I remember when they started coming out with minor emergency facilities. I cut my knee one time and went to one. Ten minutes after I arrived, the doctor was sewing up the cut. If I remember right, it took 8 stitches.

On the other hand, I could have gone to a regular ER and, by time someone got around to stitching it, it would have already healed over.

You might have guessed by now that I am one of those in favor of minor emergency facilities. However, those big hospitals threw a fit. And, by the way, those big hospitals have the power to really throw fits. In this particular case, the little emergency outfits were eating into the profits of the big emergency rooms and the big hospitals didn’t like it.

It seemed odd to me at the time. If I heard one ad, I heard a thousand. If all you have is a stuffy nose, don’t clog the emergency rooms with your problem. Just go to your GP. (Back then they called themselves general practitioners. Now, they are internists.) At any rate, sometimes, a stuffy nose can seem to us non physicians a real emergency. You know, we have all sort of gotten used to breathing.

At any rate, it seemed to me that the minor emergency clinics were serving a good function. They kept the crowding in the real ERs down and people could be seen by a doctor when they needed one, instead of having to wait for an appointment. Also, those who had real emergencies could be seen by doctors more quickly in the real ERs.

It might seem odd to some but most doctors can sew up a cut pretty well. It is kind of one of those things required in the start of medical school. Most doctors can tell when someone has tonsillitis, though I have seen a couple who couldn’t… in an ER. My son almost died as a result. He had a very difficult time breathing.

My best guess, the hospitals threw their fit because they were losing money, a lot of it. It was doing exactly what the hospitals were asking the patients to do, decrease the overcrowding of the ERs. It seems that was not actually what they wanted.

Now, after a few decades, the term minor emergency does not seem to be allowed. It seems we patients do not understand the difference between a minor emergency and a heart attack. Odd. Aren’t most heart patients taken into the ER by ambulances. To be sure, we are told, to call an ambulance when suffering chest pains.

At any rate, I got a first hand look at what the elimination of minor emergency rooms has done. When I took my wife into the local hospital, we had to wait 7 hours. I found out later, some waited almost 10.

Sort of looks to me that we could use a few minor emergency facilities again. It is quite apparent the hospitals can’t deal with all the major stuff and the minor stuff too.

What’s worse, I think if you ask how long it will be, they will put you at the end of line, or at least part way. They don’t have any answers to things like that and they get angry when you ask. My suggestion, don’t ask, no matter how tempting.

My brief aside, most hospitals would not be so crowded if we closed off the border, a long time ago.