling from their government etc etc. And now they are irresponsibly sending people with SARS here. Time to close the border with Canada.

You know, that has to be one of the most disgusting, big a$$ strawman arguements I have read on this board.

hawk

[Sunsong]

Really, read it again:

I'm am so sick of Canada... their smugness and complaceny, their betrayal of us over the war etc. the name calling from their government etc etc. And now they are irresponsibly sending people with SARS here. Time to close the border with Canada.

[Sunsong]

Read this slowly, maybe you'll get it: "Time to close the border with Canada".

"We are not sending SARS patients to the US. We are sending some patients to the US for treatment because some of our hospital's operations have been severely restricted due to measures taken to control SARS. Geez, try reading all the words in an article, maybe twice if necessary, before you respond."

As I said, you are irresponsibly sending SARS patients to America. And as I said -- I am sick of Canada and your smug complacency. How dare you even show your face here! You should read David Warren. No Canadian has the right to even look an American or a Brit or and Aussie in the eye, and yet here you are as if nothing as happened.

Time to close the border with Canada.

[TBall]

What makes yout think Canada is sending people with SARS to the US?

[hawkaw]

Let me start off by saying your comment is disgusting seeing we are not sending any SARS cases to the USA.

Having said that and seeing you want to close the border with us, I guess that means you want us to stop supplying you with all that hydro that feeds the NE USA, stop all that oil and natural gas the flow into your country, stop all the mineral exploration and mining activity that your industries need etc?

If that is what you want well fine but don't you think you will create a major economic crisis for the Bush administration??????

hawk

[Sunsong]

What is disgusting is Canada. And not only disgusting, but despicable. There is nothing more disgusting and despicable than the betrayal of a friend.

By all means, try to harm us and we'll crush you. If that works for you, go for it.

[Sunsong]

Read the article.

[saluki_in_ohio]

You seem to be the one missing the point.

I've made my point, It just seems that many of you Canadians what living under a free market society seems to mean any more. Turn off the CBC and free your mind.

really this is just an opportunity for you to enjoy one of your favorite pasttimes, Canada bashing, on the backs of those infected and killed by SARS. Real nice.

As for SARS, I made it a point in my posts here NOT to take light of the problem. I am sorry that you misinterpreted this.

Regarding "Canada bashing", If you have ever bothered to read my previous posts, you will see that I engage in exposing the Chretien socialists for what they are. Others may read my postings and make sweeping generalizations toward Canada and Canadians in general, which I do not agree with at all.

By the way, "America bashing" has been going on in Canada since before Confederation, and we have mainly ignored it until recently. Now that some Americans are becoming aware of it,and are starting to comment about it, you complain. Oh well...

[-YYZ-]

Read this slowly, maybe you'll get it: you're a narrow-minded moron who knows nothing. Where did it say anywhere in that article that we were sending SARS cases to the US? And as far as the rest goes, I feel no shame in being a Canadian. Apparently to you friends are people who have their lips permanently stuck to your ass. Well, you can kiss mine.

[hawkaw]

Really, we betrayed you???

Did we not just send another 2,000 troops to fight in Afganistan?

Are we not presently flying in AWACS planes directing bombing runs for Allied plane in the theather?

Are we not using our ships with a 1,000 plus sailors protecting allied ships in the gulf from attack?

Are we not supplying the Britsh troops from our supply ship?

Did we not allow our embedded/exchange troops to fight along side with the American and British?

Did not a brave Canadian just get Killed in Action as a Marine a few days ago?

Are not Canadians holding rallies to support the Americans?

Is it not a case that our "liberal" government is trying to keep it left base of voters by saying what it is saying but quietly helping the war effort more than 95 percent of the countries who make up the coalition of the willing?

Don't get me wrong, I am thoroughly disgusted at my federal government at the moment for its lack of support for our troops in theater but your comments are something else.

hawk

[Sunsong]

Typical Canadian -- can't argue facts and so you resort to personal attacks.

It is time to close the border with Canada. Apparently they have no conscience up there. And apparently they are no longer able to think and to realize that to stab someone in the back is despicable.

Time to close the border with Cannuckistan.

[-YYZ-]

Well then, what was your point in posting this article with the title you gave it? I can't see that it's anything other than Canada-bashing.

As far as America-bashing by Canadians is concerned, well I think you could stand to have a little thicker skin. After all, if you're going to be the world's sole superpower and do whatever you want wherever you want in the world, it should hardly come as a surprise that some will resent you, even if that resentment is entirely rational. And as far as Canadians go, you try living next to a country whose population greatly outnumbers yours, whose culture tends to swamp yours, and who followed a doctrine called "Manifest Destiny" for many years that suggested that you wanted to (forcibly?) make us part of your country (yes, I know that was many years ago), and you might begin to understand the undercurrent of anti-Americanism in Canada.

[-YYZ-]

You wouldn't recognize a fact if it bit you in the ass. I certainly couldn't find any in your posts, anyway. You want to close the border? Yes, that would probably destroy our economy. It wouldn't do yours any great wonders either, however, for all the reasons already described to you. If you were to stop our citizens and our goods from crossing the borders in trucks, planes and trains, I guarantee you we would also stop the flow of electricy, oil and gas. The oil you might be able to replace with imports, not so the gas and electricity.