From the other side:
Thoughts from Norman H. Havill
Expressing gratitude to all the Health Care Professionals who work tirelessly beneath the radar screen
By Georges R. Dupras
June 17, 2021
As the years pass, we begin ever so slowly to realize that our time here is short. We find ourselves losing family and friends and becoming more dependent on the goodwill of strangers.
It was late May when I received a call from a man I couldn’t understand. He slurred his words and was at times incoherent, but he knew my name. He said, “it’s Norm,” and repeated it twice as I tried to place him. It took a few seconds, but I finally realized that I knew him as a friend I had worked with for a number of years. More than a co-worker Norman knew me well and, despite my less than endearing character, always remained a friend.
Georges,” he said, “I want you to do me a favour. I want you to write an article about our health care system and how we’re failing our caregivers. I want you to write about it from the other side.
Norm was hurting – he was in the hospital in pain, not knowing the full extent of the damage deep within his weathered frame. You see, Norm was a martial arts instructor and, in his own way, a teacher of life’s meaning. He had fallen in his home not once but twice and was in pain, a hurt that he had never experienced in all his years as a self-defence instructor.
“Georges,” he said, “I want you to do me a favour. I want you to write an article about our health care system and how we’re failing our caregivers. I want you to write about it from the other side.”
Norman began by telling me how first responders came to help him when he had fallen. He told me of their unselfish commitment to strangers and their families. He spoke of the ambulance drivers, their skills at dealing with the injured, and their unparalleled abilities to navigate through the cone-filled streets of Montreal. He questioned municipal officials – more focused on bike paths than on worsening road conditions.
He commended housekeeping personnel and orderlies who are overworked, underpaid and doing work no other person would. He praised the nurses whose patient ratios have increased steadily over the years, unlike their pay scales. Norman spoke with a deep appreciation for the Doctors, lab technicians and other support staff – all taken for granted.
From the other side
Norman recognized the difficulties older people experienced trying to access hospitals, especially for those challenged or on fixed incomes. Some subway stations are blocks away from the nearest hospital, and many stations are still wheelchair unfriendly. Parking is challenging and expensive at the best of times – and where do the profits go, he wondered?
‘It is time that we put health care workers where they rightfully belong and what better way than by re-structuring salary scales to better reflect their professionalism and by initiating a National Heath Care Workers day.’
Norman questioned the amount of tax dollars invested in our Health Care System in comparison to other services. A Health Care System so lacking in resources that front-line nurses are left to defend delays in medical procedures while our elected officials travel out of province and even out of the country for their medical needs. Resources stretched to the breaking point and where overtime has become the rule rather than the exception. Why, in a country such as Canada, is it so hard to find a general practitioner (GP)?
Only “from the inside,” as a patient, can we truly appreciate what these unsung heroes do for us on a daily basis. It is time that we put health care workers where they rightfully belong and what better way than by re-structuring salary scales to better reflect their professionalism and by initiating a National Heath Care Workers Day. If money remains an obstacle, could we not compensate by other means – perhaps through free public transport passes for health care workers or parking privileges at the hospitals?
Norman’s thoughts are shared by many, but for the most part, ignored by officials. He is asking that we seek change and express our gratitude to all the Health Care Professionals who work tirelessly beneath the radar screen.
Yesterday, Norman was moved from oncology to the palliative care unit of the hospital.
Feature image: Cedric Fauntleroy from Pexels
Read also: other articles by Georges R. Dupras
Georges R. Dupras has advocated for animals for over fifty years. A member of the International Association for Bear Research and Management (IBA), a Director of the Animal Alliance of Canada (AAC), Quebec Representative of Zoocheck Canada and past Board member of the Canadian SPCA, he worked on the original Save the Seal campaign in 1966 that culminated in the founding of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) in 1969. Georges Dupras has published two books, Values in Conflict and the eBook Ethics, a Human Condition, and currently lives in Montreal, Canada.
Very well said, unfortunately today people may not view the life in a palliative care facility as important, but to the family and patient the care provided by these angels is often overlooked.
How uplifting it is to hear of this exceptional man, Norman, who thinks of others while suffering himself. Georges Dupras has written a beautiful, almost poetic tribute to both Norman and to the health care workers this man is wanting to have recognized. We must do better for these self-sacrificing caregivers. A National Health Care Workers Day would be a start.
I agree that health care workers are underpaid and overworked, especially during crisis times such as the covid-19 pandemic.
There have been reports of doctors so stressed that they chose suicide rather than continue. We surely in Canada can do better than that … We need to take better care of our unsung heroes.
Georges Dupras’ article was very timely and it really hit home in my case. In the last year several people I know have been in hospital. While visiting them , I came to realize that the health care workers are real heroes. They have shown courage, compassion, and selflessness in the face of a dangerous pandemic that put them (and their loved ones) at great risk and even killed some of them. All this while in working conditions that have often been compared to a war zone. I think they deserve the same recognition as our military veterans who put their lives on the line for us. Like Remembrance Day, let’s also have a National Health Care Workers Day.
Norman passed away today, June 23, 2021. Each day while he lay in palliative care he praised all the health care workers. Having this written was one of his priorities in his last days. Thank you to Georges for helping Norm do this. And now let’s all advocate for some sort of change, our health care workers deserve nothing less.
Thank you George for writing this article for Norman, he was a man who knew the system from the other side. You are right – the system needs a complete overhaul, starting with the medical professionals who are overworked , underpaid and a lot of the time under-appreciated. I have seen first hand how they hold everything together when the family is falling apart, especially the staff in the palliative care units, the nurses in the intensive care units and all of the others who put in more hours than we know but are still there for every patient. We should demand that Government redo the entire system from the bottom up.
Thank you for taking the time to compose and publish this tribute to this one human being who wished to say thank you in a meaningful way and to all those dedicated health care workers, every one!
This is two weeks in a row that I am saying thank you to Georges Dupras!