Originally Posted by jo87

You're a little late(2-3 years). Try keeping up with whats going on it the community before its announced on Macinsiders lol. People are so predictable, nobody pays attention to anything.

In all fairness, I've been a student for 3 years and I never heard a word about this until now. Sure, it was probably announced in the paper or maybe in some corner of the website, but important information saying that this was going to happen shouldn't have to be hunted for. I'm sure if they had announced this more openly, there would have been some sort of protest.

Originally Posted by jo87

You're a little late(2-3 years). Try keeping up with whats going on it the community before its announced on Macinsiders lol. People are so predictable, nobody pays attention to anything.

I didn't hear about this through MI, you turd.

Originally Posted by jo87

You're a little late(2-3 years). Try keeping up with whats going on it the community before its announced on Macinsiders lol. People are so predictable, nobody pays attention to anything.

this is fairly new... they only recently posted a sign on the building of it becoming an emergency room for children




ps. i think u guys are overreacting... its still an emergency room.. so im sure if u walk in with your head hanging on by a string they wont turn you away... plus theres a new centre a couple blocks east of here on main (opening soon according to the sign out front)

Originally Posted by giftedchick

this is fairly new... they only recently posted a sign on the building of it becoming an emergency room for children

The decision was made back in 2008 based on a plan developed in the years before that. There were protests at the time:

http://www.thespec.com/news/article/...-rally-tonight

Originally Posted by dsahota

The decision was made back in 2008 based on a plan developed in the years before that. There were protests at the time:

http://www.thespec.com/news/article/...-rally-tonight

well i know i (and many of the people here) wasnt in hamilton in 2008 nor did that news make any difference to me back then


im pretty sure many who were here didnt even know...

as i said.. they recently put a sign up.. so i guess now people have to know

I don't know why students who will live here for a few years have such a problem with this. There is an urget care centre down the street and ER downtown. If you have an emergency call 911 and should be able to take care of you. Im sure people who live in more rural areas will have bigger problems than students at Mac.

Originally Posted by RyanC

I didn't hear about this through MI, you turd.

Well in that case why didn't you do something about it before Maybe you facebook and get a protest going

Originally Posted by jo87

You're a little late(2-3 years). Try keeping up with whats going on it the community before its announced on Macinsiders lol. People are so predictable, nobody pays attention to anything.

Exactly this:

Originally Posted by Crooksie

In all fairness, I've been a student for 3 years and I never heard a word about this until now. Sure, it was probably announced in the paper or maybe in some corner of the website, but important information saying that this was going to happen shouldn't have to be hunted for. I'm sure if they had announced this more openly, there would have been some sort of protest.

News like this should be announced with a little more effort. Sure we could all put it in a little more effort in keeping up but I heard nothing about this these past two years and I make sure to keep up with most things...

Originally Posted by jo87

I don't know why students who will live here for a few years have such a problem with this. There is an urget care centre down the street and ER downtown. If you have an emergency call 911 and should be able to take care of you. Im sure people who live in more rural areas will have bigger problems than students at Mac.

To each his own opinion. You have yours and others have theirs. That's a totally different issue. Also, that's the point; we DON'T live in rural area and that's why all the institutions available should be made accessible to everyone.

Originally Posted by jo87

I don't know why students who will live here for a few years have such a problem with this. There is an urget care centre down the street and ER downtown. If you have an emergency call 911 and should be able to take care of you. Im sure people who live in more rural areas will have bigger problems than students at Mac.

I can't take credit for this, as it was explained to me, but my understanding is this:

The urgent care centre is open 8am to 10pm.. for a lot of student life crises (involving drinking, drugs, etc) 10pm just isn't good enough. Even though people want whats best for themselves, they're deterred by (and may not be able to) transport far from the incident (afraid of getting caught, etc). Going to another ER (downtown) requires an ambulance transport which not only costs money, and involves formality (students less likely to comply).

ER room visits are roughly distributed across all age brackets, so a significant portion of the population who need urgent care are forced to extend their travel time. Not everyone is even aware of health services in and around the mac/westdale/etc area (dispite it not being all that far).

I'm not saying that youth-specialized ER services aren't super important (its a good thing they're dedicating an area in Hamilton to deal specifically with this!), its just a hospital as big, important, prestigious, and encompassing as McMaster needs to be able to deal with more than one category of emergency care age bracket.

Obviously a lot of very smart people have been working on this for a long time, so all the logistics involving emergency patient intake, ambulance capacity and availability all probably seem to work out well when they put this new ER in effect. I wanna say that everything has been thought of, and the increased patient intake (since all the childrenz be commin to mac), but who knows in the world of bureaucracy? Its probably not going to turn out that bad, in the end (turning away severe medical emergencies?), but its hard to say that this won't have a drastic effect on emergency service.... that that uncleanness worries me

Like Ryan said, ambulances cost money ($45 typically, but $240 if your health card is invalid or your trip is later deemed medically unnecessary). So yes, it could be a bit of a problem for some McMaster students. Where it used to be that you could potentially get to the emergency room for free and in about five minutes in some cases, now you may need to call an ambulance and pay for it.

But like Rukia said, to my understanding they won't be turning away people who are actually in dire need of emergency care. If you're unable to make it to a hospital in time, it's not as though they're going to say "nope, you've got to suffer through that internal bleeding all the way to Hamilton General."

Originally Posted by alh24

But like Rukia said, to my understanding they won't be turning away people who are actually in dire need of emergency care. If you're unable to make it to a hospital in time, it's not as though they're going to say "nope, you've got to suffer through that internal bleeding all the way to Hamilton General."

That may be true, but increased patient flow, will naturally increase mortality (read: triage). It can already be a bit of a wait to get attention if your condition isn't super duper life threatening.. patients that would have been waiting a long time as now, will have massively increased wait times. Sure, they won't turn you away if your life is in danger... but it will take longer to get to you to properly determine if you are as threatened as you are.

Originally Posted by RyanC

That may be true, but increased patient flow, will naturally increase mortality (read: triage). It can already be a bit of a wait to get attention if your condition isn't super duper life threatening.. patients that would have been waiting a long time as now, will have massively increased wait times. Sure, they won't turn you away if your life is in danger... but it will take longer to get to you to properly determine if you are as threatened as you are.

True enough, I hadn't thought of that.

Ryan is so knowledgeable

I realize in my previous post I said 'uncleanness'... I meant unclearnes