My son was an uninsured patient at Saint Louise Hospital. I
can’t say enough good things about his nurses in ICU especially
Diane for her care and kindness.
“My son was an uninsured patient at Saint Louise Hospital. I can’t say enough good things about his nurses in ICU especially Diane for her care and kindness. As for Dr. G. (he knows who he is), he made sure my son was aware that his hospital stay without insurance would be x amount of dollars and showed little to no compassion about his illness. Hopefully none of his relatives without insurance will have a doctor like him. Whatever happened to bedside manner regardless of your insurance benefits? Especially in this economy.”
Red Phone: Dear Uninsured Patient, Red Phone is sorry to hear of your son’s sickness and hopes he is feeling better now.
Visits to a hospital are never fun. Often people without insurance will put off a needed visit altogether because they just can’t afford to pay for it.
Since we are not in Canada and don’t have a national health plan, hospitals are still a business and have to be run as such. Dr. G. may have actually been doing you a favor by letting you know up front what the costs would be. It might have saved you from getting hit with an unexpected expensive bill later on.
“His approach for all patients (whether they are his or acquired through being on-call) is to indiscriminately care for the patient’s mind, body and soul,” said hospital spokeswoman Jasmine Nguyen. “Economic and sociological position never skews his dedicated and compassionate care. Anyone who knows him will attest to this.”
Dr. G. has received many thank-yous from people who he has worked on, Nguyen said.
“There are people that only knew Dr. G through staring up at his face in the ICU and were given the same straight-forward-life-saving talk,” Nguyen said. “These same patients have approached him in the store, thanking him saying ‘you saved my life.’
“Along with saving their lives, there are realistic and confrontational moments that are necessary in the delivery of his care. None of which have anything to do with being uninsured.”
Not going to take this anymore
“I want to know who I’m going to call when the criminals are breaking down my door. Do I call the mayor or the city council because of these cutbacks I’ve heard of? I’m pretty upset to find out we’re going to be cutting police and fire and I want to know who to call when an emergency happens. This is ridiculous. The city government needs to get on the ball and make the right decisions. Good bye.”
Red Phone: Who are you going to call? Well definitely not the characters from that lame ’80s movie that shall remain nameless. It’s easy to sit back back at home and play armchair councilman. But the fact is that councilmembers face some major decisions about the city’s money in the near future.
Unlike most politicians, they can’t pass the buck until the next administration. But these were the people the city voted in, for better or for worse. So you have a couple of options, vote them out or make constructive criticisms to councilmembers at meetings or by phone or e-mail on what they can do to solve these real problems.
