QUB radio presenter Isabelle Maréchal can't believe that cancer patients have to wait an average of five months, according to a recent Léger survey, to receive their first treatment.
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The survey of 300 Quebecers suffering from cancer showed that on average, participants had to wait 21.9 weeks between the moment they wanted to consult a doctor and the start of cancer treatment.
“I only have one word: what is happening is unacceptable, since people with cancer have to wait months, and therefore have time to die, even before they are examined by an oncologist,” criticized Isabel Marechal, during her daily commentary on TVA. New midi.
“We all have someone close to us who has had cancer, is going to have cancer, or is at risk of developing it,” she adds. One in two people in Quebec is at risk of developing cancer in their lifetime. It's a pest. “It's a strain on our healthcare, but with all the money we're investing in it, it's unacceptable to tell people they have to wait.”
MI Maréchal deplores, among other things, the case of a woman from Saint-Hyacinthe, Marie-Claude Holly Beausoleil, who had to wait nearly eight months before receiving a diagnosis and initial treatment for her leukemia.
Her concerns about sternum pain were ignored by her doctor, and she had to insist on seeing a specialist.
“All these obstacles, fortunately, she still has the strength to overcome, because there are people today who are too sick to fight with the system,” she continues.
According to the radio host, Quebecers deserve better.
“I no longer want to hear people say the system is free,” she says. No, it's not free. We pay dearly. “We work hard because the day we get sick, we hope to get a cure.”
“People who are at the bottom of the health system, who were told we would call them, but they never got the damn call, what do we do with that?” she asks.
Watch Isabelle Maréchal's full comment in the video above
