Accessing Healthcare and Preparing for the Worst

The attached image is a screenshot from an Instagram story I posted on March 17, making light at the end of a few days of attempting to access medicine and joke about my growing confidence in my ability to handle the pandemic situation, even if I did end up ill. Directly following the declaration of a state of emergency in Ontario, in March, I realized I was running low on a maintenance prescription I take and had no refills left on it. To have my family doctor back home, in Ottawa, fax it to a pharmacy in the London, where I was attending the University of Western Ontario at the time, it usually costs $30 out of pocket, so I wanted to see if I could get an appointment before I tried that. I checked the student health website to see if they were restricting appointments and all seemed normal so I called. Plus, with my asthma and history of respiratory infections, I thought it would be a good idea to have a Flovent (steroid) puffer (inhaler) on hand in case I do get sick. I was on hold for 40 mins only to have the receptionist get exceptionally snarky with me and eventually tell me they were not taking regular appointments at that time. So, I called my family physician's office and they/she not only faxed the prescription I was low on but also the puffer and waved the renewal fee. The receptionist said many doctors are doing this to avoid people requesting in person appointments to have prescriptions done, as those are covered in socialized health care. Having the puffer available to me if I began having difficulty breathing is greatly reassuring both in that I would be less likely to require other medical intervention with it at my disposal, but also that I would not be taking up resources from someone who might have the disease worse or be at a higher risk than me, an otherwise health young woman.

March 17, 2020

Hope Gresser

Hope Gresser

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10/06/2020

10/20/2020

03/27/2021