This evening I went to a talk sponsored by the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) held at the Halifax Public Library Main Branch.  The event was attended by about 300 people. The new beautiful building was an appropriate setting to learn about health literacy, and the audience seemed keen to hear from local thought leaders.  Dr. John Ross opened by offering insights about how the health care system is focused on fixing symptoms rather than prevention and how society and individuals should focus more on the social determinants of health.  That made good enough sense to me as an average citizen.  I learned something.  Thanks Doc.  Dr. David Zitner, on the other hand, left me disappointed.  It’s hard for me to argue with what he had to say specifically because his message was not clear to me.  Although he may have been well intentioned his negative tone raised my ire, so much so that I decided to write this blog post.   His talk was riddled with nuance and innuendo about how the Nova Scotia Health Care system is broken.  That’s not my experience.   Here’s my side of that story.

Today I went to visit my oncologist.  Six months ago those were words I never ever thought I’d say, let alone write.  I was in and out of the hospital in 30 minutes.  The meeting was efficient and professional.  And the news was good, so I may be a bit biased.  Yesterday I received my X-Ray results via Health Relay.  That’s the on-line, Nova Scotia government sponsored, web based, electronic medical records system I’ve been using with my family physician for the last 18 months or so.  Health Relay is the system that Dr. Zitner didn’t seem to know anything about when he polled the audience at the beginning of his talk.  He referenced similar information systems in other provinces and countries but somehow overlooked the fact that our province has a perfectly well functioning system today, at least in my experience.   He implied ‘shame on us’ for not having such a system.  Dr. Zitner seemed to have nothing good to say about our health care system.  So here’s more of my story suggesting otherwise.  The X Ray results I received on Health Relay were generated from a visit I had last week to the Dartmouth General where I was in and out of the hospital in about 40 minutes.  I’ve have had longer wait times to mail a parcel with Canada Post during the holiday season.

So here’s my message.  Thank you Nova Scotia for delivering quality health care in a fast and efficient way.  Thank you to the practitioners, the staff, the managers, and yes even to the politicians.  I know my experience is uniquely mine.  I imagine there are many others who have been frustrated by negative experiences from a resource constrained system.   But when good things happen they should be acknowledged, especially when thought leaders we rely on for insight are implying otherwise and focusing on the negative.  With respect, Dr. Zitner, you need some new material.