To our newly elected provincial officials,I congratulate you on your success and wish you well.
As you embark on this next chapter, I ask that you please not forget about the many families who make the over 5,000 trips to London every year so that their children can access emergency and ongoing care hospital services that they don’t have access to here.
I ask that you remember the up to three paediatric patients sent to SickKids hospital every month. I ask that you acknowledge how difficult it is financially to have to leave for our children’s care and not have access to RMHC due to daily waitlists and that not having access to a travel health grant is incredibly difficult and adds worry and stress to an already burdensome situation. I ask that you please remember the up to six paediatric patients sent to the U.S. every month, and that it costs OHIP millions of U.S. dollars a year to do so. I ask that you not forget about the paediatric patients who don’t meet the criteria to be seen in PEDs diversion clinic, and how immensely difficult it is to have up to 12-plus hours or overnight waits just to be seen. I also ask for that you please don’t forget about the continued code blacks and how scary it is for that individual when an ambulance is called and can’t come. I wish you the best and hope for compassion and empathy, especially for the many local families of medically fragile children who continue to face insurmountable challenges and that you can help us when we ask.
From a mother of a Rare Disease Warrior. —Kait Lowe
Amherstburg
Families of sick children who need out-of-town care need to be remembered
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