A friend of mine was in a parking lot of a local Sidney business today when she noticed that an elderly lady had fallen from her powered chair.
The elderly lady had cut her lip and the two ladies (my friend and another) could not pick the woman up, so they called an ambulance.
The ambulance arrived and the woman that had fallen stated she couldn’t afford an ambulance so my friend said, “That’s OK, let’s just get you off the ground and go get checked out.” Again the elderly lady said she couldn’t afford it, so my friend said “That’s OK, don’t worry about it, it’s covered.” At that point, the ambulance driver says, “Yeah, it’s an $85 charge.” Then, of course, the elderly woman was absolutely adamant about not going in the ambulance.
I find it very upsetting that the ambulance driver would figuratively throw gasoline onto an already burning fire.
Money should never come into our decision to get medical service and I don’t think we need our medical service people enforcing the idea in the field that yes, this is going to cost you an arm and a leg.
David Volker
Saanich