Time flies…week 2 of my clerkship ended with a graveyard shift in emergency on Friday. On my way to the hospital that night, an ambulance passed me by, and it took a while for it to sink in that both of us were heading to the same place, that I will get to meet the person being transported in the ambulance, likely take a history (find out their story) and do relevant physical examinations.
I’m learning lots of neat facts about the hospital here. St. Mary’s has a new CT scanner and I always assumed it was the government that funded the scanner because, well, we live in Canada and that’s something the government should be providing funds for. But no, the community had to fund raise to cover the cost of the CT scanner! In fact, the fund raising went so well that the amount collected exceeded the cost of the CT scanner. So they thought of getting a better quality CT scanner but of course were not allowed to do so due to some regulation…go figure.
When I first came, I was surprised that St. Mary’s was the only hospital serving the Sunshine Coast. What surprised me even more was hearing that the doctors here had to do some convincing to health officials in order to even establish and maintain a hospital here. Apparently, the health ministry people were finally convinced when they came for a visit, and missed their 11 pm ferry- the last ferry out of the Sunshine Coast. And only then apparently could they imagine the situation of a woman who goes into labor at 3am and needs a cesarian but can’t get to a hospital because the ferries don’t operate at that time and there’s no local hospital!
My sisters and friends have bailed out on coming to visit me this weekend, which is unfortunate for them because today is a GorGeous day here, so I’m going to go enjoy it.
More updates to come….
IMAGE CREDIT: here.
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