'Privilege' gets him X-ray

Re. Jeffrey M Simon’s letter X-ray wait times ‘nonsense’ (Castanet, Aug. 11)

After my letter last week, I learned from a friend, once again what privilege means, and that I am privileged.

We, in B.C., like to think everyone in major centres has access to healthcare equally. It is simply not true. Forget about the issue of needing more family practitioners and more remote regions, I am talking about medical imaging in a major centre.

My doctor requested X-ray images for me but the wait in Kelowna will (more than) 60 days. In many cases, it is far longer.

I began making a stink publicly that the waiting was (nonsense). As a result, friends of mine shared with me that if I drive 1.5 hours north to Salmon Arm, the hospital there has a walk-in X Ray department operating seven days a week.

Learning this, I called my doctor and requested the requisition be sent to the Salmon Arm/Shuswap Hospital. Recently, I drove the 1.5 hours each way and got the imaging completed. I arrived Monday morning at 8:53 a.m. and was done by 9:12 a.m.

Privilege, you better believe it! Not everyone has a car. Not everyone can afford to take a full day off work for something that one would think is a medical necessity and sould be available locally in the largest city in the B.C. Interior, which is also B.C.’s 3rd largest (urban area).

Not everyone has the luxury of access. That is wrong, full stop.

Jeffrey M. Simon, Kelowna