04-23-2020, 09:00 PM
(04-23-2020, 08:17 PM)taylortbb Wrote:(04-23-2020, 07:51 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: Why do you feel that they are not though? We've seen an increase in both the capacity for tests, as well as the number of tests done, and also a losening of chriteria for being tested. I understand that you had a bad experience, and clearly highlight a limitation in the testing system, but that is a single datapoint and does not show a trend--also perfect is the enemy of good, how frequent an issue is what you describe, I don't know, but at a certain point, there will be people who say "the system is broken because it didn't deal with my 1 in a million situation"....in public health, it's all statistics, individuals don't matter.
I don't think transmission between adjacent cities is a 1 in a million scenario, nor is not having a family doctor. Yet both seem to present substantial roadblocks to getting tested. You're right I don't have comprehensive data on the problem, but one rarely does. Ontario regulations that prohibit public health agencies from ordering tests seem pretty clearly to be needlessly bureaucratic, and I can't fathom what purpose they serve. Surely a public health nurse is qualified to assess that someone needs to be referred to an assessment centre? Once I did talk to a doctor all their assesment consisted of was running through the questions prepared by pubic health.
I don't think so either, and as someone who only recently got a family Dr. who I now can't really see, that too. I explicitly did not say that I thought it was 1 in a million, although I've heard plenty enough stories of people who think they should have tests, who probably are one a million "I've got a runny nose and and ichy leg, I think I have COVID", that's what I mean. There are always going to be people who think they should get a test, who don't need one.
I agree there are certainly bureaucratic issues, I hope they solve them, but I see progress.
As for Doctors running down checklists, you'd be shocked by how much of a doctor's job is nothing more than checklists--not that I don't respect doctors, I do, and honestly, the parts of their jobs which are more than that, are so critical, but it is a little weird how much of their diagnosis are done via a flow chart.