FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2007
I feel dirty every time I chat with the business students about this stuff. Their focus is so intent on the business of medicine, obviously, but just the way they look at it, not what services do we need, but what services could we offer and make some cash off of. There's something deep down in my Canadian socialist self mixed with the medical ethic that just feels dirty talking about health care services as a business like that. But in the system they have here its what they have to do to keep afloat. Thankfully I can keep arms length and maintain my "moral superiority" and continue my high calling of seeing patients.
Having said that its really put things in perspective, they ask intelligent questions about changing the system and how we do things back home. I really have to think about whether what we do is possible
here, whether we do it that way because our system is so different and the patients we deal with are so different, or if it is something they could really benefit from here. It really does get me thinking about
why they do what they do.
One example, they don't have the concept of resuscitation here. But then they don't have an ECG, they don't have an ICU, so if you do resuscitate someone what do you do with them? Not to mention the only
intervention shown to save lives in a resuscitation is early defibrilation, and they don't have a defibrilator, the rest of it would just be going through the expensive motions. And if they had a defibrilator? They still don't have an ICU, and ECG, access to the drugs or pacemakers likely necessary to keep the patient from doing it again. So maybe its good they don't run around fighting to resuscitate arrests.