CRACKS (?) IN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM

I sincerely hope that these are cracks and not yawning chasms. Today's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Simple kidney stone revealed cracks in health care system for local man". He sufferred repeated severe kidney stone attacks over the course of a month. Apparently the procedure for breaking up a kidney stone is relatively a simple one. The problem was both a Urologist on holidays combined with poor communications from staff. This gentleman, Mr. Smolinski ended up with repeated hours long emergency room visits for pain relief and it was to the point that his family doctor feared serious kidney damage if the procedure was not done immediately. Long story short Mr. Smolinski experienced himself and saw many more in similar difficulty sitting for hours in emergency rooms that could have and should have been treated for the cause of their problem much more quickly. It almost appears as if the system itself is intentionally delaying, confusing and multiplying the sheer number of times that patients need to be dealt with.