Lap Banding in Canada for Canadians *Vote Yes*

[so done with it all 1]

Doctors do have to treat us in a life threatening situation but who is to say you are going to see a band surgeon when your life is threatened? And exactly what life threatening situation could you be in with a band. There have been patients who went to the ER in tons of pain and the only thing they could get done was have their band removed totally and not by a band surgeon, by whoever the surgeon on call was. Since the clinics are private, it's not like you just walk in their door with your provincial health coverage and get care, that's not how private clinics work. If you are lucky, you could end up in an ER where a banding surgeon still does ER duty but my bet would be his only obligation would be to stop the pain which would result in removing your band. I know that if I end up with a problem and my band is removed for medical purposes, that my band surgeon will replace it at no cost to me. Some clinics do not have the same policy. I am a long distance patient but have no problems at all. I needed a fluoro and I returned to Mississauga and had it done with my surgeon. I got too tight for no reason and I got a defill by the fill nurse locally. I have all my ducks in a row for my follow up even though I live a distance away and I also know that I'm only a plane ride away from my surgeon and I know he will meet me at any hour that I arrive if I'm in an emergency situation.

We all do our reserch and the original poster obviously did theirs and they listed their reasons to stay in Ontario vs going out of country. They are her reasons to stay here and there was no fear mongering in any of what she wrote. They are her observations and her conclusions. Nobody is saying don't go out of country, she is simply stating why she didn't. For anyone that lives in Ontario, I don't see any reason to go out of country at all. We all end up having to fly to Toronto to fly to any city in the US or Mexico so it's just as easy to get off the plane there and be done with it.

[Doddie63 6]

Hi: Riding the fence here, I think this debate is a wonderful debate. Hopefully, people doing research will latch on and read all the opinions. Getting to all the pros and cons, this link has been one of the best and I hope others join in.

[Vangirl 0]

I personally am not engaging in any debate, although of course others are free to carry on if they feel it is useful.

I've already expressed my opinion about the original post, my reasons for my opinion, and provided some suggestions as to where to get information relevant to some of the things being said on this thread.

[susieq321 31]

Access to health care is an important issue, and I would suggest checking out the ethical guidelines for the Canadian Medical Association and the College of Physicians and Surgeons in your province. These guidelines address the ethical obligation of a physician to treat a patient in life-threatening circumstances. I think it is a good idea to be informed of these, in any circumstance, banded or not.

Not to shy away from the discussion, but my purpose in responding to this thread was to express my honest feelings about the original post, which I felt needed to be heard, as well as my reasons for those feelings. It is pointless to drag on a debate, since it would just be a repetition of the same, and there are still going to be differences of opinion anyway.

I agree it is a good idea to be informed... and when I had my post plastic surgery issue and I talked to my PS about the treatment and the base statements that were made to me about going home and getting care from the surgeon who did the work. And it was along the lines of if they had seen me and taken care of the post surgical issues they then become medically responsible for seeing me on an ongoing basis and if the complications escalated they would be responsible for repairing those complication and it was something they had no desire to get involved with. So they treated the symptom and got me out of there. Fortunately my complication was an abscess that burst and then healed on its own but I got the idea they wouldn't touch me unless it was life or death and even then it would be a debate could I get to my surgeon.

Since I went to the emerg I had no inclincation of seeing a PS I knew I would see a general emerg doc. That emerg doc sent me to the infectious diseases unit who in turn talked to a PS who was described what had happened to me but who I never saw and who never personal evaluated my issue. And if I ended up in emerg during my extensive travels (I am on the road 300 days a year) I would never expect to see a band surgeon to help me and to that end I am prepared with a CD and a thorough understanding of my band and how it works and where my port etc are.

Heather